I can kind of see where /u/Vakulum is coming from. You could say, "This is sad because Sikhs are generally peaceful" and you can say, "This is sad/stupid because people who commit hate crimes against Sikhs are often actually targeting Muslim Arabs" and there's no ambiguity. But if you say, "Sikhs are generally peaceful people but they get mistaken for Muslim Arabs" it sounds a little like there's an unstated assertion that Muslims aren't generally peaceful.