He named his first party store Giggles and the second one Chuckles, because parties are about good times and laughter.

Some customers, however, seem to check their good humor at the door, heaping ethnic slurs and harassment on Peter Lubana and his staff.

"When I have to get tough with them, say not let them use food stamps for alcohol, they say, 'Osama, go home,' " he said.

Lubana, 49, is no closer to Islam than a Southern Baptist. A native of India, Lubana is Sikh -- more precisely a Punjabi Sikh -- and a Canadian citizen who wants to be an American.

The taunts and threats from his customers are disheartening, he said.

"The most technologically advanced and richest nation in the world and the language is worse than anything in the Third World," Lubana said. "The profanity is unbelievable...."

Clerk Patricia Anwar, a German native married to a Punjabi man, said some customers are abusive and shoplifting is rampant, especially among young men....

Anwar's husband, Sarfaraz Anwar, a Muslim, speaks halting English. He gets his share of the Osama treatment....

Lubana and his employees are still shaken by the killing of their friend and co-worker, Harinder Singh Kang, on Sept. 4. Kang worked at Giggles for three years and switched to Chuckles last year.

Kang, 36, a native of India, was tending the store that afternoon when a man entered with his face covered, demanded cash, jumped the counter and fired a handgun, striking Kang four times in the back.

He died that night and his body was shipped back to Punjab for a Sikh burial....

Sept. 11, 2001, was a turning point for America -- and for Lubana.... "Then my businesses went belly-up," Lubana said. "I am treated as Middle Eastern. Arabs, they call us."
Q
The steel band on his right wrist is a mandatory symbol of his Sikh faith. He was fitted with a tiny band at birth, and it was replaced with successively larger rings until adulthood. He wears a turban on weekends, not in the stores. [Link]