The Irish Sikh Council is seeking a meeting with Gardaí following an attack on a Sikh youth in Athlone.
The council believes the incident was a backlash to the bomb attacks in London last week, as Sikhs are often mistaken for Muslims due to their practice of growing beards and wearing turbans.
The Sikh youth, who lives in Dublin, was visiting friends in the midland town when the attack occured.
He was standing at the doorstep of a house when he was approached by two men in their early twenties who began racially abusing him.
According to the council, the two youths called him "Bin Laden" and tried to provoke him with obsceneties. He was then punched and attacked with a knife.
The victim suffered injuries to his arms and was treated at the local hospital for stab wounds and shock.
"This incident and many such similar ones in the past have become a common occurrence in the lives of practising Sikhs living in the European Union and USA as Sikhs keep fully grown beards and wear Turban," said Harpreet Singh of the Irish Sikh Council.
"The Metropolitan Police in London have also admitted that the Sikh community is particularly vulnerable to backlash crimes in the aftermath of the London bombings because of their visibility and that this is a police concern."
The council said that a number of similar incidents have been reported to Gardai since the September 11th attacks on New York in 2001.
One Dublin-based Sikh, Sarabjit Singh, relocated to the UK following repeated harrassment, including an attack by three teenagers on Dublin's South Circular Road.