A good outcome.
The following article was headlined in SikhNet over the weekend and will be repeated in all the major Sikh Press shortly:
Sikh for Life…………………
Once upon a time a man found a diamond in the street, he rubbed it down and not knowing the true value of the jewel he found he decided to take it to market to sell. After some bargaining he sold his jewel to a trader for a few pennies. The trader immediately resold the diamond on for millions. The moral of this short parable is that some of our Sikh youths do not know the true value of the Sikhi, a gift bestowed to them by Waheguru Ji at birth, instead they are selling this treasure for pennies. Such is the story of Sikh Youth who are converting to Islam whilst being led astray at University.
Well one could argue that they chose Islam over Sikhism as there is no compulsion in Islam. You are free to choose your faith after all. But as we shall see, there is a well organized campaign to recruit Sikhs and non-Sikhs at universities, which involves in some cases intimidation and harassment. One should ask if there is no compulsion in Islam then why does the Quran state, ‘and if any believe not in Allah and his messenger we have prepared for those who reject Allah a blazing hell’ (Holy Quran 48:13) or ‘Whoever changes his Islamic religion, then kill him’ (Hadith vol9,p45)
Sikhism is the youngest religion among the world religions, and at times books do not devote a chapter to it, and people are not aware of the principles and practices of such a faith. The religion was founded by Guru Nanak Dev Ji (1469-1589) and his mission was to bring out the fundamental truth of all religions and put an end to religious conflict. He preached the Universal brotherhood of all human beings and Oneness of God. The deepest truth of purest Sufi traditions is expressed in Guru Nanak’s love of the Beloved, is present in Shabad Guru so why look elsewhere? In Guru Gobind Singh Ji’s words: I wish you all embrace one creed and follow one path, rising above all differences of religion as now practiced…
Faith and religion are strong unshakeable beliefs in something especially without proof or evidence, and people are born into their own faiths, and society respect them to hold on to such endowed faith their principles or beliefs. What happens when such status quo is interfered by others to convert into another faith: confusion, disruption and distress; the upheavals are phenomenal. The entire family is catapulted into disequilibrium and the ripples in the pond have its repercussions. There are telling stories as anecdotal by the affected person and personal accounts of the afflicted bring forth the associated distress and the readjustment to society; the implications are grave.
As Guru Amar Das Ji in Ramkali Mahalla Teja said in his own words:
Jey ko Gur te vemukh hovai bin Satgur mukat na paavai.
Paavai mukat nah or-thai koee, puchhoh bibekiya jaaey.
Anek jooni bharm aavai, vin Satgur mukat na paaey.
Phir mukat paaey lag charni, satgur sabd sunaaey
Kahai Nanak veechaar dekhoh, vin Satgur mukat na paaey
(If someone turns their back on the Guru,
He does not get salvation without the True Master.
He does not attain salvation even anywhere else.
You can ask the wise all over.
He wanders through countless births,
Yet without the True Guru he is not liberated
At last he finds salvation at Guru’s feet or charan.
And the True Guru recites to him the Word
Says Nanak, rethink to realize.
There is no salvation without the True Guru.)
Had he known this and the Muslim faith had an understanding of other faith, there should have been mutual respect and tolerance fro each other; no attempts should be even thought about as this is sinful and let others live peacefully within the ambit of the faith. The message across to the convert is to give him the insight of this and salvage a seemingly an intractable situation, as perceived by the family and reinstate him back to his faith and unity with himself and family, rather been lost in the doldrums and turbulence of society.
I urge the readers to read the telling distressing account of what has happened and are struggling with the challenge and hopefully with all the recent mushrooming of support, salvage the appalling situation of the family. The fortunate ones have realized it and have returned to the Sikh faith for love, naam simran and selfless sewa to the common humanity but others the unfortunate few will slip away; it will be too late before they suffer abuse and the damage will be inflicted both psychologically and physically, as evidenced in the recent past.
The following are extracts of true personal stories from a website www.sikh4life.co.uk:
a) Mother of Ex-Sikh Student at Kingston University who converted to Islam
22nd July 2006: A mother's intuition sometimes tells you something is not right. I was due to go to a religious function with friends and for some reason I kept coming back into the house and my eldest son was very jittery and nervous and it just didn't sit well with me. I asked him what was the matter and he said nothing, he was very nervous and said, "Go mum I'm fine" and he shut the door of his room which sent alarm bells. I re-opened the door to look inside, there was a mat on the floor and I just knew, I had a gut feeling that he was praying. I asked him if he was praying. He got angry and defensive and told me it's nothing forget it. I phoned my father and took my son to see him, he went very reluctantly. There he told us that he had converted to Islam.
At this stage, I took advice from anyone who was prepared to help. I went to the Sikh University in Harrow. There they questioned him and he had no answers to their questions. He said that the only way to go to Allah was through Mohammed.
Through the Sikh University I met numerous educated Baptized Sikhs who agreed to talk to him and his Muslim brothers. His Muslim brothers came to the meetings and badgered, abused and bullied the Sikh boys about their beliefs. Everytime my son was asked questions about his conversion, he had no answers. He would run back to the mosque to find out the answers to their questions. It was clear that he went into this religion with his eyes shut and he was being controlled by his Muslim brothers.
At that time my relationship with my son was intolerable. I cried night after night, ran out of my house hoping that a car would hit me. I would crawl on my knees and beg him to consider the consequences with an elderly grandfather and heartbroken fiancé. He would just sit there like a stone and say come mum I will show you the light. He would never give me eye contact and he would be always being living on nervous energy, he was always conversing with his Muslim brothers who gave him support. He had his henchmen dictating his every action and every move.
My son said that in Islam we respect Allah, then your mother, then your mother, then your mother.... so why was he causing me so much pain.
They picked on my son's vulnerability i.e., away from home attending university, grandmother's sudden death and he needed someone to turn to. I could not be there for him as I was looking after my sick father and other children at home. He got into debates about death with his University Muslim brothers and they would take him into meetings to answer his questions. All the time he was told not to talk about these meetings, even with his girlfriend. From there they gave him leaflets and brochures to educate himself which was kept hidden. Later these Muslim brothers invited him to play football in their teams.
He was engaged and due to get married in 2007. It turned out that he told his fiancé and tried to convert her and told her to keep it quiet and not to tell me until he was ready. The hardest and most painful thing was to invite his fiancé’s parents to the house and tell them that my son had converted to Islam. I have never felt so low and this devastated the whole family, especially my elderly father who was looking forward to the wedding. My father wished that he had died instead of having to witness this betrayal. In relation to my mother's death, my father commented,’ thank God she did not have to witness this'.
I have not given up hope, I always believe in my faith. I visited the local Gurdwaras (Gurdwara Guru Singh Sabha, in Alice Way-Hounslow and Park Avenue - Southall and Radio Station (Desi Radio) and I felt the Gurdwaras let me down because they were too busy making money and running for elections. I do feel that I have let my son down and I wasn't there when he needed me the most and I do believe that no mother or family should ever, ever have to go through this. He has repeatedly told me to convert. I get scared to send him anywhere with my youngest son as numerous times he has tried to educate him.
He has transformed from being warm and loving to being cold and egotistical. He gloats when he hears that another Sikh has been converted. As a Muslim boy in a Sikh family he wants to save us so that we will go to heaven with him and not hell without him.
I felt suicidal I wanted him dead and kept telling him that I wished he had died at birth so I wouldn't have to go through this. I tried to hold the family together but everything was falling apart and every look he gave me and every action he took was like a knife in my heart. I believe this is hell and my safe world blew up and got destroyed by evil. I felt that my loving, gentle giant turned into a brainwashed robot. If this is his version of love to his mother then I do wish that Allah can have him. My last hope is my daily prayers and Ardas to return my son back into my bosom, and pray that he would understand and return to the path of Sikhi.
b) Ex-Male Sikh Student converted at Kings College London but later reverted back to Sikhi
When I was eighteen I left the security of my old school and parents, and started University with countless others in the same boat. Along with the demands of my course came all the usual traits of University life: new friends, new surroundings and more time to spend how I wished.
I soon made some friends on my course with whom I began to spend much time. Outside of lectures we would chat casually, but eventually the conversations progressed onto subjects such as my beliefs, and my views on the world and its creation.
We would spend hours debating what little I knew about Sikhism, but the discourse would always conclude with them belittling me, as I did not have enough knowledge to justify my views. As I had not given much thought to religion before, this confused me greatly, but it also prompted me to start questioning myself, my purpose in life and what I actually believed in.
Just as the time I spent with my new friends increased, so did the influence of their religion on me. I started friendships with the girls, and began visiting their place of worship and reading their holy book in an attempt to fulfill the questions which they had prompted me to ask myself. I was led to believe that by converting to their faith, I would benefit greatly and enjoy many advantages.
Despite losing much contact and becoming very distant from my family, I eventually told my parents that I was considering conversion, which upset them greatly. In order to try and answer the questions I had been asking myself, I began reading books on Sikhi. From within that pile of books, I discovered one jewel; Japji Sahib, which answered all the questions that I had been asking myself on the subjects of God, the world’s creation- and more.
In my halls at University, I was awoken early at amrit vela one morning I started reading Japji Sahib, and did not stop. The state of bliss and peace which I was exposed to was better than any drug, party or club, and completely incomparable to anything which I had come across before.
From then on, I wanted to experience all the things which I had discovered in Japji Sahib practically. As I had already tried to live the lifestyle as a member of another religion, I now wanted to try and live my life as a true Sikh. I wanted to practice my own faith before deciding on another, as I felt that it was a duty which I owed to my ancestors and all the martyrs in Sikhism.
Slowly with this intention, every day became a continuous exploration into Sikhism. Inevitably I started spending more time with Gursikhs, which began to enhance my own spirituality. My ‘friends’ at University had tried to convert me on intellectual grounds, with the only selfish intention that my conversion would benefit them in the hereafter. However, I felt that these attempts at conversion were an unnecessary interference against Divine plans. The sadh sangat which I found through Sikhism not only gave me their time, but also their unconditional love. Guru Granth Sahib Ji states that ‘without this (Sat Sangat), people are stained with filth and pollution.’ (Raag Maajh, Guru Raam Daas Ji, Ang 95.)
Subsequently I visited the Gurdwara more often, and enjoyed the free food available in the langar regularly! On one particular occasion, the kirtan (singing of Gurbani) which I heard left me in a state of indescribable shanti (inner peace).
Eventually, the visits to the Gurdwara became a daily occurrence so that I could fulfill my obligation to do darshan of my Guru; the Guru Granth Sahib Ji. Many Gursikhs had encouraged me not to cut my hair, but I only wanted to stop if it was within my own will to do so. However, during the exam period, I had had no need to cut it, and had grown a pony-tail and beard. To my surprise, when the exams finished, I was offered some work over the summer despite my appearance.
At these crossroads I had the option to either spend money for a dodgy haircut at the barbers, or to tie a dastar as Guru’s roop for the first day of my new job. I did not know which direction to follow, so I went to the Gurdwara. In the presence of Guru Granth Sahib Ji, I felt the Guru’s hand on my head, and started crying; I had never experienced so much pyar. The next day I tied my dastar and went to work. The games of intellect which had been played on my mind a few months before proved to be futile, as I learned that the essential base of religion was simply love.
c) Ex-Female Sikh Student harassed and intimidated at Luton University by Islamists
I took one look back at my bedroom, closed my eyes shut and asked Waheguru to guide me in the right direction then stepped into the passenger seat of Dad’s car.
The journey of my first ever day of moving out of my parents house to a life of independence, a life of standing on my own two feet. My heart was pounding with part butterflies in the stomach and part happiness…
Got to the flat – moved everything in – the second day I was on the phone to my parents crying to bring me back home – That’s one thing probably almost every student does.
Before I got to University I had just discovered the one thing that changed my thinking, my attitude, my way of life for ever – I discovered Sikhism. The Advanced Level in Sikhism was a God send for me. I became attached to reading up on every resource on Sikhism that I could get my hands on: Gurbani reading, History, Stories, shabads. anything. I became ultimately in love with God, Guru and Sikhism. The last 21 years of my life seemed like nothing up until now. My parents were shocked on my change, but I didn’t realise how I’d been swept off my feet and how hungry I was to meet God.
So now at university I still continued to research Sikhism. I went to London Society meetings not knowing anyone or anything about them. I went to any local kirtan and was practically at the Gurdwara every other evening to listen to the katha and kirtan.
I came across just ONE Gursikh, not only in my course but within the WHOLE University. I felt as if I was the only Sikh at the University and this made me feel slightly upset at times. I was used to seeing the group of Islamsists walking around the campus and discussing religion, I saw Hindus and Christians but no Sikhs….?
The next day I was at the Student Union discussing the opening of a Sikh society and filling in paper work. Mr Singh Ji (my fellow student) and I now promoted the new Sikh society to others of the university; there were other Sikhs whom we had not yet met.
Soon after this the Islamic Society became aware of the new Sikh Society and President (me). From that day on I was receiving hoax calls from unknown numbers and getting indirectly harassed from Muslims who were threatened by the Sikh society.
We did not retaliate but kept our heads up continuing to make posters and organising regular meetings. With an amazing turnout of 30 Sikh students it was obvious that Guru Ji had this all in place well. We were so happy and held a bigger event later in the year. Our posters were continually pulled off the walls, ripped up and either left on the floor or thrown in the bin. But yet we continued producing posters and sticking them up around the campus.
It got worse when I started getting a black car following me home and to University every day. It was scary and I had doubts at one point of whether “I should continue what I had started?” But for some reason I felt compelled and even stronger to continue the Sikh Society and build my network. The aim became to unite Sikhs within and around Luton.
This way the Sikh Society grew and we got more problems with Muslims in Luton. We had threatening emails, Muslims men would come to our Sikh Society meetings and sit at the back in disguise (wearing a Kara) observing the content of our discussions. They would attempt to talk to the female youth at the Sikh societies. The Muslim students would frequently stop me after lectures and challenge me to questions and ask me what I found in opening a Sikh society? I just smiled and replied with “I have found my life and my path”.
I think that at the end it was the unshakable faith which they witnessed within me that scared them and made them want to put their guards up. They would try anything to distract us from the Sikh Society: send Muslim boys and girls to make friendships with us and other members of the Sikh Society but by that time I had already warned others as a caution. They would pester Sikh youth for going out for drinks and parties and say things like “hey sister/brother come to lunch with us- its on me” – notice the words “sister/brother” attempting to sound like they are the same as you. This is yet another tactic used to make you feel like your part of a huge family- their family. They will also try to be too familiar with you another warning signal!
Obviously during all this happening I did not tell my parents as they would naturally get worried and encourage me to keep out of it all.
But throughout all this, throughout the three years at Luton University of ups and downs there was a driving force behind us which kept us continuing the sewa that we could. WE DID NOT GIVE UP. I was scared yes, I was harassed, I was followed, I was threatened and confused but we continued the Sikh Society.
That driving force was perseverance, motivation and most importantly it was the love for Gurbani which grew inside me stronger and stronger just like a fountain over filling with water.
I think now that we were lucky and I realise that wherever we go in life Guru is with us ‘ang sung’ he always preserves our honour. I met people from all walks of life during my time away, good and bad, that’s something we all go through - its how we maintain ourselves during that time which is important.
60-70% of all female students who go to study at the University of Luton or Bradford have either returned home converted to Islam or have returned home a different person. It’s so tough to survive the world of conversions and I can proudly say that having returned home after 3 years at Luton University I did not convert, but returned home stronger. It’s much harder for girls in a way as we can sometimes be vulnerable and those whom lack knowledge on Sikhism are especially weak targets. Having learnt this I self-taught myself and I advise all other young girls and guys to do the same. Every religion is lovely in its own way and we should be open- minded to all of them. However before you get taken into another religion or asked questions be prepared, learn about your own faith, dig deep and keep digging like I did until you find your answers! You’ll find a treasure that no other person in the world can offer you.
It is very difficult to assess the actual number of conversions but as an estimate one would expect this to be several hundred each year. In contrast the number of people converting to Sikhism 10-20 each year.
Every cloud has a silver lining. a small group of Sikhs set up the Sikh4Life Team. Their aim was to ensure that the lessons of this case were not forgotten and that their combined experiences could be used to help other Sikhs by raising awareness and answering the key challenges posed by Islamic recruiters.
A new website sikh4life.co.uk was launched on 12 February 2007. The website has been well received with over 1,200 hits in the first 3 weeks of launch. The founding members of Sikh4Life state that they measure their success, not by the number of hits but by the number of souls they are able to save. ‘Even if we save one soul, it will have all been worth it’.
‘Setting up the website has been a challenge. We had to search very deep for the answers to the questions being thrust upon our youth. A pitch was made for funding at Norwood Hall to the major Gurdwaras (including Singh Sabha Havelock Rd & Ramgharia Oswald Rd to name a few) but none came forward. After this setback, two private donors came forward enabling the website to be launched.
The Sikh4Life team believes the key to this problem is the lack of religious education in the language which kids can relate to - English. When they carried out a straight forward sample they found that approximately 20% of children learnt about Sikhism through their grandparents, 80% learned from School. What was interesting was that no one mentioned Gurdwaras or parents.
Akwal Singh comments, ‘when I heard about this case I decided to run Sikh Study courses in English so that our children grew up as balanced individuals confident in the teachings of their faith and able to answer the challenges that lie ahead. You need to make education fun and I say to my children if someone asked you to convert to Islam, what would you reply? They are taught to say, ‘why would I trade my Ferrari for a Ford ? That’s what I mean by fun, children know that you never see Ferrari selling their cars but Ford have to - when you have the best you don’t have to go out there selling it.’
The principle is very simple: the Montessori philosophy teaches us that the child’s mind is like a sponge for knowledge. What they learn as a child will be with them for all their lives. The main aim is to get these children to fall in love with their religion and sadly, not to go astray.
Sikhism is such a beautiful religion/faith that offers a life of peace, meaning and divine inner serenity/bliss; it shows the path to self realization of the Akaal Purukh. Sikh families should devote and spend quality time with their children inculcating and nurturing the basic principles/ practice of the faith, its colourful history and the sacrifices and austerities by the Great Gurus and who left us an amazing spiritual heritage which we should be all proud of. The Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji has all the answers for human problems and the Sikh community should be aware of any subtle coercion or manipulation by certain religious groups geared to convert others by monetary means. The personal experiences as recounted above is a clear examples of what happens when someone persevere in the beliefs and by doing so, achieve peace, boosting the driving force and going stronger minute by minute and face up to any challenges in life or else they will slip away into oblivion. One has to have deep faith in their religious belief system; good and bad is in every society; it is the focus on the good aspects that needs to be taken on board and turning that around in a positive spirit. The richness of Sikhism is there, as departure from the faith has anecdotal evidence of severe sexual, physical, mental/ emotional abuse. The hidden treasure is at our own doorsteps and from personal experience, pointless looking elsewhere; be focused and do not get distracted. The strength is in uttering the shabad Waheguru and you will see its miracle and glamour that will reflect in you. Just experience it by immersing in its Naam!
For more detailed understanding of these issues please log onto www.sikh4life.co.uk
Please keep an eye out for this and pass details of this website to all Students/Activists (apologies for the obvious promotion)
Lastly has anyone ever managed to video an Islamic recruitment meeting ? I would really like to add this to You Tube and sikh4life
