Does Anyone Worry About Sikhi In The West

[hgsingh]

I don't want to sound extremely negative

Just want somewere were I can talk about what worries me about were the sikh ppl are going

In the west it doesn't feel good when you see someone born and raised in the west but don't know anything about are beautiful history, or what a sikh stands for, or understand the 5ks, or undertand are beautiful history

It hurts seeing girls and guys who suffer from low self esteem and feel like they have no were to go and get themselves into stupid things. Girls who get into relationships with guys whose only intentions are to use them and sleep with them and guys who isolate themselves or turn to drugs

Sikhi has some extremely powerfull. Teachings tools to apply for life and inspirational message yet this isn't getting in front of many people

Are gurdwaras filled with politics that isolates a huge chunk of the community

What can I and others do to get the beautiful teachings of sikhism in front of people and are great history in front of people

[singh135]

I worry more about Sikhi in Punjab than in the West. Fair enough there are many problems with westernisation etc but there a good Sikhi youth here, they might be few and far between but they are there. Whatever problems are here they are hundred fold in punjab + lots of coruption

[hgsingh]

I believe we need to attack issues in the west and punjab

How do we do it

[Guest KopSingh]

We need a revolution!!!! just like in the 80s/90s when the sikhs felt pushed against the walls coz of 1984, sikhs began to recognise the role of their religion in their lives again. and that transpired into the sikhs all over the world, especially canada/uk. khalistanis in uk were no nonesense, girls were running to singhs, our enemies were scared to evencough in our presence. groups like shere-e-panjab/tooti nangs etc rose to their duties. See its all about HONSLA (courage/positivity).

look at muslims after 9/11, all their girls began wearing hijabs/more ppl attending mosques, because that was a revolution for them, the world was after muslims necks, but they fought back coz of the new found honsla in their faith. in 1980 only 5% of women wore hijabs/ninja clothes in egypt, now roughly its only 10% who DONT wear hijabs/ninja clothes!

we need a revolution guys!

[KhalistaniGunMan]

We need a revolution!!!! just like in the 80s/90s when the sikhs felt pushed against the walls coz of 1984, sikhs began to recognise the role of their religion in their lives again. and that transpired into the sikhs all over the world, especially canada/uk. khalistanis in uk were no nonesense, girls were running to singhs, our enemies were scared to evencough in our presence. groups like shere-e-panjab/tooti nangs etc rose to their duties. See its all about HONSLA (courage/positivity).

look at muslims after 9/11, all their girls began wearing hijabs/more ppl attending mosques, because that was a revolution for them, the world was after muslims necks, but they fought back coz of the new found honsla in their faith. in 1980 only 5% of women wore hijabs/ninja clothes in egypt, now roughly its only 10% who DONT wear hijabs/ninja clothes!

we need a revolution guys!

we need fearless parchaar....even if we are threatened with death..we should still be spreading our message...fearless zealous educated sikhs will get us out of this mess

[DalbirSingh]

Yep do, but I think some of it is down to how terrible we kept our history and how bad of role models we are we should be living the sikhi and inspiring others. I think given time atheism or agnosticism will spread probably grandad kids won't be wearing paags.

Give it some time muslims will realise the flaws of the faith more and more given time, most of them are indian/pakistan converts them lot are majority from our families the rest of the arabs who been muslims longer want to give it up. Others are looking for something else in life. Ninja is the far way away from gorris with mini skirts with no husband or kids, looking for cheap shags when parents kicked them out the house and the heart is empty.

[JSinghnz]

There are obvious issues with sikhi in the west. I am a 22 year old male and have noticed that my generation do not seem to obide by sikhi as much as older generations. The culture in the west is different from the punjab - There is more focus on clubs, pubs, drugs, and women in the west. My personal opinion is that more should be done to teach the younger growing generations in the west about our religion. I think that one of the reasons why this is happening is simply due to a lack of understanding about our religion. I understand that there are various institutions a child may go to to recieve knowledge on sikhi such as punjabi schools and camps but parents should be the main teachers.

You are absolutely right in saying that the parents should be the main teachers but the problem is who is going to teach the parents.

The parents have very little understanding about our religion, about ours basics of doing nitnem ,doing sewa, going to the Gurudwaras regularly

and how can they be expected to teach their children.

Most parents in the west do not even teach our mother language Punjabi to their children.

If this problem is not tackled at the earliest, it would have disastrous effects on our coming generations.

[VanHelsingh]

How would you go about approaching this situation, i.e. starting a conversation with someone about why they must adhere to Sikhi and understand Sikh issues?

If you were to start talking about abstract, wholly theological topics I find people just seem to glaze over, as they get the impression they're being preached to - or "converted" without there really being a genuine dialogue between two adults.

Then there are those Sikhs who say they don't really need religion. They have great careers, are materially more than comfortable and are very happy in their lifestyles. They don't really see any value in maintaining a link to their culture or faith to a great degree, because the way they've done things up to now has reaped rewards (from their worldly perspective of course).

Its difficult but I'm sure someone with genuine knowledge would know how to begin this process.

[TaranS]

My answer to that would be parchaar definitely plus media. We need to have sikh youth models who can do a regular parchaar in both west and punjab. My thought about punjab or west is that both need equal promotion and understanding of Gurmat. It feels so enlightened and joyous to see Gursikhs in west but honestly in punjab the youth now is moving far from Guru. I don't care it's bollywood, some singers or people getting westernized, but what is important to me is how can we promote the sikh models and present their rehyat and sucess stories to one and all via media so that it can reach those who haven't got a chance to see/hear the reasons to be a Gursikh.

bhool chool maaf.

Fathe!

[Auzer]

look at muslims after 9/11, all their girls began wearing hijabs/more ppl attending mosques, because that was a revolution for them, the world was after muslims necks, but they fought back coz of the new found honsla in their faith. in 1980 only 5% of women wore hijabs/ninja clothes in egypt, now roughly its only 10% who DONT wear hijabs/ninja clothes!

we need a revolution guys!

True that. When one group is 'pushed' towards the wall ...they become aggressive. I know that many young Muslims were complete 'Westerners' before 9/11. After 9/11 when the Western civilization moved its guns towards its old,long rival (Islam) , Muslims in the West became MORE practicing. They started going to Mosques and reading about Islam..because afterall now they have to give many answer about their faith. 9/11 didn't effect Islam all over the world as such but Islam in the West was 'revived'.In almost ALL top universities in America , Muslim student association (MSA) came up and I personaly know that these guys are VERY active on the campuses. They arrange 'debates' and call Muslim speakers on the campus to give talk. Even Christian debaters like Dr William Lane Craig praised the efforts of young Muslims. Sikhs can learn a great deal from all this.

Also girls in Egypt , Lebonon , Morroco etc etc wear Hijab as their 'fashion culture'..Haven't you seen their 'Hijabs' ? They are look sexy in them hahahha....The ninja clothes (lol) are worn in Saudi Arabia...The Burka is not even a part of Islam but hijab is. The good thing happened was that Islam encountered this pressure with intellectualism and not with rigidness. Many Muslim apologists such as Shabbir Ally , Dr Jamal Badawi , Sami Zataari , Farhan Qureshi , Bassam Zwadi and Hamza Tzortis etc etc engaged crictics in debates on University campsuses. In a debate in OXFORD UNION between Muslim side and Christian/secular side ...the leader of the other side LEFT the hall and quited the debate because he was so outclassed by the brilliant Muslim debaters.Muslims WON that debate in the Oxford debating society by CLEAR margin. Such incidents give Muslims the 'intellectual confidence' that is very much need while living in the West.

My advice to Sikh brothers would be to follow the same path. Teach your children the 'logic' behind Sikhi. "Why" we Sikhs do that and "what" is the logic behind it.Just taking your children to gurdwara is NOT enough. Also don't be 'too' strict with young generation and specially with girls...it would ALWAYS backfire.