Some dedicated readers may remember that in February 2007, I wrote to the Pew Forum regarding the omission of Sikhs in the Religious Landscape Survey. Well, they have finally replied to my query. I’ve posted the reply below. Thank you to Ms. Loralei Coyle for responding:

Dec 30, 2008
Good Afternoon Savraj,

I am writing in response to your query that you sent to the Pew Forum. Thank you for contacting us.

I wanted to let you know that respondents did have the opportunity to volunteer their religion as “Sikh,” and that several respondents did exactly that. In total, however, we found that fewer than three-tenths of 1% of our sample described themselves as Sikhs (which is not inconsistent with the DOJ estimate you cite), which means that we had too few to analyze them as a separate group. Sikhs are included in the “other world religions” category in the RLS reports.

Thank you again for your interest.
Loralei G. Coyle
Communications Manager
The Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life

So today’s question to readers is — are Sikhs really that few and far between that they don’t fall in to the scope of an American Religious Landscape Survey? Or do we have significant numbers as Sikhs, and we’re just not on the Pew Forum’s Survey mailing list? You decide. At any rate, I hope the Pew Forum will contact me for the next survey! And Pew Forum folks, if you’re reading, I know many Sikhs that would be happy to participate in future surveys. ;) Many thanks to the Pew Forum for replying to my query.