Romney confuses "Sikh" and "Sheik"

By Michael J.W. Stickings

WaPo:

Mitt Romney mistakenly confused the words "Sikh" and "sheik" at a fundraiser here Tuesday night when he offered his condolences to the victims of last weekend's shooting at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin.

The presumptive Republican presidential nominee correctly spoke of the Sikh religion earlier in the day when he observed a moment of silence at a campaign event in Illinois. But at the Iowa fundraiser, he instead talked about the "sheik temple" and the "sheik people." Sheik is an Arabic honorific, whereas Sikh is a religion with roots in South Asia. 

Whoops.

We all misspeak and mispronounce from time to time, sure, so let's not make too much of this. Still, given the context, the aftermath of a deadly shooting at a Sikh temple by a neo-Nazi, it's inexcusable here. (And it's not something President Obama would do.)

Thankfully for Romney, many of his supporters don't give a shit. All those weird brown people are anti-American furriners anyway.