Due to the turbans Sikhs wear, people in Western countries have sometimes confused Sikhs with all Middle Eastern men or Muslims. This has affected Sikhs in times of conflict with elements of the Middle East. For example, during the Iranian hostage crisis when the government of Iran held Americans hostages in its own country, some people in Western countries misunderstood the Sikh turban as a turban worn by all Middle Eastern men. After the World Trade Center attack on September 11, 2001, some people associated Sikhs with terrorists or members of the Taliban. A few days after the attack, Balbir Singh Sodhi, a Sikh man, was gunned down by a person who thought that the victim had ties to Al-Qaeda, concluding that this misconception has lead to an increase in hate-crimes against Sikh men in the United States
Senator James Webb (Va) said in an interview with the Washington Post that the only people you were allowed to write about as villians were Rednecks and Towel-heads.
He obviously didn't realise that many turbin-wearers were NOT evil Muslims.
BTW, he didn't say this to agree with the idea of Muslims being our enemy or anything he was saying it was bad that we could make fun of them, but he did call them towel-heads.