New York: Sikh organisations in the United States have taken strong exception to reported remarks of John Kerry, seeking Democratic Presidential nomination, for what they called, "singling out adherents of Sikh religion as terrorists" and demanded an apology from him.

The Sikh Media Watch and Resource Task Force (SMART) quoted Kerry as saying during his campaign in Oklahoma city on Jan 31 that terrorism did not begin on Sept 11,2001 and then he went on to give examples by mentioning Northern Ireland, the Basque separatists in Spain and the Sikh in India.

In a letter to Kerry, SMART said that he did not mention any religion other than Sikhs.

"Based on your response, which was broadcast on C-SPAN and other news outlets, all adherents of the Sikh faith can be interpreted as condoning or being associated with terrorism," the letter said.

SMART, the oldest national Sikh American civil rights organisation, said Sikh Americans are still targets of discrimination and racial profiling as well as hate crimes based on the ignorance of individuals and stereotyping in the media.

"Your Congressional staff has long worked with SMART on workplace discrimination and hate crimes issues, we are confident that it was not your intent to single out adherents of the Sikh faith as terrorists," it said.