Over-Hyped Texts Regarding Attacks On Gurdwaras

[Pyara]

Now that things have calmed down, I think the issue of the over-hyped texts that were being sent around needs to be seriously addressed.

• The worst was the hoax text about the "fire bombing of Lozells Gurdwara in Birmingham" which resulted in cars leaving London and Singhs leaving other West Midlands Gurdwaras or areas which needed security to rush down to Lozells. Whoever sourced that specific text was plain irresponsible and could have potentially ignited something a lot worse. It was not a Panthic thing to do and if the text can be traced back then the originator should be spoken to.
• The other text was about the "100 Black youth planning a specific attack on Seven Kings Gurdwara" in Ilford which allegedly came from "Scotland Yard". This resulted in an inappropriate portion of Singhs being deployed to the other Gurdwaras as Singhs ended up convincing themselves Seven Kings Gurdwara was going to be attacked that night because of the texts being forwarded.
• Others included planned petrol bombings of Gurdwaras by EDL and other specific Street Gangs.

Whilst there's no denying Sikhs should always remain vigil, forwarding unsubstantiated texts only caused more chaos and uncertainty. We need to be sure we know what we are sending out in text messages beofre we distribute. It only takes a matter of minutes for a text message to compound out, especially during tense times.

[EDLSingh]

Please see EDL's response to rumors of this nature.

This PR was released within hours of these rumors

http://englishdefenceleague.org/an-attack-on-a-place-of-worship-is-an-attack-on-all-of-the-community/

[SantLUCIFER]

It's always best to contact the Gurdwaras directly, they can then say if the rumours are true or not.

[Pyara]

It's always best to contact the Gurdwaras directly, they can then say if the rumours are true or not.

The funniest thing was that committee members of Gurdwara Singh Sabha Seven Kings started sending out the text about "100 Black youth planning a specific attack on Seven Kings Gurdwara - Info from Scotland Yard" themselves as they started receiving them. They started panicking believing the texts which only added to the chaos when they started sending them out to others.