| British Sikh and Hindu groups release joint statement condemning EDL |
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| Politics and Policy |
A number of the largest Sikh and Hindu organisations in Britain have formally released a joint statement forcefully condemning the EDL and any Sikhs who join them. The latter is of course particularly applicable to the EDL’s “Sikh” spokesman Guramit (sometimes known as “Amit”) Singh; he was also one of the EDL members interviewed by BBC’s Newsnight as part of a documentary about the group.
Originally published by Pickled Politics As previously discussed on Pickled Politics, Guramit himself is currently being prosecuted by the police for “intentionally causing religiously aggravated harassment alarm or distress, under Section Four of the Public Order Act 1986”, following a public speech by Guramit which included the following remarks:
The speech is available on Youtube. Guramit has also previously boasted on his Facebook page about his murderous hatred of Muslims:
Joint statement
The full text of the joint statement by the aforementioned British Sikh and Hindu organisations condemning the EDL is as follows; the signatories so far also include the largest Sikh temple outside India, along with a number of other prominent Sikh and Hindu temples, numerous Sikh councillors, and a Member of Parliament:
The EDL are planning a large demonstration in Luton on Saturday 5th February 2011. The EDL’s leader (and ex-BNP member & convicted criminal) “Tommy Robinson” aka Stephen Yaxley Lennon was interviewed by Jeremy Paxman on Newsnight yesterday evening (video available on Youtube) and he admitted that he is now opposed to Islam in general, not just extremist interpretations of the religion.
The EDL’s previous claims to be opposed “only to militant Islam” are further thrown into question by the fact that, for example, in October 2010 they held a large demonstration in Leicester, a city where the majority of British Asians are actually Gujarati Hindus. Furthermore, the rally was held during Navratri, a major annual Hindu festival which is of particular importance to Gujarati Hindus and which occurs just a couple of weeks before Diwali itself. I expect an “anti-Islam” rally by the EDL outside the Hare Krishna temple in Watford is next; and yes, I’m obviously being sarcastic, but you get my point.
Sikhism’s Guru Gobind Singh versus the EDL’s Guramit “Singh”
On Newsnight, Guramit was shown to be poring over numerous out-of-context quotes from the Quran along with openly referring to Islam as “evil”. Since Guramit was also visibly wearing a ‘kara’ – the steel bangle which, like Guramit’s surname “Singh”, is a direct historical legacy of the formation of the Khalsa in 1699 by the 10th Sikh Guru Gobind Singh — perhaps Guramit’s time would be better spent researching Sikhism’s actual views on Islam, Muslims, and Allah.
Suitable starting points would include the fact that the foundation stone of the Golden Temple in Amritsar was laid by a Muslim saint upon the invitation of the Sikh Guru at the time, on land granted to the Sikhs by a Muslim emperor; the architecture of the Golden Temple itself was specifically designed to reflect a pluralistic, multi-faith ethos, open to all, and symbolising both the unity of God irrespective of what name people call their deity by and the unity of mankind irrespective of what religious affiliation people may identify themselves by; “Allah” and Muslims are explicitly included. Or the fact that the 6th Sikh Guru Hargobind, who began the process of militarising the Sikhs by raising a standing army and whose successor provided military assistance to the Mughal crown prince Dara Shukoh, also had a mosque built for the ordinary Muslims who had settled in the town he’d founded in Punjab; the mosque was recently renovated by a joint project in India consisting of Sikh and Muslim volunteers; considerable assistance was provided by the Sikh group known as “Nihangs”, who historically formed the most dedicated professional soldiers of the 10th Sikh Guru Gobind Singh’s Khalsa army.
Other examples include the fact that the Sikh scriptures, the Guru Granth Sahib, include numerous hymns originally written by Muslims along with Islamic names for God such as “Allah”. Or the fact that the final version of the Guru Granth Sahib was compiled by Guru Gobind Singh, who was also responsible for fully militarising the Sikh population and creating the Khalsa; the Guru Granth Sahib condemns bigotry and extremism (religious or otherwise), but Guru Gobind Singh did not add a single word disparaging “Allah” or attacking Muslims en masse or denigrating Islam as a whole. Or the fact that all of the Sikh Gurus had numerous Muslim allies and supporters, including Guru Gobind Singh himself, whose army included senior Muslim officers and whose own life was proactively saved by several Muslims during one of the very worst periods he ever experienced in his lifetime. After the death of the fanatical Mughal emperor Aurangzeb, Guru Gobind Singh provided military assistance to one of Aurangzeb’s more liberal sons during the war of succession and played a pivotal role in facilitating the prince’s victory, for which the new Mughal emperor – Bahadur Shah I – subsequently publicly honoured Guru Gobind Singh with the formal title “Pir-i-Hind”, meaning “Saint of India”.
As a stark contrast to the EDL’s bigoted views, including their spokesman Guramit “Singh’s” disgusting remarks about Islam, Muslims and Allah, Guru Gobind Singh succinctly made his own stance very clear indeed in the Akal Ustat:
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By Jai
I'm from Birmingham and have many Sikhs friends. I can vouch that they do not think like that! Guramit is bringing shame to the teachings of Guru Gobind Singh and the entire Sikh community!!!
I urge all Sikhs to peacefully stop Guramit and teach him about religious tolerance and living in harmony.
Peace
Mohammed