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Dastar Day Made It On The Bbc News


Paneer Monster
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the intent of this thread was to highlight video footage and photos of the event :angry2:

anyways, the independent has a piece of the pie!...

source: http://www.independe...ts-2360886.html

Sikhs protest at 'disrespect' of turban searches at airports

sikhs-EPA_651421a.jpg

By Ellen Branagh

Monday, 26 September 2011

Thousands of Sikhs filled Parliament Square in London yesterday for a protest against the "intimidation and disrespect" of their faith at European airports. Many Sikhs are asked to remove their turbans at airports, or have them searched in what they consider to be disrespectful ways.

The turban, known as a Dastar, is regarded as an important part of the Sikh identity.

Parliament Square was filled with a sea of different-coloured head-dresses as thousands of people came from across the country for the rally. The protest, organised by the Sikh Channel, a cable TV station based in Birmingham and London, was held simultaneously with others in Brussels, Rome and Madrid.

Amar Deep Singh, from the Sikh Channel, travelled from Derby for the protest. He said: "We are used to the Government being tolerant, Britain has been very tolerant. But after 9/11 we are being mistaken as other communities who wear turbans. We're being told to take them off, almost as if it's as easy as a mobile phone. But we are not supposed to, it's a religious symbol."

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Correct Friday's meeting with the Italian Embassy had nothing to do with the TV Channels, except for the Italians to communicate they would not be turning up at the 'awareness' event on Sunday and the various letters they had received from the Sikh Channel - which had changed in tune. I am not at home, but someone text me to say both channels are in Rome and at least one showed the Sikhs comimg out of a pre-meeting with the IHC.

IHC had tried to stop any media release on Friday, but certain of us pushed ahead with the release.

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Well done to everyone, UK Sikh Nation and other European Countries pulled it together once again, got enough coverage through the media, number of people who turned up was good so do not need to compare with the June Programme. Regardless of the negativity by the second media channel and the organisation leaders who didnt turn up it was a message - it still can be achieved without the so called Panthic Leaders. The Sikh Community played its part towards the Dastar Campaign collectively.

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Friday's meeting with the Italian Embassy in London had NOTHING to do with the TV channels - despite what one has been reporting. The press release on Friday and its appearance in Daily Ajit at the weekend was to prevent the Indian Govt taking credit today.

There is much to share about how to work successfully behind the scenes when there is an anit-Sikh lobby. The tv channels have just not helped and put us back several years in their own battle. Some who should know better were drawn in.

The Sikh Federation (UK) has been working behind the scenes for nearly two months regarding the awareness event, alongside the Sikh Council UK, but no one is prepared to hear the truth.

Those running channels must be accountable for their actions

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OK DISCUSS POLITICS SOMEWHERE ELSE. THIS TOPIC IS NOT FOR POLITICS AS I HAVE STATED BEFORE. -the focus of this topic is the (positive) impact of d day in the media.

benti to admins: please remove the politcal posts from this topic. there are so many other topics regarding dastar day for politics to be discussed.

the atmosphere was so amazingg... no hatred no bickering just pyar and this was seen so many times on dastar day. i truely am greatfull to all sangat that contributed. Good to see attandance from inspirations like Ravi Singh Khalsa Aid and Bhai Manvir Singh amongst others.All those who attended truely do love the panth.

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in the above picture you can see a singhni on the left distrubiting langar in containers. this singhni along with others persuaded their gurdwara in leicester to arange a coach to attend dastar day. This was after the gurdwara in question cancelled their coaches. unfortionatly i dont know her name but i do know shes young, and from the moment she arived to the moment she left, she had taken it apon her self to do non stop seva wherever she could. when ever i saw her she was doing something different: holding signs, distributing langar, distributing sweets to the kids, collecting rubbish, educating the public as to why the sikhs regard the dastar as sacred, distributing paani.....

pyar could be seen again and again in different forms throughout the sangat and throughout the event. Definatly one of the best Sikhi events i have ever been to.

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What might be good in galvanizing the general Sikh public might actually set us back vis-a-vis 3rd party actors (e.g. Italian govt). What might seem like short term victory or publicity might set us back over the longer term, if we have happened to upset the Italian govt.

I think the point the Jathebandiaan are making is (as Jagtar Singh seems to suggest) we need to work out what we consider as success, and how we measure it? Also, how do other minorities go about achieving their rights? Can we learn from them? Importantly, how do the Jews achieve their influence?

Strategically, is what we want a BBC headline or a change in EU law or govt policy? If the latter, which i suspect is the case, what's the best way to achieve it? What are the impediments to us achieving success? Will it play into our enemy's hands (I.e., anti- Sikh groups such as RSS or Congress Party) if we play all our cards in public so that they know what we're up to?

We need to wise up on our game if we think protests/rallies alone will win us our rights. Sometimes, they may be counterproductive in certain cases. Sometimes we need to trust the Singhs that are, and have been for 25 years, at the forefront of the battle so that we don't repeat the sane mistakes over and again.

If we need to galvanize our community behind a cause, then we need to find alternative effective ways of spreading awareness.

Perhaps the major lesson for the Jathebandiaan is to re-connect and engage with grassroots Sangat (much like political parties across the world aim to do) so that they appreciate all the effort and hardwork that the Jathebandiaan put in, and so that they understand the benefit of approaching things more strategically?

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On a personal level, I believe D Day created a new empowering feeling for thousands of Sikhs who have otherwise never involved themselves in standing up for our social/community rights before. It was a great day and Sikhs left believing in themselves for a change. There were no stigmas attached. Those who didn't attend missed out! Those who did attend feel like their part of a new bigger picture.

Jagtar Singh, with all due respect, the big lessons are that the Jathebhandis need to build their own clout in the Sikh community. For the benefit of the bigger picture I hope the SFUK or SCUK go out there and build some solid bridges with the Sikh community and not sit back still naively expecting to command from the Ivory Towers.

Apologies to Paneer Monster for bringing up the political card. You're 100% right. It was a symbolic event and will be something we won't forget despite the gulit trips from the same jathebhandis.

Lets look forward!

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