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hsinghGB

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  1. Vaheguru Ji Ka Khalsa, Vaheguru Ji Ke Fateh Following the tragic murder of Jo Cox MP yesterday, a vigil is going to be held outside the Council House in Birmingham at 7pm tonight (17 June) in her memory. Please attend if you can and spread the word to others who can attend. Irrespective of political allegiances or IN/OUT EU viewpoint, we need to show support to her two little kids and husband. I consider her a shaheed as she worked and spoke tirelessly for the poor and those whose lives were ruined by war across the world in spite of the threats she received. She was a very kind and special person and as Sikhs we should support this vigil if we can. Hate seems to pervade everywhere. An extreme right-wing politician was almost elected president in Austria, far-right parties have ever-growing momentum across Europe and anti-immigrant hatred is rising to fever pitch. A similar situation has come about in the US. The person that killed Jo Cox was a charitable person himself but all this hateful rhetoric filled his mind and look what he did. He killed, in cold blood, an innocent mother of two very young children who had not harmed anyone. We need to show that unity, togtherness and common decency will prevail, the values of Sikhi not those of hate. We should think about the words we use and how we came to be living in the UK, our forefathers were immigrants and subjected to the same hate. Sharda teh pyare de loor heh Ji. Please come if you can. Vaheguru Ji Ka Khalsa, Vaheguru Ji Ke Fateh The Guardian Editorial Thursday 16 June 2016 Jo Cox: an attack on humanity, idealism and democracy The MP murdered on the street embodied decency and a commitment to all that humanity has in common. What a contrast with so much that is rotten in politics The slide from civilisation to barbarism is shorter than we might like to imagine. Every violent crime taints the ideal of an orderly society, but when that crime is committed against the people who are peacefully selected to write the rules, then the affront is that much more profound. The killing, by stabbing and repeated shooting in the street, of Jo Cox is, in the first instance, an exceptionally heinous villainy. She was the mother of two very young children, who will now have to grow up without her. It is also, however, in a very real sense, an attack on democracy. Violence against MPs in Britain is mercifully rare. Only three have been killed in recent history: Airey Neave, Tony Berry and Ian Gow, all of them at the hands of the Irish republicans. Two others, Nigel Jones and Stephen Timms, have been grievously wounded, the latter by a woman citing jihadi inspiration and rage about the Iraq war. Whatever the cause, an attack on a parliamentarian is always an attack on parliament as well, which was as clear in Thursday’s case as any before. Here was the MP whom the citizens of Batley and Spen had entrusted to represent them, fresh from conducting her duty to solve the practical problems of those same citizens in a constituency surgery. To single her out, at this time and in this place, is to turn a gun on every value of which decent Britons are justifiably proud. Jo Cox, however, was not just any MP doing her duty. She was also an MP who was driven by an ideal. The former charity worker explained what that ideal was as eloquently as anyone could in her maiden speech last year. “Our communities have been deeply enhanced by immigration,” she insisted, “be it of Irish Catholics across the constituency or of Muslims from Gujarat in India or from Pakistan, principally from Kashmir. While we celebrate our diversity, what surprises me time and time again as I travel around the constituency is that we are far more united and have far more in common with each other than things that divide us.” Advertisement What nobler vision can there be than that of a society where people can be comfortable in their difference? And what more fundamental tenet of decency is there than to put first and to cherish all that makes us human, as opposed to what divides one group from another? These are ideals that are often maligned when they are described as multiculturalism, but they are precious nonetheless. They are the ideals which led Ms Cox to campaign tirelessly for the brutalised and displaced people of Syria, and – the most painful thought – ideals for which she may now have died. The police are investigating reports that the assailant yelled “Britain First” during the attack. If those words were used, this would appear to be not merely a chauvinist taunt, but the name of a far-right political party, whose candidate for City Hall turned his back in disgust on Sadiq Khan at the count, in sectarian rage at a great cosmopolitan city’s decision to make a Muslim mayor. The thuggish outfit denounced Ms Cox’s death, as it was bound to do. But their brand of angry blame-mongering could very well serve to convince particular individuals – especially those who are already close to the edge – that some people are less than human, and thus fair game for attack. The rhetoric of western racism and Islamophobia is the mirror of the ideology with which Isis and al-Qaida secure their recruits and that persuades them to strap explosives to themselves, and die in order to kill. It might be especially powerful in Britain, at a time when divisive hate-mongering is seeping into the mainstream. We are in the midst of what risks becoming a plebiscite on immigration and immigrants. The tone is divisive and nasty. Nigel Farage on Thursday unveiled a poster of unprecedented repugnance. The backdrop was a long and thronging line of displaced people in flight. The message: “The EU has failed us all.” The headline: “Breaking point.” The time for imagining that the Europhobes can be engaged on the basis of facts – such as the reality that a refugee crisis that started in Syria and north Africa can hardly be blamed on the EU, or the inconvenient detail that obligations under the refugee convention do not depend on EU membership – has passed. One might have still hoped, however, that even merchants of post-truth politics might hold back from the sort of entirely post-moral politics that is involved in taking the great humanitarian crisis of our time, and then whipping up hostility to the victims as a means of chivvying voters into turning their backs on the world. The idealism of Ms Cox was the very antithesis of such brutal cynicism. Honour her memory. Because the values and the commitment that she embodied are all that we have to keep barbarism at bay.
  2. Vaheguru Ji Ka Khalsa, Vaheguru Ji Ke Fateh At the start of part one last week, I was pleased to see an amritdhari sister was going to be part of the programme as she would bring Sikh ethics to the debate and put the bigots straight. But even though she did not feature much last week, the small clips made it clear she was part of the 'anti-immigration' group that needed convincing by the 'immigrant' group, which came as a surprise as her elders like almost all UK Sikhs would be immigrants. In this week's part I was shocked when Bhein Ji said 1. She had moved to another area because the area where she had lived had become too diverse. If an English person said that there were too many ethnic minorities in an area what would we think? 2. She would not send her kids to the school featured as it was too diverse. Again, If an English person said that there were too many ethnic minorities in a school what would we think? What about Sikh ethos schools that even with a large amount of places reserved for non-sikhs will end up predominantly teaching Sikhs of Punjabi descent? 3. Her father had cut his kesh 'to integrate'. My father like many others had to do the same but not to integrate, he was forced as an oft-unspoken racist condition of employment taking advantage of his dire financial situation. He also felt there was little recognition for his and other Sikh soldiers' sacrifices during WW2 otherwise they would respect the kesh/dastaar Sikhs retained in the war. Mr. Mohammed was perfectly within his rights not to enter a Gurdwara or assist a Sikh organisation serve the homeless, even though it was harmless, due to his strong allegiance to his own faith and that faith alone. The other Muslim couple featured although more liberal did not attend another faith's place of worship they took the English couple to their Mosque, Mr Mohammed would have happily done the same. He seemed welcoming when our sister visited his home twice and he was happy to visit her home. How many apneh, especially first generation immigrants, socialise with goreh outside work? Just as importantly how many gorey invite us around? We can't judge a 1st gen immigrant by our 2nd/3rd gen levels of integration. His daughters spoke of returning to a peaceful Somalia one day and using their education to help rebuild the country. I found this highly commendable, who in today's age of growing selfishness would want to make such a sacrifice? It is just like Brit born Sikhs going to a Punjab they know little of and spending cash they earned in the UK, skills they acquired here to run medical camps, build homes, help the victims/widows/orphans of 84. Someone could argue that money/skill should be used for Britain's homeless. How many of us dream of one glorious day taking our UK acquired skills to an ajaad Khalistan to turn it into a utopia, to give Sikhs and non-Sikhs there the life we enjoy here? Mr Mohammed had fears of integration actually being assimilation just as our parents did. Fears of losing our faith, our customs, respect for elders and the dangers of alcohol abuse, promiscuity etc - these are natural feelings. Brits living abroad also have similar fears with regard to identity, they also tend to live in areas where there are large British expat communities. Integration is a two way process, one way only is assimilation. Western europeans have conquered and occupied three of the world's largest continents they were not native to - Australasia, North America and South America where the indigenous populations live in abject poverty on worthless land allotted to them. Vastly outnumbered by the western europeans, the native tribes have little prospects, resulting in high substance abuse and high suicide rates. The native culture, language and customs are dying out. Is that the integration that western europeans keep talking about? What would happen if those millions of western europeans had to return to western Europe - as we say, there wouldn't be space to sit. The fact is western europeans have enjoyed an ever improving standard of living at the expense of everyone else over the last 400 years and understandably they don't want things to change. Immigrants come to the UK not with armies to conquer and occupy but with hopes of a better life for their children and the will to work hard to achieve it. Right to enter is determined by the democratically elected government who, as highlighted in the programme, have reduced visa numbers, introduced stringent visa conditions and reduced entitlement to benefits for non-EU citizens. The Irish where the last immigrants before the wave of Asian and West-Indians arrived in the 50s-70s. They became accepted and some try to prove their 'Britishness' by slating us as the Brits slated them. The irony is that they still get called all sorts and are the butt of many English jokes. It seems that as Sikhs, now that we have won our rights though years of court cases and political lobbying we too are glossing over how we lost our Raj, the racism of the past and the fact that a large number of Brits still want us on the boat 'back to where we came from' - all in order to criticise the newer immigrants. As a point of interest, Bhein Ji may want to ask her neighbours in her new street what their views are on carrying a proper sized kirpan, wearing a dastaar instead of a safety helmet, arranged marriage etc with respect to integration. Such issues came up during my working life in the last ten years, like me she may be shocked by the response of many of the educated liberal english middle class, like me she may question how British she is considered by them.
  3. Evidence also emerging of SAS involvement in Sri Lanka during same period + British trade interests in the sub-continent: Britain allowed ex-SAS officers to train Sri Lankans as Tamil Tigers rebelled British former soldiers assisted country's security forces soon after Golden Temple massacre in India, documents reveal Phil Miller and Rajeev Syal The Guardian, Thursday 16 January 2014 20.10 GMT Former SAS officers were allowed by the British government to train security forces in Sri Lanka around the time of the 1980s Golden Temple massacre, recently released government documents show. The disclosure comes days after documents emerged appearing to show that SAS officers were involved in training Indian troops in the months leading up to the raid on the Amritsar temple, the Sikh religion's holiest site, in June 1984. It will intensify the diplomatic tensions over Britain's role in the raid in Amritsar and add to evidence suggesting the government was happy to let former and serving special forces soldiers operate in India. The new documents show that in September 1984 foreign secretary Geoffrey Howe's private secretary, Peter Ricketts, wrote to David Barclay, private secretary to prime minister Margaret Thatcher about a request to allow a British company with SAS connections to work in Sri Lanka. At the time the Sri Lankan government was trying to put down an insurgency by the Tamil Tigers and other groups in the north and east of the island. Ricketts wrote: "The Sri Lankan government have engaged another British company [name removed] to provide training in counter-terrorist techniques … The presence of [the company's] employees, including some ex-SAS personnel, in Sri Lanka, has aroused controversy and the Indian government have expressed concern to us about the firm's involvement. "We have made it clear that this is a purely commercial matter and that HMG are not involved." The firm was allowed to continue working in Sri Lanka. The papers will be part of an investigation begun by the cabinet secretary, Sir Jeremy Heywood, on the orders of David Cameron to determine Britain's actions in relation to the Amritsar raid. The Indian government says that about 400 people were killed when its premier, Indira Gandhi, sent troops into the temple complex in June 1984 in the six-day operation called Blue Star. Sikh groups, which have called for an inquiry into the British role in "one of the darkest episodes in Sikh history", put the death toll in the thousands, including many pilgrims. Another document, relating to Sri Lanka, shows that days after the killings Thatcher was asked by Gandhi to stop helping the Sri Lankan government with military advice. She told Thatcher: "We hope that you will use your influence to persuade [sri Lanka's] President Jayewardene to give a positive lead by making constructive suggestions at the All Parties Conference. "Military aid and anti-insurgency assistance are not enough to overcome a political crisis which has to be faced and resolved." This appears to be a reference to the Indian government's suspicion in 1984 that the SAS was training the Sri Lankan military. The Guardian revealed on Wednesday that Thatcher gave Gandhi Britain's full support in the immediate aftermath of the 1984 Golden Temple raid. Other documents in the file reveal Whitehall's interest in lucrative arms sales to India at this time. A secret Foreign Office briefing, of 22 June 1984, sent to Downing Street, stressed that British commercial interests in India were "very substantial, it is a large and growing market for both commercial and defence sales". The document claimed: "British exports in 1983 exceeded £800m and since 1975 India has bought British defence equipment worth over £1.25bn." Cameron on Wednesday appeared to downplay the likelihood of an inquiry finding evidence that Britain was to blame for the raid. Labour's former deputy chairman, Tom Watson, has suggested Britain might have had a role in the assault on Amritsar in exchange for India agreeing to purchase a fleet of helicopters in a £65m deal. Source: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jan/16/former-sas-officers-training-sri-lanka
  4. Vaheguru Ji Ka Khalsa, Vaheguru Ji Ke Fateh Full text of letter referred to in post #81 above (Guardian article) - then British PM Margaret Thatcher pledging support to Indira Gandhi following Operation Bluestar, especially dealing with UK Sikhs making statements to the independent UK press: source: http://www.theguardian.com/world/interactive/2014/jan/15/margaret-thatcher-letter-indira-gandhi-golden-temple-full-document?INTCMP=ILCNETTXT3487
  5. Pyare Sadh Sangat Ji, Vaheguru Ji Ka Khalsa, Vaheguru Ji Ke Fateh Oxford MP Nicola Blackwood has started a petition with the support of the NSPCC, Barnardo’s, The Children’s Society, Pace, ECPAT, Save the Children, OXCAT and others, to call on the Prime Minister to implement a 6-point action plan to stop child sexual exploitation in the UK. The petition has gathered almost 100,000 signatures and is looking for a total of 150,000. Please support. Further information on the 6-point action plan and a plea for support by a victim's mother is given below. Link to petition: https://www.change.org/petitions/prime-minister-david-cameron-take-action-to-help-stop-child-sexual-exploitation?utm_source=action_alert&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=32540&alert_id=SyyuxbyDaA_cFtYctCmKP Information on the 6-point action plan: ‘Hidden in plain view within their communities, thousands of vulnerable children across the UK are being cynically targeted, groomed and subjected to appalling sexual abuse by paedophiles and organised gangs. These children have irrevocably lost their childhood. As an Oxford MP, I saw for myself the appalling devastation caused by child sexual exploitation when it emerged that a violent gang had been grooming and sexually abusing children in Oxford for at least eight years. Even after all those years of abuse, six victims bravely appeared as witnesses in the five-month trial at the Old Bailey earlier this year. Groomed to be sold for sex from as young as eleven years old, the victims’ evidence included graphic detail about being plied with drugs and repeatedly raped by strangers. All victims described violent treatment at the hands of their abusers including being tied up, bitten, scratched, assaulted with instruments and being threatened and humiliated. The victims’ courageous testimony led to the conviction of seven men. Five of them were sentenced to life imprisonment. Sadly though, this case was far from unique. Many cities across the country - Rochdale, Rotherham, Telford, Coventry, Leicester, High Wycombe - have seen their own tragic cases of child sexual exploitation. That it why, with the support of the NSPCC, Barnardo’s, The Children’s Society, Pace, ECPAT, Save the Children, OXCAT and others, I am calling on the Prime Minister to implement a 6-point action plan to stop child sexual exploitation in the UK. STEP 1: Introduce new child sexual abuse prevention orders to give police the power to prevent sex offenders abusing children STEP 2: Make sure local areas set up the specialist child sexual exploitation centres needed to identify and protect victims STEP 3: Give judges clear guidance on sentencing complex child sexual exploitation cases STEP 4: Reform courts so that very vulnerable witnesses in child sexual abuse cases are no longer traumatised by giving evidence STEP 5: Give the Education Secretary the power to order the publication of Serious Case Reviews STEP 6: End the postcode lottery of support for victims of child sexual exploitation Please sign the petition and add your voice to those of us calling for action to drive child sexual exploitation from our streets. This petition is part of the CHILDHOOD LOST campaign. Find out more at www.childhoodlost.co.uk and @childhood_lost A plea for petition support by a victim's mother: A group of men I didn’t know befriended my 14 year old daughter, Alice, and started to sexually exploit her. They gave her gifts, took her to ‘parties’ and gave her drugs and alcohol -- all the time with the real threat of actual violence hanging over her. There were rules at the ‘parties’ and girls were beaten if they did not have sex with the men. I knew something was wrong. I tried to stop it but she feared the men more than she feared me. The police kept finding Alice at different properties with these men. On my daughter’s Facebook page and mobile phone I found names and numbers of the men all of which I supplied to the police. But I was told it was not enough for action to be taken. 
Police should have had the power to prevent these men contacting and abusing my daughter. That's why I am supporting a petition calling on the Prime Minister, David Cameron, to introduce new measures, including prevention orders, to tackle child sexual exploitation. Please sign the petition here. I believe that if the police had been able to use a prevention order children would not have been raped by these men. It is terrifying that these men got away with so much for so long and that other children are still trapped in similar situations. Now I'm working with the MP, Nicola Blackwood, and a number of children and parent charities to convince David Cameron to do everything in his power to stop this happening again. 
Please support our campaign and sign the petition. I never want this to happen to another child. Thank you, Kate 
*Names have been changed to protect identities
  6. Abuse of muslim girls by pakistani grooming gangs: Report released today by the Muslim Women's Network (Birmingham) UK after research into the hidden experiences of Asian / Muslim girls and young women so that everyone can better understand how to support and protect them. A total of 35 case studies were collected. The report, UNHEARD VOICES - Sexual Exploitation of Asian Girls and Young Women, highlights: Profile of Victims - all case studies are proved within the 100+ page report Profile of Offenders Nature of the Exploitation Barriers to Disclosure and Reporting Factors Driving Sexually Abusive Behaviour Family and Community Responses Frontline Professional and Service Provider Responses It's no suprise that they have been doing such things to their own as it is always easier to cover things up within one's own community. The report uses both the words 'Asian' and 'Muslim', with the former used alot for offenders and the latter more for the victims as they obviously wish to spare their community further damage - although the 'Pakistani origin' of offenders being disproportionate is specifically mentioned it is accompanied with an explaination of why it could be misleading. 'Male attitudes' and 'family honour' is blamed much, as they have done in the western media generally, again without appreciating this is a double edged sword that has probably also prevented such grooming from being more widespread victim-wise within the Asian (Sikh/Muslim/Hindu) communities. Once again many of the findings do ring true with what the likes of Shere Punjab, SAS and Sikh youth living in areas like Birmingham, Bradford etc have been saying for over 25 years. Hopefully with the momentum the issue of grooming has been gathering over the last year or so this will now lead to the opening of eyes, changes in the law, parent support from social services, earlier police action and proper lengthy sentencing for offenders. This will be a great result and a testament to those that fought for the victims over such a long period, sacrificing so much when many of their own community and the authorities branded them racists. Video interview with Guardian newspaper on this report: <!-- Start of guardian embedded video --> <!-- To autoplay video, set 'a=true' in the following line of code--> <iframe src="http://embedded-video.guardianapps.co.uk/?a=false&u=/uk-news/video/2013/sep/10/asian-girls-hidden-victims-sex-grooming-report-video" frameborder="0" width="460" height="397"></iframe> <!-- End of guardian embedded video --> http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/video/2013/sep/10/asian-girls-hidden-victims-sex-grooming-report-video Pdf of report available here (10.2Mb, so too large to attach here): http://www.mwnuk.co.uk/resourcesDetail.php?id=97 Report Conclusions (verbatim): Our project findings led us to put forward a different picture than the one presented by the media, where Asian men only target and sexually exploit vulnerable White girls because they have less respect for them due to their different ethnicity. It is evident from this research that Asian men also target Asian girls who are not safe from sexual exploitation as presumed. It is clear that sexual predators of Asian background, like those from any other ethnic background, have no respect for women and girls of any race, faith or culture. This shows that child sexual exploitation is not about ethnicity or faith but about male attitudes towards women. This argument is supported by the work of Malcolm Cowburn, a criminologist based at Sheffield Hallam University, who has studied issues related to sexual violence over the last 15 years. He states that he “had not seen any empirical evidence to say that one group of people has a greater proclivity to sexual violence than any other” and “The larger issue is of problematic masculinity and how certain men view women, children and their sexual rights. I don’t think it lies within ethnicity but within gender.” (Akwagyiram 2012). His work has been published in the Journal of Sexual Aggression and the British Journal of Community Justice among others. Although it is difficult to determine the scale of sexual exploitation within Asian and Muslim communities and whether it is at disproportionate levels, it is clear that a significant problem does exist. This very limited pilot study has revealed 35 case studies which indicates that a more extensive piece of research would most likely find many more examples of abuse and exploitation. It is also to be noted that although the offenders and victims came from a range of backgrounds, a substantial number were from a Pakistani background and this cannot be neglected. This may largely reflect the size of the representative population of Pakistanis in Britain and may not mean that they are overrepresented among sexual offenders. A further and fuller exploration of sexual exploitation among Asian / Muslim communities could shed more light on this matter. Upon a detailed analysis of ethnicities, it was noticeable that in the majority of cases the offenders were from the same ethnic / faith background as their victims. This seemed like a calculated choice even though Asian and Muslim girls were harder to reach. A key driver for targeting Asian and Muslim girls could be that they were considered as a ”less risky” option because they were unlikely to seek help or report their abuse due to ”shame” and ”dishonour”. It also appeared that one of the most important factors pulling girls towards the offenders was the promise of love and marriage. The particular vulnerabilities of Asian / Muslim girls and young women were being exploited routinely, making them more likely to be groomed and sexually exploited by offenders from their own backgrounds. This finding could indicate that Asian/Muslim girls are possible more likley to be groomed and sexually exploited by offenders from their own backgrounds than White girls to exploitation by Asian predators. The lack of identification of Asian and Muslim female victims and the lack of legal prosecutions involving them confirms that frontline professionals and mainstream agencies are neglecting them. Even though the reluctance of Asian and Muslim victims in coming forward is making it harder to provide them with the necessary support and to investigate their cases, little, if anything is being done to reach out to them and to make it easier for them to seek the much needed help. Community attitudes towards gender status and role which lead to the unequal treatment of girls compared to boys also played a prominent role in victims not seeking help and perpetrators continuing to operate with impunity. Generally victims do not complain due to the repercussions flowing from dishonouring their family. When they disclose their experiences of exploitation, victims are blamed instead of the perpetrators. If mosques, families, community groups, community leaders, continue turning a blind eye to the situation, then this will amount to silent consent. When developing awareness-raising tools to combat predatory behaviour, we must resist the blaming of girls’ attitudes and consider the fact that some perpetrators are of the same age or only a few years older. While Asian and Muslim communities fail to acknowledge that the problem exists and keep accepting male attitudes, it will be difficult to address the issue. Current initiatives protecting Asian and Muslim girls from violence focus primarily on issues such as honour crime, forced marriage, female genital mutilation. No work (except for a tiny minority of projects, often delivered voluntarily), tackles grooming and sexual exploitation. It is hoped that this research will result in more resources being dedicated to helping and protecting girls and women from Asian and Muslim communities. More awareness training needs to be offered to communities to enable them to support victims and to believe that the latter’s experiences are true. Frontline professionals and agencies need training to ensure they do not miss victims from BME backgrounds and that they have a better understanding of cultural sensitivities preventing victims from coming forward. <END>
  7. The peace, prosperity, democracy and religious freedom we enjoy and usually take for granted in the UK is for a large part built on the kurbani of the armed services. We owe all past and current soldiers a debt of gratitude. They get paid little, have no support on discharge and are expected to make the ultimate sacrifice without question for a cause of another's choosing. Hope Vaheguru blesses the family of the soldier with the strength to endure such a loss in such circumstances. One can only imagine the pain of learning the soldier killed in such a horrific manner, with video of the murder scene and the killer boasting broadcast all over TV, was actually their son, brother, husband or father. As for conspiracy theories, Bhaiji Singh559 above is right. It's not that long ago that a Gursikh veer was beheaded by the pakistan taliban - wouldn't we be deeply offended if someone suggested that was a conspiracy by Sikh leaders? As Sikhs we should know better than to propogate such ridiculous theories on a Gursikh forum.
  8. Vaheguru Ji Ka Khalsa, Vaheguru Ji Ke Fateh The ITV news website carries the news report of the Gursikh family mentioned in an earlier post that was denied entry to the Ricoh arena for the Olympics football because of their kirpans. It also displays the response from LOCOG as: "London 2012’s policy is to allow the Kirpan into all of our competition venues as long as the length of the sheath (not including the hilt) is no longer than 6 inches and is present with the other Articles of Faith. At the time of making this policy, we were not fully aware of the existing restrictions on Kirpans in the football venues and we have unfortunately been unable to change the existing regulations. We apologise for the confusion this has caused, we have and will continue to explain the situation through direct communication with spectators and on our website.” – LOCOG (London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games) Videos of the news report as broadcast on ITV central news are also given on the webpage: http://www.itv.com/n...-olympic-games/ The LOCOG website states the following and gives banned item lists for each Olympic football venue: "The security procedure for the Olympic Football Tournament is different to other venues. Please ensure you have read the correct list of prohibited and restricted items for your stadium." This information MAY have been added recently though, following the above compliant. http://www.london201...y-and-security/ The LOCOG website prohibited item list for the main Olympic park venues does state our Sikh kirpan is permitted but does not stipulate the sheath length limit - see attachment. It again states Olympic football venues have different lists of prohibited items (this MAY also be a recent amendment for clarification). Following the tragic events of 9/11 and 7/7 the necessary security searches that have been implemented at major events have been leading to regular issues with respect to our kirpan, although some places are pragmatic and allow entry. The law allowing us to carry our kirpan has existed in the UK for a long time but the problem is any venue reserves the right to refuse someone entry, with discrimination a grey area and lack of knowledge about the kirpan a big issue. Looking past the Olympics, we could lobby Parliament to improve our rights rather than Sikh organisations having a lengthy dialogue with each and every venue for every event in advance as that is impractical, can lead to this type of misunderstanding and is impossible to do for every place a Gursikh may visit in the UK. Only concerns being that such a campaign could make things worse if the right wing media latch onto it and loopholes would probably still exist. Biggest problem is the lack of knowledge about the kirpan and the Sikh religion in general, especially outside multicultural areas. Although the misunderstanding has led to some Gursikhs being out of pocket etc. (hope they are refunded), respect and thanks to LOCOG for at least allowing the kirpan into venues under their direct control. It's a pity the football stadiums could not be as pragmatic. Prohibitedandrestricteditemslists_Neutral-2.pdf
  9. BBC News website, 4th April 2012: Indian families say Punjab compensation inadequate Families of victims killed by police in the Indian state of Punjab during a separatist insurgency say compensation just awarded is "too little, too late". The National Human Rights Commission has announced that 279.4m rupees ($5.5m; £3.4m) be paid to the families of 1,513 victims killed from 1984-96. (comes to just 1.8 lakh rupees each) The extra-judicial killings took place at the peak of Sikh militancy for a separate homeland of Khalistan. The commission investigated 2,097 cases but many bodies were unidentified. Cremations Case "The families have waited years and this amount of monetary compensation is not enough," Navkiran Singh, a lawyer for one of the families, told the BBC. "The courts have not answered the question of culpability of the police officers who killed the people and disposed of the bodies," added Mr Singh. Mr Singh represents Paramjit Kaur Khalsa, whose husband was killed at that time. He said the courts believed the police were carrying out "their national duty" while fighting Sikh insurgents. The state has to pay the money, yet "no process of rehabilitation has been started for victims of the police killings," said Mr Singh. The families feel this is discriminatory as victims of militants have already been given compensation by the state. The commission also found human rights violations in many of the killings in the three districts of Amritsar, Manjitha and Tarn Taran that it investigated. Mr Singh said they will now send an application to Punjab's chief minister for the state to rehabilitate the families since the commission has recognised they are also "victims of injustice". Otherwise he said the state is giving the families "a reason to pick up the gun again". The NHRC is investigating what has become known as The Cremations Case. While the official figure for the number of people killed during the violent insurgency from 1984-1996 is 15,000, many human rights groups claim it is much higher and could be more than 25,000. http://www.bbc.co.uk...-india-17607930
  10. Vaheguru Ji Ka Khalsa, Vaheguru Ji Ke Fateh The Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) provides a £85,000 deposit compensation limit which is the British equivalent of the €100,000 limit that came into force in all European Economic Area (EEA) member states from Jan 2011 (previous UK limit was £50,000). However: The bank and type of deposit has to be covered by the scheme. Your bank should be able to provide you with a leaflet stating what is covered. Definitely check (never assume) if you have large deposits – especially for non-EU (e.g. Indian) banks. Don't just take their word – ask for written evidence. This limit is for an individual person's total deposits per banking firm. For example, Lloyds Banking Group owns LloydsTSB, Halifax, Bank of Scotland and Cheltenham & Gloucester. Hence, the total deposits of all an individual person's accounts across all these banks will only be covered up to the £85,000 limit. Note that all the UK high street banks are now owned by just a few firms due to takeovers and mergers, especially during this banking crisis. Your bank's website will state which firm it belongs to – go to that firm's website to find out which other banks they own. The limit is per individual person. So for joint accounts, each person has a £85,000 limit (within the limits of point 2 above). So just make sure your deposits meet the three points above and your cash will be guaranteed safe by the EU. Don't withdraw cash and keep at home – safest in a bank covered by the scheme. More info: http://www.fscs.org....ns-and-answers/
  11. Vaheguru Ji ka Khalsa, Vaheguru Ji ke Fateh On Friday 23rd Sept 2011, the UN proposes to vote on the official recognition of an independent Palestinian state following a formal request by the Palestinian Authority. Although the US Government has stated it will use its veto if need be to prevent any such recognition, the vote - should it go ahead (promise of peace talks may lead Palestinians to withdraw request) – is threatening to leave Israel and its closest ally the US isolated from many nations on the issue. It seems to be a win win for the Palestinians - unconditional peace talks a possible minimum. After dithering a long time over who to support during the Egyptian uprising, the use of a veto will also further harm the standing of the US and its historical claims of supporting freedom, self-determination and democracy. Any vote should also be of great interest to others also wanting the right to self-determination, although in differing situations, including us. Article from The Independent: Robert Fisk: Why the Middle East will never be the same again The Palestinians won't achieve statehood, but they will consign the 'peace process' to history. The Independent, Tuesday, 20 September 2011 The Palestinians won't get a state this week. But they will prove – if they get enough votes in the General Assembly and if Mahmoud Abbas does not succumb to his characteristic grovelling in the face of US-Israeli power – that they are worthy of statehood. And they will establish for the Arabs what Israel likes to call – when it is enlarging its colonies on stolen land – "facts on the ground": never again can the United States and Israel snap their fingers and expect the Arabs to click their heels. The US has lost its purchase on the Middle East. It's over: the "peace process", the "road map", the "Oslo agreement"; the whole fandango is history. Personally, I think "Palestine" is a fantasy state, impossible to create now that the Israelis have stolen so much of the Arabs' land for their colonial projects. Go take a look at the West Bank, if you don't believe me. Israel's massive Jewish colonies, its pernicious building restrictions on Palestinian homes of more than one storey and its closure even of sewage systems as punishment, the "cordons sanitaires" beside the Jordanian frontier, the Israeli-only settlers' roads have turned the map of the West Bank into the smashed windscreen of a crashed car. Sometimes, I suspect that the only thing that prevents the existence of "Greater Israel" is the obstinacy of those pesky Palestinians. But we are now talking of much greater matters. This vote at the UN – General Assembly or Security Council, in one sense it hardly matters – is going to divide the West – Americans from Europeans and scores of other nations – and it is going to divide the Arabs from the Americans. It is going to crack open the divisions in the European Union; between eastern and western Europeans, between Germany and France (the former supporting Israel for all the usual historical reasons, the latter sickened by the suffering of the Palestinians) and, of course, between Israel and the EU. A great anger has been created in the world by decades of Israeli power and military brutality and colonisation; millions of Europeans, while conscious of their own historical responsibility for the Jewish Holocaust and well aware of the violence of Muslim nations, are no longer cowed in their criticism for fear of being abused as anti-Semites. There is racism in the West – and always will be, I fear – against Muslims and Africans, as well as Jews. But what are the Israeli settlements on the West Bank, in which no Arab Muslim Palestinian can live, but an expression of racism? Israel shares in this tragedy, of course. Its insane government has led its people on this road to perdition, adequately summed up by its sullen fear of democracy in Tunisia and Egypt – how typical that its principle ally in this nonsense should be the awful Saudi Arabia – and its cruel refusal to apologise for the killing of nine Turks in the Gaza flotilla last year and its equal refusal to apologise to Egypt for the killing of five of its policemen during a Palestinian incursion into Israel. So goodbye to its only regional allies, Turkey and Egypt, in the space of scarcely 12 months. Israel's cabinet is composed both of intelligent, potentially balanced people such as Ehud Barak, and fools such as Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, the Ahmadinejad of Israeli politics. Sarcasm aside, Israelis deserve better than this. The State of Israel may have been created unjustly – the Palestinian Diaspora is proof of this – but it was created legally. And its founders were perfectly capable of doing a deal with King Abdullah of Jordan after the 1948-49 war to divide Palestine between Jews and Arabs. But it had been the UN, which met to decide the fate of Palestine on 29 November 1947, which gave Israel its legitimacy, the Americans being the first to vote for its creation. Now – by a supreme irony of history – it is Israel which wishes to prevent the UN from giving Palestinian Arabs their legitimacy – and it is America which will be the first to veto such a legitimacy. Does Israel have a right to exist? The question is a tired trap, regularly and stupidly trotted out by Israel's so-called supporters; to me, too, on regular though increasingly fewer occasions. States – not humans – give other states the right to exist. For individuals to do so, they have to see a map. For where exactly, geographically, is Israel? It is the only nation on earth which does not know and will not declare where its eastern frontier is. Is it the old UN armistice line, the 1967 border so beloved of Abbas and so hated by Netanyahu, or the Palestinian West Bank minus settlements, or the whole of the West Bank? Show me a map of the United Kingdom which includes England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, and it has the right to exist. But show me a map of the UK which claims to include the 26 counties of independent Ireland in the UK and shows Dublin to be a British rather than an Irish city, and I will say no, this nation does not have the right to exist within these expanded frontiers. Which is why, in the case of Israel, almost every Western embassy, including the US and British embassies, are in Tel Aviv, not in Jerusalem. In the new Middle East, amid the Arab Awakening and the revolt of free peoples for dignity and freedom, this UN vote – passed in the General Assembly, vetoed by America if it goes to the Security Council – constitutes a kind of hinge; not just a page turning, but the failure of empire. So locked into Israel has US foreign policy become, so fearful of Israel have almost all its Congressmen and Congresswomen become – to the extent of loving Israel more than America – that America will this week stand out not as the nation that produced Woodrow Wilson and his 14 principles of self-determination, not as the country which fought Nazism and Fascism and Japanese militarism, not as the beacon of freedom which, we are told, its Founding Fathers represented – but as a curmudgeonly, selfish, frightened state whose President, after promising a new affection for the Muslim world, is forced to support an occupying power against a people who only ask for statehood. Should we say "poor old Obama", as I have done in the past? I don't think so. Big on rhetoric, vain, handing out false love in Istanbul and Cairo within months of his election, he will this week prove that his re-election is more important than the future of the Middle East, that his personal ambition to stay in power must take first place over the sufferings of an occupied people. In this context alone, it is bizarre that a man of such supposed high principle should show himself so cowardly. In the new Middle East, in which Arabs are claiming the very same rights and freedoms that Israel and America say they champion, this is a profound tragedy. US failures to stand up to Israel and to insist on a fair peace in "Palestine", abetted by the hero of the Iraq war, Blair, are responsible. Arabs too, for allowing their dictators to last so long and thus to clog the sand with false frontiers and old dogmas and oil (and let's not believe that a "new" "Palestine" would be a paradise for its own people). Israel, too, when it should be welcoming the Palestinian demand for statehood at the UN with all its obligations of security and peace and recognition of other UN members. But no. The game is lost. America's political power in the Middle East will this week be neutered on behalf of Israel. Quite a sacrifice in the name of liberty... link: http://www.independe...in-2357514.html Information from The Guardian: What would Palestinian statehood mean? Mahmoud Abbas's appeal to the UN to recognise Palestine has dominated the agenda. What are its implications? Harriet Sherwood guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 21 September 2011 Why are the Palestinians doing this? Frustrated after years of negotiations, which have gone nowhere, and alarmed by Israel's ever-expanding settlements on land that is expected to be part of their future state, the Palestinian leadership has decided to appeal to the international community as a way of breaking the deadlock. They say being accorded state status by the world body will strengthen their hand in negotiations, expose Israel as an occupying power in another sovereign state, and allow them recourse to world bodies such as the international criminal court. Are the Israelis cool about it? Anything but. They say the Palestinian decision to go the UN proves they are not interested in negotiating a end to the conflict with Israel. They describe it as a unilateral act, which goes against previous agreements such as the 1993 Oslo accords and makes a return to peace talks impossible. Rising expectations of statehood among Palestinians, which cannot be fulfilled, are likely to lead to violence and instability. And they are alarmed at the prospect of being dragged before the ICC, which will also harm the prospects for peace. How does the world line up? Despite President Obama saying at last September's general assembly that he hoped to see a Palestinian state within a year, the US is deeply opposed to the move and indeed has promised to veto it in the security council. They say only negotiations can bring a lasting peace and stability. Others say Obama is worried about the Jewish vote in next year's US elections. Europe is divided, and is at the centre of frenetic efforts to avoid this coming to a vote by persuading the parties back to talks. The Palestinians claim to have the backing of around 130 of the UN's 193 countries – enough for a resolution to pass in the general assembly. But Israel hopes to be able to claim a "moral minority" of powerful and influential nations. The battle for every vote is continuing. What do the citizens of this new state say? Most Palestinians back President Mahmoud Abbas's move but understand that the realities of life under Israeli occupation won't change. They are deeply sceptical about the "peace process" and resentful of the Jewish settlements expanding on their land. In Gaza, Hamas is opposed to a move that implicitly accepts an Israeli state alongside a Palestinian state, and many ordinary people simply feel forgotten and excluded. What about their neighbours, the Israelis? Many Israelis are anxious about the consequences of the UN recognising a Palestinian state and fear a return to violence. But most want to see two states living side by side eventually, although many are unwilling to make painful compromises to achieve that. The West Bank settlers, though, are deeply opposed to the very idea of a Palestinian state on land they believe was given to them by God. Hardline elements want to drive the Palestinians out by force and many on both sides fear that settler attacks could trigger confrontations in the coming weeks. So will there be a Palestinian state by the end of the week? Unlikely. The frantic efforts to find a way out of the diplomatic car crash seem to be making progress but it's hard to know whether the Palestinians will be given enough assurances on the framework of new talks to persuade them either to withhold their request or formally submit it but agree to a delay, or have one forced on them. The situation is tense and fluid, both in New York and on the ground in Israel-Palestine, and no one really knows what the outcome of this week will be. link: http://www.guardian....-statehood-mean
  12. Vaheguru Ji Ka Khalsa, Vaheguru Ji Ke Fateh The text below is from an article on the BBC News website about a recent estimated species count of 8.7 million, which is very close to the 84 lakh (8.4 million) joon stated in Gurbani, which you may find interesting: Species count put at 8.7 million By Richard Black, Environment correspondent, BBC News The natural world contains about 8.7 million species, according to a new estimate described by scientists as the most accurate ever. But the vast majority have not been identified - and cataloguing them all could take more than 1,000 years. The number comes from studying relationships between the branches and leaves of the "family tree of life". The team warns in the journal PLoS Biology that many species will become extinct before they can be studied. Although the number of species on the planet might seem an obvious figure to know, a way to calculate it with confidence has been elusive. In a commentary also carried in PLoS Biology, former Royal Society president Lord (Robert) May observes: "It is a remarkable testament to humanity's narcissism that we know the number of books in the US Library of Congress on 1 February 2011 was 22,194,656, but cannot tell you - to within an order of magnitude - how many distinct species of plants and animals we share our world with." Now, it appears, we can. "We've been thinking about this for several years now - we've had a look at a number of different approaches, and didn't have any success," one of the research team, Derek Tittensor, told BBC News. "So this was basically our last chance, the last thing we tried, and it seems to work." Dr Tittensor, who is based at the UN Environment Programme's World Conservation Monitoring Centre (Unep-WCMC) and Microsoft Research in Cambridge, UK, worked on the project alongside peers from Dalhousie University in Canada and the University of Hawaii. The vast majority of the 8.7 million are animals, with progressively smaller numbers of fungi, plants, protozoa (a group of single-celled organisms) and chromists (algae and other micro-organisms). The figure excludes bacteria and some other types of micro-organism. Linnaean steps About 1.2 million species have been formally described, the vast majority from the land rather than the oceans. The natural world in numbers * Animals: 7.77 million (12% described) * Fungi: 0.61 million (7% described) * Plants: 0.30 million (70% described) * Protozoa: 0.04 million (22% described) * Chromists: 0.03 million (50% described) The trick this team used was to look at the relationship between species and the broader groupings to which they belong. In 1758, Swedish biologist Carl Linnaeus developed a comprehensive system of taxonomy, as the field is known, which is still - with modifications - in use today. Groups of closely related species belong to the same genus, which in turn are clustered into families, then orders, then classes, then phyla, and finally into kingdoms (such as the animal kingdom). The higher up this hierarchical tree of life you look, the rarer new discoveries become - hardly surprising, as a discovery of a new species will be much more common than the discovery of a totally new phylum or class. The researchers quantified the relationship between the discovery of new species and the discovery of new higher groups such as phyla and orders, and then used it to predict how many species there are likely to be. "We discovered that, using numbers from the higher taxonomic groups, we can predict the number of species," said Dalhousie researcher Sina Adl. "The approach accurately predicted the number of species in several well-studied groups such as mammals, fishes and birds, providing confidence in the method." And the number came out as 8.7 million - plus or minus about a million. Muddied waters If this is correct, then only 14% of the world's species have yet been identified - and only 9% of those in the oceans. The rate of species discovery has remained about even ever since Haeckel compiled his Kunstformen der Natur (Art Forms of Nature) a century ago "The rest are primarily going to be smaller organisms, and a large proportion of them will be dwelling in places that are hard to reach or hard to sample, like the deep oceans," said Dr Tittensor. "When we think of species we tend to think of mammals or birds, which are pretty well known. "But when you go to a tropical rainforest, it's easy to find new insects, and when you go to the deep sea and pull up a trawl, 90% of what you get can be undiscovered species." At current rates of discovery, completing the catalogue would take over 1,000 years - but new techniques such as DNA bar-coding could speed things up. The scientists say they do not expect their calculations to mark the end of this line of inquiry, and are looking to peers to refine methods and conclusions. One who has already looked through the paper is Professor Jonathan Baillie, director of conservation programmes at the Zoological Society of London (ZSL). "I think it's definitely a creative and innovative approach, but like every other method there are potential biases and I think it's probably a conservative figure," he told BBC News. "But it's such a high figure that it wouldn't really matter if it's out by one or two million either way. "It is really picking up this point that we know very little about the species with which we share the planet; and we are converting the Earth's natural landscapes so quickly, with total ignorance of our impact on the life in them." Link to article: http://www.bbc.co.uk...onment-14616161
  13. Behind 'Rising India' lies the surrender of national dignity From India's prime minister down, the rotten state of the world's largest democracy has been exposed for all to see Pankaj Mishra The Guardian, Tuesday 5 April 2011 Food prices become intolerable for the poor. Protests against corruption paralyse the national parliament for weeks on end. Then a series of American diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks exposes a brazenly mendacious and venal ruling class; the head of government adored by foreign business people and journalists loses his moral authority, turning into a lame duck. This sounds like Tunisia or Egypt before their uprisings, countries long deprived of representative politics and pillaged by the local agents of neoliberal capitalism. But it is India, where in recent days WikiLeaks has highlighted how national democratic institutions are no defence against the rapacity and selfishness of globalised elites. Most of the cables – being published by the Hindu, offer nothing new to those who haven't drunk the "Rising India" Kool-Aid vended by business people, politicians and their journalist groupies. The evidence of economic liberalisation providing cover for a wholesale plunder of the country's resources has been steadily mounting over recent months. The loss in particular of a staggering $39bn in the government's sale of the telecom spectrum has alerted many Indians to the corrupt nexuses between corporate and political power. Even the western financial press, unwaveringly gung-ho about the money to be made in India, is getting restless. Early this year, the Economist asked: "Is Indian capitalism becoming oligarchic?" – a question to which the only correct response is "Hell-ooo". Recently in the Financial Times' Indian business dynasties have been described as "robber barons". The intimate details about politicians revealed by WikiLeaks still leave you speechless. What can one say about the former cabinet minister, a fervent spokesman for low-caste Hindus, who demanded a large bribe from Dow Chemical Company, which is being helped by senior American officials to overcome its association with the gas leak at the Union Carbide factory in Bhopal that in 1984 killed and maimed tens of thousands of Indians? Indeed, the cables reveal US business and officials to be as embedded in India's politics as they are in Pakistan's. In 2008, the aide to an old courtier of the Nehru-Gandhi family showed a US diplomat two chests containing $25m in cash – money to bribe members of parliament into voting for an India-US nuclear deal, itself a prelude to massive US arms sales to India. Publicly opposed to the nuclear deal, the leaders of the Hindu nationalist BJP are at pains to reassure American diplomats of their pro-US credentials, even dissing their murderous Hindu nationalism as opportunistic, a mere "talking point". The cables offer many such instances of the ideological deceptions practised by the purveyors of "Rising India". Virtually all economic growth of recent years, a senior politician admits, is concentrated in the four southern states, two western states (Gujarat and Maharashtra) and "within 100km of Delhi". But why worry? He has nieces and sisters living in the US, and "five homes to visit between DC and New York". As for the entry of retailers like Walmart into India, oh, that "should not seriously hurt the mom and pop stores that form a BJP constituency". Not surprisingly, the Americans have developed contempt for such representatives of the world's largest democracy, who seem to validate Mahatma Gandhi's extreme denunciations of parliament as a "prostitute". Hillary Clinton gets right to the point in a cabled inquiry about Pranab Mukherjee, the finance minister widely tipped as India's next PM: "To which industrial or business groups is Mukherjee beholden? Whom will he seek to help through his policies? Why was Mukherjee chosen for the finance portfolio over Montek Singh Ahluwalia?" – the last named is a reliably pro-US technocrat. But no one stands more diminished by the leaks than the prime minister, Manmohan Singh, one of the former employees of the World Bank and IMF who have helped make India safe for oligarchism. It has long been common knowledge in political circles that Singh removed his oil minister in 2006 for the latter's allegedly anti-American advocacy of a gas pipeline to Iran. We now know from the cables that the then US ambassador congratulated himself for this "undeniable pro-American tilt" of the Indian government. Visiting the White House in 2008, Singh induced a nationwide cringe when he blurted out to the most disliked American president ever: "The people of India deeply love you." (Even George Bush looked startled.) This love unblushingly speaks its name everywhere in the WikiLeaks cables; even the racketeers of Pakistani military and intelligence appear dignified when compared with the Indians stampeding to plant kisses on US behinds. Singh has presided over an ignominious surrender of national sovereignty and dignity. There are many more dramatic revelations in store from WikiLeaks and The Hindu; these are tense days and nights for many politicians, business people and journalists. They probably hope the bad news is buried by the cricket World Cup celebrations. They will also try to prove their fealty to the father of the Indian nation – last week politicians vied with each other to threaten a sensitive study of Gandhi by the American writer Joseph Lelyveld with proscription. But there is nothing more un-Gandhian than this supra-national elite's wild cravings for power and wealth, and its indifference to suffering – a pathology of economic globalisation that Egyptians and Tunisians will soon learn elected governments don't cure, and even help conceal.
  14. Vaheguru Ji ka Khalsa, Vaheguru Ji ke Fateh Pyare Sadh Sangat Ji, Pasted below is a news story in The Guardian today, stating Indian authorities are considering arresting renowned human rights activist and Booker prize-winning novelist Arundhati Roy for 'claiming that the disputed territory of Kashmir is not an integral part of India'. This may open a few more eyes in the West to the true 'democratic values' of the Indian state, which routinely uses such laws to silence minorities and the poor who dare to speak out against their oppression and/or exploitation. The following link is to a lengthy article written by Arundhati Roy exposing the methods of oppression and exploitation employed by the Indian state. http://www.newstates...lice-government Vaheguru Ji ka Khalsa, Vaheguru Ji ke Fateh Arundhati Roy faces arrest over Kashmir remark Booker prize-winner says claim about territory not being an integral part of India was a call for justice in the disputed region guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 26 October 2010 13.33 BST Arundhati Roy Arundhati Roy could face a fine or imprisonment if convicted of sedition. The Booker prize-winning novelist and human rights campaigner Arundhati Roy is facing the threat of arrest after claiming that the disputed territory of Kashmir is not an integral part of India. India's home ministry is reported to have told police in Delhi that a case of sedition may be registered against Roy and the Kashmiri separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani for remarks they made at the weekend. Under Section 124A of the Indian penal code, those convicted of sedition face punishments ranging from a fine to life imprisonment. Roy – who won the Booker in 1997 for The God of Small Things – is a controversial figure in India for her championing of politically sensitive causes. She has divided opinion by speaking out in support of the Naxalite insurgency and for casting doubt on Pakistan's involvement in the 2008 Mumbai attacks. But in a statement the 48-year-old author, who is currently in Srinigar, Kashmir, refused to backtrack. "I said what millions of people here say every day. I said what I, as well as other commentators, have written and said for years. Anybody who cares to read the transcripts of my speeches will see that they were fundamentally a call for justice. "I spoke about justice for the people of Kashmir who live under one of the most brutal military occupations in the world; for Kashmiri Pandits who live out the tragedy of having been driven out of their homeland; for Dalit soldiers killed in Kashmir whose graves I visited on garbage heaps in their villages in Cuddalore; for the Indian poor who pay the price of this occupation in material ways and who are now learning to live in the terror of what is becoming a police state." After describing her meetings with people caught up in the Kashmir violence, she said: "Some have accused me of giving 'hate speeches', of wanting India to break up. On the contrary, what I say comes from love and pride. It comes from not wanting people to be killed, raped, imprisoned or have their fingernails pulled out in order to force them to say they are Indians. It comes from wanting to live in a society that is striving to be a just one. "Pity the nation that has to silence its writers for speaking their minds. Pity the nation that needs to jail those who ask for justice, while communal killers, mass murderers, corporate scamsters, looters, rapists, and those who prey on the poorest of the poor roam free." India's justice minister, M Veerappa Moily, described Roy's remarks as "most unfortunate". He said: "Yes, there is freedom of speech ... it can't violate the patriotic sentiments of the people." Moily sidestepped questions about the sedition charges, saying he had yet to see the file on the matter. Others were less restrained. One person posted a comment on the Indian Express newspaper website calling for the novelist to be charged with treason and executed. Roy made her original remarks on Sunday in a seminar – entitled Whither Kashmir? Freedom or Enslavement – during which she accused India of becoming a colonial power. Geelani also spoke at the seminar. Last week police in Indian-administered Kashmir arrested the separatist leader Masrat Alam for allegedly organising anti-India protests. A curfew was also imposed. More than 100 people are estimated to have died in violence in the valley since June amid continuing protests against Indian rule in a territory where many of Muslim majority favour independence or a transfer of control to Pakistan.
  15. Vaheguru Ji Ka Khalsa, Vaheguru Ji Ke Fateh As we all know, Sri Guru Nanak Dev Ji at young age refused to wear the Hindu sacred thread. Later, Sri Guru Tegh Bahadur Ji attained martyrdom without hesitation to defend the right of Hindus to wear their sacred thread. Freedom of religion is a basic human right and our Guru requires us to uphold this right for all. This is part of our religion - Sri Guru Tegh Bahadur's shaheedi, the teachings of Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji and our Kirpan all remind us of this duty. Hence, even though the veiling of the face is against Sikh teaching, if Muslim women wish to wear a burkha of their own free will, then they should be allowed to do so. Criminals such as bank robbers use far more practical means of concealing their identity such as face masks or balaclavas which allow full freedom of movement as opposed to a more restrictive burkha. Where identity checks are required for security purposes, e.g. airport passport checks, women wearing burkhas already have to unveil their faces. Therefore, these are not valid reasons to infringe on another's right to freedom of religion. I personally would object to a ban of the burkha as, in my opinion, such a ban would be against our Guru's teaching on protecting an individual's freedom of religion regardless of their faith. As Sikhs, we should never side with those who wish to persecute others by denying them such fundamental rights. In fact, we should be actively oppose them. Bhul chuk maaf karni ji, Vaheguru Ji Ka Khalsa, Vaheguru Ji Ke Fateh
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