News & Update

The Sikh Temple of Spokane was vandalized by a man who mistakenly thought the temple was a mosque and was affiliated with the ISIS terror organization.

Gurjeet Singh Aujla, the priest at the temple, said the temple’s Sikh holy book was defaced and pages were ripped from it.

“No hate will be tolerated in Spokane County,” Knezovich said at an afternoon press conference at the temple’s community building.

Jeffrey C. Pittman, 44, was arrested Thursday morning inside the temple after a short altercation with officers. He was wearing no clothing and holding a ceremonial sword from the temple, sheriff’s officials said.

Pittman was convinced the temple was a mosque connected with ISIS, responsible for the brutal terrorist attacks of Iraq and Syria.

As reported, About $30,000 in damage was done to the interior of the temple.

“Our hearts are broken,” said Subarna Nagra, a member of the temple.

“Sikh values are intrinsic to who we are,” Condon said.
Higgins said, “This not who the people of the Valley are…I hope justice will be swift.”

The incident comes at a time when hate rhetoric has gotten more heated across the U.S.
“I am definitely hurt,” she said. “At the same time, we are a compassionate community.”

Actions like this are indicative of growing Islamophobic sentiment across our nation, where there has been a steady increase in backlash and hate crimes targeting Muslim, Sikh, South Asian and Arab communities.

~ Source: www.spokesman.com

After the directions of the Supreme Court, the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC) has constituted a high-level committee comprising five members that will give look into the suggestions for imposing ban on Sikh jokes.

The committee is headed by Justice (retd) HS Bedi. The members are Justice (retd) YM Iqbal, Pawan Kumar Verma, Rajya Sabha member, MP Bejbaruah and Dr Raghubir Singh, retired IAS officers.

The Supreme Court directed the DSGMC to submit suggestions in six weeks. At the time of constituting the committee, Manjit appealed to the people, especially the Sikh Sangat, to send their suggestions on a designated email address dsgmc.guidelines@gmail.com till March 5, 2016.

The DSGMC was opposing jokes showing Sikhs in bad light because some people were making racial attacks not only on Sikhs, but all ethnic groups and communities only to earn money.

The DSGMC was not against any particular person, but against those who were writing and circulating jokes on Sikhs.

The five-member high-powered committee would give suggestions within the purview of the Indian legal system and also keep religious ethos in mind.

After the Supreme Court’s directions school children belonging to the Sikh families also supported as they were also victimised due to racial jokes.

~ Source: Tribune

Khushbir Kaur was always destined to be a race walker. At the tender age of nine and a half months, the girl from Rasulpur Kalan village near Amritsar gave her parents a glimpse of her precocious talent as she walked her very first steps.

20 years later, the world came to know of her gift as she won the silver medal in 20km women’s race walk at the 2014 Incheon Asian Games. With that, Kaur engraved her name into the record books as the first ever Indian woman to capture a race walking medal at the Asiad.

The timing of 1.33.07 seconds helped her better her own national record and shed light on a rising brigade of Indian walkers making rapid strides on the international stage. Most of the credit for this incredible development goes to specialist Russian coach Alexander Artsybashev under whose meticulous planning, the young bunch is thriving.

2014 – A year to remember for Khushbir

Khushbir, especially, has been a standout performer in this group. 2014 was her annus mirabilis as she consistently kept on improving the national record at different tournaments. At the Asian Race Walking Championship in March, she grabbed the bronze and lowered the national record. Just two months later, the ever-improving Kaur broke the national record once more at the World Race Walking Cup in Taicang.

Khushbir’s intellect, diligence and dedication to her craft were what moulded her into an elite performer who can give the top medal contenders a run for their money. No doubt Artsybashev has high hopes from his ward and has lauded her tactical acumen.

“Race walking is all about tactics, experience and intellect. Khushbir is very smart that way, she has a man’s brain in a girl’s head,” the Russian has said about Kaur.

Just two months after turning 21, the young walker put up a demonstration of her maturity and confidence at the Incheon Asian Games. It was a show of quiet defiance from the Rasulpur Kalan girl who was warned twice during the race for lifting her legs. Yet she carried on unperturbed and raced into history.

Perhaps tackling difficulties came natural to her which is why it cannot knock her off her perch. After her father passed away when she was just seven, her mother took up multiple small jobs and became the family’s sole bread-earner. That adversity prepared her for the bigger battles ahead.

At the 2008 junior nationals, the teenager completed her race barefoot as the family could not even afford a pair of walking shoes then.

But despite the hardships, it was her mother’s steadfast determination that pushed her into the world of sports and encouraged her to reach where she is today. It didn’t take a lot of time for her talent to get noticed.

In 2007 at the age of 14, the Punjabi girl emerged as the state champion in the 3,000 metre race walk. Her graph kept soaring in the domestic junior circuit, especially after joining forces with the former Asian Championship medallist, Baldev Singh. It was under his tutelage that she started impressing on the international circuit as well and clinched the silver medal at the 2010 Youth Asian Games and the bronze at the 2012 Asian Junior Championships.

After her 2014 Asian Games glory, her target was always qualifying for the biggest sports event – the Olympics. And she accomplished her mission at the IAAF Race Walking Challenge in Rio Maior, Portugal in early 2015. She met the qualifying criterion of 1:35 by clocking 1:33:58 that fetched her a 13th place finish.

The 2015 World Championships, which happened just a few months later, was Khushbir’s first global assignment since the Asiad.

She was, however, seven minutes away from her personal best and could only end up 37th. The burden of expectations definitely played a part there.

This Anglian Medal-Hunt Company-supported athlete will surely be better prepared when she heads to Rio in six months’ time. In a discipline that is dominated by the Russians and the Chinese, Khushbir Kaur is a whiff of fresh air and is truly leading the revolution of athletics in India.

Source- sportskeeda.com

Simratpal Singh, an exemplary soldier, subjected to “extraordinary, targeted, repetitive testing. A federal lawsuit was filed against the United States Department of Defense on behalf of Captain Simratpal Singh, a decorated Sikh American soldier who was ordered to submit to non-standard testing because of his religious beliefs.

Sikh officer, demands that the U.S. military accommodate his Sikh turban, unshorn hair and unshorn beard and abandon its unfair and discriminatory testing. Once the testing is enjoined, Captain Singh seeks a further ruling directing the Army to make his religious accommodation permanent. Only three Sikh Americans have been granted the opportunity to serve full time without removing their unshorn hair and turban since the restrictive ban was implemented in 1981.

“I have so much pride in my Sikh identity and service to my nation,” said Captain Singh in December after receiving his temporary accommodation. “To feel spiritually whole, while continuing my military career, has always been the dream.”

Captain Singh was granted a temporary accommodation until March 31, 2016, to serve in the U.S. Army while maintaining his Sikh articles of faith. On February 26, 2016, Captain Singh was ordered to report on March 1 for additional testing that no other soldier in the U.S. Army has been subject to as a precondition for remaining in the Army, including other soldiers permitted to maintain beards for medical reasons and the previously-accommodated Sikh soldiers. Captain Singh is more than willing to undergo the same safety testing as any other soldier, but he objects to being treated differently on account of his faith.

Captain Simratpal Singh enrolled in West Point in 2006, but was then forced to choose between his religion and career. After failed attempts to obtain an accommodation, Captain Singh succumbed to the pressure of conformity and cut his hair and shaved his beard in an effort to fulfill his childhood dream of serving his country. He then went on to graduate from West Point with honors in 2010.

Nearly ten years later, after successfully completing the Army’s grueling Ranger School, earning a Bronze Star for clearing roads in Afghanistan of explosive devices, and receiving numerous other military accolades in various positions, Captain Singh’s one regret was compromising his religion in order to serve his country.

Captain Singh began maintaining his Sikh articles of faith and filed an accommodation request on October 21, 2015. On December 9, 2015, he was granted a temporary 30-day accommodation to serve while maintaining his Sikh articles of faith. This accommodation was extended until March 31, 2016.

“Captain Singh is being subject to discriminatory testing that isn’t required of any other soldiers, even those with medical or religious accommodations. The Army cannot delay in providing him his statutory and constitutionally mandated right to an accommodation to serve as an observant Sikh in the Army,” said the Sikh Coalition’s Legal Director, Harsimran Kaur. The Sikh Coalition represents Captain Singh along with the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty and the law firm of McDermott Will & Emery.

The Sikh Coalition also represents the three previously accommodated Sikh clients with the law firm of McDermott Will & Emery.

“Captain Singh is a decorated war hero. The Army should be trying to get more soldiers like him, not banning them from serving or punishing them for their beliefs,” said Eric Baxter, Senior Counsel at the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty. “It’s time for the Pentagon to stop playing games and start doing the right thing – for Captain Singh, for Sikh Americans, and for all Americans.”

~Source- sikhcoalition.org

Niranjan Singh, a Christian narrates his experience of how his life changed when he learnt about Sikhi.

My first contact with Sikhi was in 2012. I was doing kundalini yoga as my wife’s cousin had told me she thought it might be good for my stress and me recovering from a smaller nervous breakdown due to long term problems at the job I had back then. It was rather good for me, I loved the meditation in group, I loved the relaxation and to learn to fix my thoughts on one word: “naam”.

The man who made up kundalini yoga, as it was invented in the United States and is not one of the ancient yoga forms, was called Harbhajan Singh, better known as Yogi Bhajan. I started to read about him. The books said that he was a Sikh. That all male Sikhs were named Singh and all female Sikhs were named Kaur. The Sikhi was a religion. Sure, I had read just a little bit about Sikhi before, not very much at all, but I got really curious now.

I have always believed in God. I was traditionally baptized into Christianity as an infant, surely with no say in it whatsoever, however coming from a family that is not very religious at all, I think I make the exception in all my family. When I was 14, I was confirmed but now I protested. I didn’t want to, it didn’t feel right. I did not believe in Christianity, I didn’t buy their concept of God as a distant force that you only have one shot at uniting with, going to heaven as they say. It sounded very illogical to me. Already then I had a strong sense that there was this one great force behind everything and in everything, and it felt so strange that this force would make an effort, create you, expect military obedience – and the renounce you completely and cast you into hell for eternity if you wouldn’t do what is expected of you.

I reacted. For several years, I did my best to imagine I was this hardcore atheist. I must say I was obnoxious to people of faith, especially Christians. I am very ashamed of that today and I hope they will forgive me. But all the time, I had this annoying (at least I thought so then) feeling that God just smiled at me and said to me “don’t worry, one day you will be back”. I couldn’t shake it, it just wasn’t possible.

Anyway, I studied on Sikhi. I instantly loved that Guru Nanak dev ji renounced the caste system and preached equality. It got to me how he worked to enlighten the poor people in the subcontinent telling them not to pay the pandits to make the sun come back during eclipses. I really liked how he travelled around to the most distant places, preaching that no one is a Hindu and no one is a Muslim and that there is only one.The smile I always had felt was suddenly feeling warmer and closer. I decided not to cut my beard anymore, still I kept on shaving my head for a few months more.

I tied a turban for the first time in 2013, just a little while after new years. I sat in front of Youtube with the thinnest bed sheet linnen I was able to find. There are not many Sikhs in my country, and certainly no Sikh shops, so I had no one to ask. Looking at those pics now, I almost laugh, but it felt so right! After that I didn’t cut my hair anymore. There is a sangat in Gothenburg though, Sri Guru Singh Sabha Gurdwara. The man who led the yoga classes took me there. I was dead nervous! My palms were sweating and my knees were shaking as we walked the stairs up to the diwan hall.

But when I knelt before Sri Guru Granth Sahib Maharaj and my forehead touched the floor, the feet of the Guru, the nervousness was gone completely! Just like that. Instead, I had this experience that somewhere deep inside me, a huge key was turned in a equally enormous lock, and there was this clicking sound that echoed in all off me. I had never sat meditating longer before than I did that day, listening to the words of Maharaj. Of course, I knew no punjabi whatsoever, but it didn’t seem to matter, He still spoke to me. The Singhs were poking me to have me go down to langar hall and get some chaa and I did, but soon returned upstairs. I did no more kundalini yoga after that. “The yogi is blind and can not see the way” says the Guru, and yoga has no benefits for a Sikh, at least no spiritual. What Yogis can tell us that the Guru can’t? I stuck with doing martial arts instead and still do.

A saint soldier can not be caught off guard doing sun salutation or kriyas.

I was a Sikh from that day on. Keshdhari for two years until Visakh of 2015 when I was blessed with amrit in Guru Nanak dev ji Gurdwara in Oslo, Norway. Now amritdhari, I would never trade this life as a Sikh for my old one. Sometimes people ask me if I don’t feel held back with a full beard and a turban, but no way I do. Thinking of it, if anything I felt held back before. Denying your true self is to hold yourself back, but that is no more. I live my life as a Swedish Sikh, and yes people stare me down wherever I go someplace I am not known. But didn´t our father Guru Gobind Singh say “My Sikhs will be known among millions”

~ Source: www.sikhtrend.com