Sikhs On Peace Mission In Middle East

[Nirvair S Khalsa]

Sikhs on peace mission in Middle East

By The Jerusalem Post

Dec 27, 2005, 07:10

Earlier this week, an international delegation of 17 Sikhs led by Bhai Mohinder Singh completed an eight-day pilgrimage across Israel and the Palestinian Territories Monday, having met with Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Druze and Baha'i religious leaders in the hope of resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through ecumenical dialogue.

"Israel is a country of contrasts with the potential for being the center of peace in the world," Gurcharam Singh told In Jerusalem. "There is a huge potential for God to bring peace. The desire is there from the people." Singh lives in Birmingham, Britain but was born near Amritsar in India's northern state of Punjab - the homeland of the world's 20-million Sikhs. This week, he was part of a Sikh Diaspora mission that included men and women from London, Birmingham and Leeds in Britain as well as from Nairobi, Kenya and Adelaide, Australia.

"Our original plans were to come in the year 2000. But we were advised it wasn't safe," explained Singh alluding to the outbreak of the second Intifada.

Contrary to their expectations of violence and religious strife, Singh said, the group were overwhelmed with kindness everywhere they went. Their packed itinerary, which took them to Tabgha, Safed and Isfiya in the Galilee and Bethlehem and Tekoa in the West Bank, included meetings with former Sephardi Chief Rabbi Eliyahu Bakshi Doron, Rabbi Menachem Froman and Sheikh Abdul Salaam of Nazareth.

In Jerusalem, in an unusual gesture of spiritual good will, Sheikh Sidi Muhammad al-Jamal, secretary of the Sufi Council - who rarely grants interviews to non-Muslims - met with the delegation at his office on the Haram a-Sharif (Temple Mount) and insisted on personally serving tea to everyone, Singh recalled.

The group visited the al-Aqsa Mosque, which has been closed to non-Muslims for the last five years, and toured the Stations of the Cross along the Via Dolorosa and inside the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.

Speaking at a festive Punjabi banquet Sunday at the Kiryat Shmuel home of Jerusalem peace activist Eliyahu McLean, Bhai Sahiba Ji spoke of his being repeatedly overwhelmed with emotion and tears during the trip. There is only one universal God, he declared.

Then turning light-hearted, he said in this modern age we must communicate with one another using the Internet, and "the address is love dotcom."

Bhai Mohinder Singh, a civil engineer by profession, is the chairman of the Guru Nanak Nishkam Sewak Jatha temple in Birmingham.

An outspoken proponent of inter-religious dialogue, Mohinder Singh is a member of the European Council of Religious Leaders and an advisor to the Sikh Heritage Trust.

Recalling one of the highlights of the pilgrimage, he spoke at the farewell dinner of standing in the pouring rain at Jerusalem's Western Wall on the Sabbath eve, "being showered with God's blessings." The full-bearded Sikh men - dressed in traditional white robes and turbans - were surrounded by a fascinated crowd of Hassidim and Haredim with similarly untrimmed facial hair but wearing black. The two faith communities represent the yin and yang of common humanity and the oneness of the Divine, he said.

McLean, the director of Jerusalem Peacemakers, organized the pilgrimage together with a team of well-known figures in the holy city's interfaith and peace communities, including Rabbi David Rosen, Haj Ibrahim Abu al-Hawa and Dr. Rabbi Alon Goshen-Gotstein.

"I wouldn't want to be doing anything else," said McLean. "It's work that feeds my neshama (soul)."

The Peacemakers project also sponsors a program at Nazareth's Sufi Center where Jewish and Muslim high-school teachers study religious texts together.

Sikhism, which like Judaism encompasses both a religion and a people, is based on the 10 gurus or enlightened masters who lived in India in the 16th and 17th centuries. The relatively new religion promotes a life of virtuous action, hard work, and dedication to family and community.

Straightforward in its theology and open to the teachings of other faiths, it now ranks as the world's fifth-largest religion.

What of the future? Did the Sikh pilgrimage indeed advance the cause of Middle East peace?

"That's in God's hands," said Gurcharam Singh.

Vaheguroo Jee Kaa Khalsa, Vaheguroo Jee Kee Phateh!!!

[mann_kaum_layee_qurbaan]

[Khalsa Fauji]

Gurfateh!!

Israel is an amazing place i was there 2 months ago with my dad,so much work needs to be done to achieve peace, its going to take years. But its gives the people hope to see that non christians non muslims non jews care about the state of affairs there.

For them seeing us in bana made them wonder who we are why have we come, and to tell them about sikhi encouraged them, because the only people who can help them is themselves, but they need people like us for support.

As a gursikh is it our duty to help those people, ive never been treated with so much respect by musalmaan. It made me realise that we are all one race one people created by Akaal to serve humanity.

Then last month my mum went and she came back with the same stories of how no one except those my dad and i had come across knew about sikhs....but the amount of respect they gave us was unbelievable, it really makes one realise the Khalsa is the army of God to serve all mankind.

Now Bhai Sahib Ji has also been and you can see they treat the sikhs like royalty, it is our responsiblity to help them.

If anyone is interested in helping those in palestine in ways such as part time teaching or donating do contact me and i will give some contact info and how to get involved.

Gurfateh!!

[kurtas]

Perhaps they could now put some effort into getting expert advice on the sewa they did at the Harimandir Sahib before it is too late.

[Guru Panth Khalsa]

i agree, they need to clarify there position on the Kaar Seva at Darbar Sahib before trying to represent the whole Sikh Nation in the world.

By the way where were these lot during 1984? wasnt there a need for peace in Punjab and Delhi november 1984? where were these lot? hmmmm

Do any Khalsa Panthic programmes happen at the dera in birmingham UK these lot run? any at all?

how many more historical gurdwaras will this group go and ruin?

where did he get that title "Bhai Sahib"? in one i article i read it as "Sant Baba Mohinder Singh"

these people give me jokes a person i spoke to from the birmingham area didnt use the name kaur in her name, i asked why? she said soho road wale baba ji said not to, so he's a Guru now too....

but seriously where were they in 1984? don't the victims, orpans, widows, of 1984 and after need support?

[Khalsa Fauji]

Gurfateh!!

All these questions you ask have already been asked before and im sure they have been answered,

this thread is about palestine, no one is saying that they are representing the panth, but jus a quick question why can't they...? Bhai Sahib Ji is im sure more rehitdhari than anyone on here who are you to say whether they represent the panth or not. End of the day they are amritdhari, they have jus as much right to represent the panth as anyone else.

In this part of the world Sikhi is non existant, i know because i've experianced it. I think its good that international paper have these experiances of sikhs, as its doing us good.

Feel free to object but you will need solid ground to do so.

Bhul Chuk Maaf!

Gurfateh!!

[gupt_paapi]

lol as soon as this gurdwara jatha is mentined the kar seva is also mentioned..

jsut lyk wenever guru gobind singh ji is mentioed dasam granth debate mysteriously starts agen

VHY?!

[Guru Panth Khalsa]

ok me will ask again

1) but seriously where were they in 1984? don't the victims, orpans, widows, of 1984 and after need support?

2) a person i spoke to from the birmingham area didnt use the name kaur in her name, i asked why? she said soho road wale baba ji said not to, so he's a Guru now too....

3) where did he get that title "Bhai Sahib"? in one i article i read it as "Sant Baba Mohinder Singh"

4) Do any Khalsa Panthic programmes happen at the dera in birmingham UK these lot run? any at all?

5) how many more historical gurdwaras will this group go and ruin?

6) where were these lot during 1984? wasnt there a need for peace in Punjab and Delhi november 1984? where were these lot?

7) they need to clarify there position on the Kaar Seva at Darbar Sahib, before they do more damage to it than the indian army did in june 1984!!

Bhai Sahib Ji is im sure more rehitdhari than anyone on here who are you to say whether they represent the panth or not

you must be a Guru to tell if he is more RehitDhari than "ANYONE" on here, who am i to say whether they represent the Panth or not? i'm a member of the PANTH the are representing, and i would not like them to represent me, for the controvery they caused during the "bezti" play, then the Ram Katha programme by RSS they sponsored, then the statue of nehru they built in delhi!

[Guru Panth Khalsa]

ok me will ask again

1) but seriously where were they in 1984? don't the victims, orpans, widows, of 1984 and after need support?

2) a person i spoke to from the birmingham area didnt use the name kaur in her name, i asked why? she said soho road wale baba ji said not to, so he's a Guru now too....

3) where did he get that title "Bhai Sahib"? in one i article i read it as "Sant Baba Mohinder Singh"

4) Do any Khalsa Panthic programmes happen at the dera in birmingham UK these lot run? any at all?

5) how many more historical gurdwaras will this group go and ruin?

6) where were these lot during 1984? wasnt there a need for peace in Punjab and Delhi november 1984? where were these lot?

7) they need to clarify there position on the Kaar Seva at Darbar Sahib, before they do more damage to it than the indian army did in june 1984!!

[>Bikramjit Singh<]

The reason they have no interest in 1984 victims is that there is just no publicity in it. If tomorrow they announce they are going to help the 1984 widows and orphans they will get their photos and their names mentioned in only the Punjabi papers. But by being in Israel.. btw no such place as Palestine at the moment, is that they will get their names in the Israeli and International papers. For publicity conscious organisations this is what is important.