Have The Sikhs In America Failed To Raise Awareness About Sikhi To Americans

[Harpreet_Singh]

From what I have seen Sikhs in America have been very pro active, organized and intelligent in their approach to educating the population about Sikhi post 9/11. (Pre 9/11 this was not a concern, and education was extremely limited) There are a few groups, namely Sikh Coalition & Saldef which have led in this regard. They have full time staff, offer internships, and are made up of lawyers, doctors and other professionals. In fact, in the United States these groups encourage anybody to report discrimination to them, and I believe they take cases on free of charge. They have had very tangible results in winning victories for Sikhs across America. They have educated numerous police forces across the country on Sikh beliefs as well, and insituted mandatory learning in these institutions. Distributed 'turban' pamphlets for several years now and several other projects.

Also, the speakers they put forth are always articulate, and well spoken, which has clearly been the case after these shootings. In fact, just a couple of days ago I saw Dan Lemon of CNN in awe of a guest from Sikh Coalition, who was amazed that the Sikh Community was being inclusive after these events, and inviting all Americans to attend Gurdwaras near them on Sunday to learn more about the faith. These groups work together and have been very strategic in the message that they send out. One that is free of anger and resonates with American values. (Equality, hard work, helping those in need no matter what race etc).

Now this does not mean that ignorance is not rampant. There are probably still parts of the U.S which are nto safe for Sikhs. This will probably NEVER change, unless there is a massive change in societal and cultural norms. It should be noted that a lot of this ignorance is just an American trait in general, there is a portion of the population that knows very little outside of the state or area they live in. Also, there are fewer areas in which a Sikh population is visible daily. Other then the coasts, and maybe Maryland, Sikhs live in small populations across the states, with a couple gurdwaras in the area, which only hold open programs a couple times a week (almost always on Sunday). So the sheer size of America also adds to the difficulty of spreading our message.

So in a nutshell, yes, Americans have been organized and done a very good job all things considered. But it is definitely a work in progress.

[TheFancyBanana]

i don't know if this is true, but isn't sikhi one of the fastest growing religions in america? i mean if it is then maybe soon there will be a lot more keshadhari sikhs around. but when i visited the US i saw most sikhs in areas like California and some in new york. the rest of america has probably never even seen a sikh, and only saw a turban on the news on Bin Ladens head. personally i think the sikhs of america are trying hard to raise awareness. but the sheer size of america, and the low population of sikhs makes this job hard.

[gurdssingh]

Sometimes I think it doesnt need us to go into too much detail. All we need to say is 'Sikhs are not Muslims', period.

If all us Sikhs went on as many sites as they could around the world ie Sikh websites, facebook pages, chat sites like this, twitter etc posting the simple words 'Sikhs are not Muslims' everything would be fixed overnight.

I'm sick of the fact that Muslims commited the 9/11 acts in America and the 7/7 acts in England and we Sikhs are taking all the flack!! Just as an individual needs to take responsibility for their own actions so do religions need to take responsibility for their own actions and history. Otherwise their is no incentive for that religion to sort out the mess it created or apologise for the mistakes it's made. It's up to the Muslims to sort out their own mess. SIkhs didn't commit 9/11 or 7/7, Muslims did. Nothing bad us going to happen to the muslims if we make it clear that we Sikhs are not Muslims as most Muslims don't wear turbans or have uncut hair anyway. So, we are not even doing the Muslims any favours by living a lie by effectively joining in this whole facade of not making it clear that we Sikhs are not Muslims.

Your statement is highly offensive to the majority of muslims in the world. The perpretators of the crimes might have said they did it in the name of Islam but alot of muslims would disagree. Just because someone belongs to a faith does NOT mean they represent it. Alot of muslims would not acknowledge the terrorists as muslims.

K s Brar was instrumental in bluestar he claims to be a Sikh who has gone on record in saying he wanted to clear the sacred Harmandir Sahib of extremists. Do you agree he was a Sikh? KPs Gill a so called sardar was he also representing Sikhs? So the actions of some people do not reflect the actions of a whole communkty. Also it's not right to say were not muslims we didn't commit those crimes, so don't blame us. What about innocent muslims? We need to condemn these type of hate crimes wholesale against anyone. Also if you go along that route someone just has to search Sikhi + terrorism and they will find alot of ammo as there is the air india bombings in the mid 80's and loads of other bs on the net about Sikhi. Remember theres less of us so be clever in your responses.

Finally, I'm sorry if I'm hurting some feelings here, but I think it's just a fact that your average mona Sikh is not going to feel as much of a need to spread awareness about who Sikhs are because they are usually not going to be confronted.

You'd be suprised many moneh have immense love for Sikhi and promote and stick up for its values ALL the time. I'am one of them.

[Kalsingh]

Also it's not right to say were not muslims we didn't commit those crimes, so don't blame us. What about innocent muslims?

Gurdssingh, please read the below response taken from studentroom about this debate. It sums up everything. (On a sidenote, I agree that people shouldn't be saying muslims did 9/11 or 7/7. They were not Muslims, but fundamentalist nutjobs.) It is imperative that we say we are not Muslim. Read this please.

Re: Sikh Temple Shootings Ignorance

Originally Posted

by

Oiseaux

Exactly. It's uncertain whether he even mistook the Sikhs for Muslims, but even if he did, it doesn't justify what he did. I don't even know why Muslims and Islam is even being brought up in the articles regarding this tragic event.

Reply:

The reason why Islam and Muslims are being bought up is because Sikhs are targeted because people think they are Muslims. By saying that they are Sikhs and not Muslim, is not implying that it is ok to attack Muslims. But it is highlighting the fact that Sikhs have consistently been targets of hate crimes since 9/11 because people confuse them with muslims. Again, that is not saying it is ok to attack innocent Muslims.

To understand this whole point, you got to look at it deeply. The thing is, Muslims on a whole are difficult to identify. If a psycho wanted to go and attack Muslims, he would have to do alot of research, find out where the mosques are, spy on them, and then confirm by asking them their name and seeing if it is Islamic etc. Sikhs with their visible turbans and beards have become

mistakenly known

in alot of the USA and some european countries to be Muslim. This has resulted in countless attacks on Sikhs since 9/11. There was a report saying that 60 per cent of Sikh school children in New York schools face harassment on a daily basis because people think they are Muslim (again, that is not condoning harassment of muslims). Numerous cases of Sikhs being beaten up, spat at, verbally abused and even killed have been documented over the last decade. All because some <banned word filter activated> thought they were muslim.

People who are going to get their 'revenge' for 9/11 and fundamentalist Islamic terrorism are going to attack all Muslims. They don't care if they are innocent or not. Now, regardless of who is being attacked, Sikh or Muslim, wouldn't everyone want these attacks to decrease. Yes. Now, if you can immediately decrease the number of hate crimes of this nature by simply stating that half (it is actually probably more) of the potential victims are not even Muslim, wouldn't that be the right thing to do? Of course it would. This explains why it is very important for the mentioning of the fact that Sikhs are not Muslims in these sorts of articles and news pieces.

I do admit, the presenters and articles should be mentioning the fact that just because the Sikhs are not Muslim, it doesn't mean it is ok to attack Muslims.

[californiasardar1]

You'd be suprised many moneh have immense love for Sikhi and promote and stick up for its values ALL the time. I'am one of them.

I don't dispute this. There are many mona Sikhs who are always among the first to step forward when there is an issue that affects our community. We should all be grateful for their contributions.

However, there are also many monas who don't come anywhere close to falling under that category.

The point is, being a mona, I think you can have a choice in some sense. Many choose to be active, many choose not to. But you're not going to be singled out the way a sabat surat singh will be.

If you are a sardar with your kesh and dhari intact, there's no way to avoid it. Even if you prefer to be apathetic, you are going to be approached by people assuming or wondering who you are and what you believe.

It's only natural that when something affects you directly, you are going to be more likely to try doing something about it.

[gurdssingh]

KalSingh, I totally understand what you and others are saying BUT don't you think sikhs should market for want of a better word, themselves uniquely. We don't need to say we are not this that or the other but SHOW the world what Sikhs are. We need to reclaim the image of a bearded turban wearer. We need a clever strategy so that when someone sees an image of a turban and beard they think Sikh not Bin Laden. Admitedtly this is very hard, I currently have no idea HOW. But is this not what we should aim for? Instead of not shifting the blame as such but trying to deflect the the attention of us and saying were innocent, we did nothing just because we look like the image of a terroirsit we are not, it wont work as people will then want to research. Guess what just like I said before they will just then say ok let me find out more and then google Sikh and Terrorism. What will they find, you know already. They will take a nation such as India's side over a religion as in western eyes India is an emerging economy who promotes itself as the worlds largest democracy e.g it was said in the Olympic commentry when the India team came out.

[Kalsingh]

I agree with you gurdssingh that we could and should be marketing ourselves as something else altogether. What you are saying about reclaiming the image of a bearded turban wearer makes perfect sense to me.

However, I still think we need to reiterate the fact that when there is an attack on Sikhs due to mistaken identity, we need and should be saying Sikhs are not Muslims (doesn't mean we condone attacks on Muslims) along with whatever else we can think of to show we are something else entirely like how you said.

I think we need to keep saying that as demonstrated in the post from studentroom I provided, it explains why we need to let hate crime perpetrators know that we are not Muslim. This will naturally make them (not the white supremacists, as they will attack anyone who is not white, regardless of religion) target 'people' less, and these people happen to be Sikhs.

People who are going to get their 'revenge' for 9/11 and fundamentalist Islamic terrorism are going to attack all Muslims. They don't care if they are innocent or not. Now, regardless of who is being attacked, Sikh or Muslim, wouldn't everyone want these attacks to decrease. Yes. Now, if you can immediately decrease the number of hate crimes of this nature by simply stating that half (it is actually probably more) of the potential victims are not even Muslim, wouldn't that be the right thing to do? Of course it would. This explains why it is very important for the mentioning of the fact that Sikhs are not Muslims in these sorts of articles and news pieces.

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The bold comment hits home don't you think?