First Middle England, Now Rowling’s Novel Upsets Sikhs As Well

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: If the inhabitants of Middle England feel that JK Rowling has unfairly made them targets in her first novel for adults, they are not alone.

The Casual Vacancy is facing protests in India over its portrayal of a Sikh girl as “mustachioed yet large-mammaried”.

Sikh leaders said they were investigating complaints about the “provocative” language and would demand a nationwide ban on the book if Rowling was deemed to have insulted the faith.

The dissent is the latest negative reaction to greet The Casual Vacancy, which was published last week to mixed reviews.

Rowling has upset villagers in Tutshil, Gloucestershire, where she was raised and which she used as inspiration for her fictional town of Pagford, a hotbed of cruelty and snobbery.

The novel’s bleak subject matter, which includes child abuse, prostitution and drugs, has also presented a dilemma for parents whose children are clamouring to read the latest book from the writer of the Harry Potter series.

The Sikh character in The Casual Vacancy is Sukhvinder, the daughter of a surgeon and his parish councillor wife. She is teased for her hairy skin and referred to as “the Great Hermaphrodite” and a “hairy man-woman”. » | Dean Nelson, in New Delhi | Monday, October 01, 2012

It's Time to Stop Using the Word 'Asians'
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: In the wake of the Rochdale grooming convictions, it's time to stop lumping Muslims, Sikhs and Hindus together as 'Asians', argues Hardeep Singh.

Is it time to stop using the word "Asian"? In recent weeks Britain's Sikh and Hindu communities have complained angrily about the use of the misleading term in reporting of the Rochdale grooming convictions of men of Muslim Pakistani descent. Headlines like “Asian grooming – why we need to talk about sex crime”, “Child sex grooming: the Asian question”, and “Grooming offences committed mostly by Asian men, says ex-Barnardo's chief” show the problem.

Obviously Sikhs and Hindus and other "Asian" non-Muslims, including Jains, Zoroastrians, Christians and Buddhists, don’t want to be associated with sexual grooming of vulnerable white girls. The vast majority of Muslims don’t want to either. The girls targeted in Rochdale, Derby and now in Luton are all non-Muslim. This is nothing new for British Hindus and Sikhs, who have complained about targeting of their girls for decades; Indians refer to the practice as "love-jihad". » | Hardeep Singh | Friday, June 08, 2012

Muslims and Sikhs Attack Cameron's Gay Marriage Plan
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: David Cameron’s plan to legalise gay marriage is “unnecessary and unhelpful”, the country’s largest Muslim organisation has said.

The leader of Britain’s Sikh community also attacked the proposal to extend the definition of marriage to same-sex couples, describing it as an “assault on religion”.

Senior Roman Catholic and Anglican bishops have already warned that the move will undermine social structures dating back thousands of years.

Mr Cameron is facing a backlash from his own supporters, with senior Tory MPs, including several ministers, expected to vote against the reforms.

However, he argues that the Conservatives should support gay marriage on the grounds that stability and commitment in relationships of any kind should be encouraged.

Last week, ministers published a consultation on how the changes to civil marriage laws will be introduced. The plans explicitly rule out alterations to religious marriage.

However, the Muslim Council of Britain said case for the government’s proposals was “strikingly weak”.

Farooq Murad, Secretary General of the MCB, said: “Whilst we remain opposed to all forms of discrimination, including homophobia, redefining the meaning of marriage is in our opinion unnecessary and unhelpful.

“With the advent of civil partnerships, both homosexual and heterosexual couples now have equal rights in the eyes of the law.

“Therefore, in our view the case to change the definition of marriage, as accepted throughout time and across cultures, is strikingly weak.

In common with other Abrahamic faiths, marriage in Islam is defined as “a union between a man and a woman”, he said. “So while the state has accommodated for gay couples, such unions will not be blessed as marriage by the Islamic institutions.” » | Tim Ross, Political Correspondent | Monday, March 19, 2012

Multicultural Britain! Sikh Schoolchildren Should Be Allowed Ceremonial Daggers, Says Britain's First Asian Judge
THE TELEGRAPH: Sikh schoolchildren should be allowed to wear their ceremonial daggers at all times in all public places, Britain's first Asian judge has said.

Sir Mota, who received a knighthood in the 2010 New Year Honours list, said he had worn his Kirpan without problems for up to 40 years. Photograph: The Telegraph
Sir Mota Singh QC spoke out after a number of Sikhs were refused entry to schools and other venues because they were wearing the Kirpan or other religious artefacts.

Sir Mota, who received a knighthood in the 2010 New Year Honours list, said he had worn his Kirpan without problems for up to 40 years, in public buildings including Buckingham Palace.

"Not allowing someone who is baptised to wear a Kirpan is not right," Sir Mota told BBC Asian Network.

The sheathed scimitar, which is attached to a cloth belt and normally worn discreetly under clothes, is one of five "articles of faith" that baptised Sikhs must be carried [sic] at all times. The others are Kara (a steel bangle), Kesh (unshorn hair), Kanga (a comb) and Kacha (special underwear).

Last year, a 14-year-old Sikh boy was refused entry to the Compton School in Barnet after governors ruled his Kirpan was a health and safety risk.

The same year, a Sikh police officer won his case for discrimination against Greater Manchester Police after he was told to remove his turban during riot training.

And in 2008, 14-year-old Sarika Singh won a High Court case against Aberdare Girls' School in south Wales after it excluded her for breaking its "no jewellery" rule for wearing a Kara. The school was found guilty of indirect discrimination under race relations and equality laws. >>> Aislinn Laing | Monday, February 08, 2010

Nick Griffin: Sikhs and Hindus Support BNP
THE TELEGRAPH: Nick Griffin has claimed that his Question Time invitation marks the BNP's arrival "in the British political system", as he argued that some Sikhs and Hindus now support the far-right party.

The BNP leader, who is due appear on BBC One's flagship political debate programme this week, said that many ethnic minority Britons agreed with the party's hard-line opposition to immigration.

Amid increasing public scrutiny of the BNP's racist policies, Mr Griffin contrasted "civically British" minority communities who lived here "legally and legitimately", with Islamic "colonists" who wanted to impose their views on the rest of society. >>> Matthew Moore | Sunday, October 18, 2009

Sikh Policeman Wins £10,000 Award after Turban Row
THE GUARDIAN: Officer ordered to take off turban for riot training wins discrimination case

A Sikh policeman ordered to remove his turban to do riot training was awarded £10,000 compensation today by an employment tribunal.

PC Gurmeal Singh, who joined Greater Manchester police in 2004, had objected to removing his turban for the course on religious grounds.

After a three-week hearing in Manchester, he was awarded £3,500 for indirect racial and religious discrimination and £6,500 for harassment after suffering psychological damage, injury to feelings and personal injury.

In a meeting with a sergeant to discuss the riot training, he was told: "Can you not take that thing off … this is what you signed up for."

Singh, 31, was also asked whether he could modify his turban. He told the tribunal he feared he would be made to look like a comic character from Only Fools and Horses, where in one episode Del Boy Trotter tries to sell 200 "crash turbans" for fashion-conscious motorbike-riding Sikhs in Peckham – the motorcycle helmets had cloth wrapped around them.

Singh said he suffered panic attacks, stress and palpitations and was off sick over the issue during the long-running dispute. >>> Press Association | Friday, October 02, 2009

Our Religion Is Our Security in Pakistan: Swat Sikhs
THE INTERNATIONAL NEWS: GURDWARA SRI PANJA SAHIB (Hasanabdal): Jaswant Kaur is a middle aged mother of four, full of life and smiles as she makes tea for us and reminisces about life in village Pir Baba in Buner. But while she is glad that she took her children away from the hell like situation back home, she can’t stop fretting about her husband who stayed behind. The three days that she has been at Gurdwara Sri Panja Sahib, Hasanabdal, already seem like an agonising lifetime. It’s never easy being a refugee within one’s own land.

But like many others around her, Jaswant is a brave woman. She is already a commanding presence in the sprawling kitchen of the massive Gurdwara which otherwise has the capacity to house up to ten thousand people. It’s amazing how the majority of the women here can still smile, even those like Jaswant who have had to leave their spouses behind, for one reason or another. Maybe they are smiling because unlike the Muslim displaced people of Swat, who are forced to languish on the roads of Rawalpindi and elsewhere and eking out a living in miserable circumstances, the Sikh community has suffered a much better fate, at least till now. None of us can even imagine the trauma of someone waking up happy and all settled in their home one morning, and becoming a helpless refugee the next. >>> Mariana Baabar | Monday, May 4, 2009

Texas Students Take to the Turban!
THE DALLAS MORING NEWS: The line outside the University of Texas at Arlington's library this week wasn't for intramural sign-up, a spring break travel package or even hot dogs sold off the grill for a fraternity fundraiser.

It was for turbans.

Sikh volunteers swirled blood-red, neon orange and aquamarine cloth around the heads of students as they explained why an item intended to distinguish the Sikh religion has threatened its identity.

UTA is one of five North Texas college campuses where Sikh students tied turbans and debunked myths for their spring break.
Billed as "Sikh Turban Week," the event is intended to clarify the misconceptions ignited after Sept. 11, detail the significance of the turban for Sikhs and showcase one of the region's fast-growing communities.

"It's nothing to do with Osama bin Laden or terrorism," said Jaipreet Singh Suri, the president of Southern Methodist University's Sikh Student Association and organizer of the event. "The message we want to go out is that the majority of people who wear turbans are Sikh and not Hindu or Muslim."

The SMU students recruited additional volunteers from the region's five gurdwaras – the Sikh place of worship – and raised about $7,000 from among the 5,000 Sikhs who live in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. Most Sikhs originally come from the Punjab region in northwest India. North Texas College Students Try on Turbans, New Perspectives >>> By Jessica Myers | Thursday, March 12, 2009

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Sikhs and Hindus Accuse the BBC of Pro-Muslim Bias
THE INDEPENDENT: Hindu and Sikh leaders have accused the BBC of pandering to Britain's Muslim community by making a disproportionate number of programmes on Islam at the expense of covering other Asian religions.

A breakdown of programming from the BBC's Religion and Ethics department, seen by The Independent, reveals that since 2001, the BBC made 41 faith programmes on Islam, compared with just five on Hinduism and one on Sikhism.

Critics say the disproportionate amount of programming is part of an apparent bias within the BBC towards Islam since the attacks of 11 September 2001, which has placed an often uncomfortable media spotlight on Britain's Muslims.

Ashish Joshi, the chairman of the Network of Sikh Organisation's (NSO) media monitoring group, which obtained the numbers, said many Hindu and Sikh licence-fee payers felt cheated. "People in our communities are shocked," he said. "We are licence-fee payers and we want to know why this has happened. The bias towards Islam at the expense of Hindus and particularly Sikhs is overwhelming and appears to be a part of BBC policy." Sikhs and Hindus Accuse the BBC of Pro-Muslim Bias >>> By Jerome Taylor | September 8, 2008

THE TELEGRAPH:
BBC Favours Muslims, Complain Hindus and Sikhs: The BBC has been accused of pandering to Britain's Muslims in its religious programming and ignoring other faiths >>> By Ben Farmer | September 8, 2008

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