News & Update

A Sikh man who was wrongly accused of being responsible for the Paris attacks last year has been targeted for a second time, after a photoshopped image circulated on social media claiming he was behind the attack in Nice.

Last November, people tweeted that Veerender Jubbal was the one of the Paris attackers after a photo of him was photoshopped to make it look like he was wearing a suicide bomb vest.

The image – which was printed in some of the world’s biggest newspapers – was quickly debunked by social media users, who noticed the iPad had been photoshopped as a Quran.

Jubbal spoke out against the fake image, and said he believed he was targeted by supporters of Gamergate because he was an outspoken critic of the controversial online movement.

In a statement at the time, Jubbal described the experience as “deeply disturbing.”
On Friday, for a second time in less than a year, the fake image of Jubbal was being circulated online again.

Several users who tweeted out the fake image – including @OfficialSamHyde shown above – now have their accounts suspended.

Simran Singh, a friend of Jubbal, stressed the circulation of the faked image was not “a joke” and urged people to end the rumors.

Singh, who is a Senior Religion Fellow at the Sikh Coalition, said people who are sharing the photo are “fear-mongering” and “putting the lives of innocent people at risk.”

Singh told BuzzFeed News: “Veeren has been an incredible advocate for equal rights across the online community, and unfortunately, people who disagree with his positions have attacked him in repulsive and inhumane ways. Last year, someone photoshopped an image of him and used it to spread rumors that he was involved in the Paris attacks. Now, someone else is circulating his photo and claiming he had something to do with the Nice attacks.

For those who think it’s just a meaningless joke, last year when this happened, several news outlets in Europe published his photo and named him as a suspect. These false accusations put my friend’s life at risk, and his life has never been the same.”

In an article he wrote for the Guardian earlier this month, Jubbal said he received a death threat because of the fake photo in December, from a Twitter user who listed his home address and number.

Source- Buzzfeed.com

Life has come full circle for Naik Sarup Singh, who turns 106 on July 15. He spent his prime fighting wars for Britain and later independent India only to realise their futility a century later.

Born in 1911, he got recruited in the army in 1941.

The soldier inside him is still alive. “I never feared, though had a close shave with death several times during the World War II and 1947-48 Indo-Pak conflict.

I never got injured in the army,” he says. On Wednesday, 15 Punjab, which has a history of 311 years and is one of the oldest regiments, reached Chira village in Pinjore to honour its only alive soldier who fought the Battle of Zoji La in the 1947-48 Indo-Pak war.

Sarup retired in 1959 and later worked as a security guard in a cement factory in Pinjore.

“I only trust God. Everything belongs to him. All human beings are a same community.” He is said to have saved the lives of 116 Muslims at Karanpur village in Pinjore when riots broke out after the Partition in 1947. “Villagers wanted to kill Muslim men and violate their women. But I resisted and succeeded,” he says.

He had a gun and gave shelter to Muslims in his house for over a month.

He got late in joining back to unit by 45 days but when he told the reason he was honoured. “Families which migrated to Pakistan later also kept coming to meet him,” said Rajinder Singh, eldest son of Sarup Singh.

Once 45 of his colleagues died but not a single pellet touched him in Java (Indonesia) in World War II.

Guru Nanak Dev founded a new village and named it Kartarpur. The Guru used to do farming there. He held his daily satsang(congregation) with the people in the village to tell them about God and the goal of human life. Bhai Lehna ji, a resident of village Khadur, believed in the worship of the goddess.

One early morning at village Sangar, Bhai Lehna went for a bath in the nearby stream, where he saw Bhai Jodha, a Sikh of Guru Nanak, singing the hymns of his Guru (Asa-ki-Vaar) after having his bath. When Bhai Lehna heard these serene and divine heart touching hymns, he was captivated and filled to the brim with ecstasy. He enquired about this spiritual composition from Bhai Jodha, who assigned this divine verse to Guru Nanak, whose present abode was at Kartarpur.

Bhai Lehna with his heart full of divine attraction immediately made up his mind to have holy glimpses of Guru Nanak while going to the Goddess’ pilgrimage with his fellow worshippers. As usual, on the way they halted for the night about 5 miles from Kartarpur. Bhai Lehna took leave of the group and proceeded towards Kartarpur for having Holy glimpses (darshan) of the Guru.

Simultaneously, Guru Nanak left his Holy seat to receive Bhai Lehna:

Charan saran Gur ek painda jaaeh chal, Satgur kot paindaa aageh hoeh layt hai
If you take one step towards the Guru, The Guru will take millions of steps to welcome you.

– Bhai Gurdas ji

On the way Bhai Lehna, riding on his horseback, came across an old man with a spiritual glowing face, from whom he inquired about the abode of Guru Nanak. The gentle old man asked Bhai Lehna to follow him. On reaching the destination, the old man told Bhai Lehna, to tie the horse on the corner and enter the holy abode (satsang). The Holy Old man, being Guru Nanak himself, entered from the other side and immediately sat on his seat, where the congregation was reciting the divine hymns.

While entering the abode, Bhai Lehna, in a state of trance, fell on the feet of Guru Nanak. Guru ji lifted his head with divine affection. As soon as Bhai Lehna glanced at the divine radiating face of Guru Nanak, he felt shocked, humiliated and tears rolled down his cheeks. Guru Nanak patted him and asked for the reason for his tears. He replied that he had committed a great sin that being a disciple; he was riding on the horseback, whereas his holy master was leading him on foot. On hearing this, Guru Ji asked his name and he replied that the humble servant was called Lehna (meaning ” the dues to be collected” in Punjabi). Guru Nanak affectionately told him with a divine smile that a person who is a ‘creditor’ (lehna) always comes to the debtor on horseback, whereas the debtor always approaches the creditor on foot.

Bhai Lehna could not understand this divine prophecy for forthcoming happenings( ie he would one day be the Guru succeeding Guru Nanak). At night, Bhai Lehna had a vision of a beautiful lady, wearing red cloths and sweeping the abode of Guru Nanak. On inquiry, she replied that she was the same Goddess, whom he used to visit every year for blessings. The reply left Bhai Lehna wonderstruck. Then the Goddess gently explained that there was no need for Bhai Lehna to feel depressed. This was the abode of Almighty Lord from where she gets every thing and distributes them to her devotees. This divine vision left deep imprint upon his mind and he thanked Almighty Lord, who had brought him on to his real abode.

Next day, after waiting for a long time, fellow pilgrims came to Bhai Lehna and asked him to lead the group for pilgrimage. He humbly brushed aside their persuasions and told them that he had found the divine abode, which he was searching for, all his life. Now, he won’t go anywhere.

As the name Kaulan means ‘Daring’. Mata Kaulan ji was a woman during the period of the sixth sikh Guru Dhan Sri Guru Hargobind Sahib ji. Her parents belonged to Hindu Religion. She was stolen by Qazi Rustam Khan during her childhood. Qazi Rustam was a Muslim priest. Further qazi taught her the lessons of Islam. After a short period he sent her to Sai Mian Mir to for higher level of education.

Sai Mian Mir ji was the true lover of Guru Nanak’s feet. He often went to Amritsar to meet Guru Arjan Dev Ji(Fifth Sikh Guru ). Sai ji often recites large no of Guru Ji;s sayings (‘Gurbani Panktis’) and feel the true warmth of Guru’s lap.

As the time passed Mata ji was caught by Qazi and was imprisoned into his house. She was treated very badly these. He abuse her daily. Mata Kaulan ji prayed to GOD daily for rescue and due to her prayers Guru Harbobind Sahib ji came near qazi’s house with sangat. Mata kolan ji requested to her maid servant to do a favour for her. He agreed. She gave him a letter for Sri Guru Hargobind Sahib ji. She explained her pitiful condition in the letter.

On reading the letter Guru Ji started to do the necessary plannings for her rescue. Guru Ji sent her message to Mata ji that he is coming very soon but she had to came out of the house. After that it is Guru ji‘s duty to protect her.

As Guru Sahib reached in front of the Qazi’s house . Five Sikhs were also along with him. she escaped from the top window of the house and came outside. This way Guru ji rescued her from the Qazi ‘s house. Then along with Mata ji Guru ji came to Amritsar. Here some necessary health treatments were given to her.

Then at Amritsar she started singing Bani and was free to meditate. Within a short time she started climbing the internal spiritual stairs towards the Sachkhand.

Source- matakaulanji.blogspot.in

Last Wednesday, I was vacationing in Chicago with my family when we were filmed for a local television segment on ABC 7 News while at the Taste of Chicago.

When the segment aired later that evening, the closed caption that appeared with the story read “terrorist” instead of “tourist.” Although I didn’t see the story, thousands across Chicago did. Some of them even shared the clip on social media. I couldn’t bear the thought of telling my young children what happened because I didn’t want to ruin our vacation.

People were confused, upset and disturbed. That’s when the Sikh Coalition intervened. Within minutes, the Sikh Coalition was in high-level discussions with the directors at ABC 7 News, figuring out why this horrible mistake happened and how it could be fixed. The next day, ABC 7 News and the caption transcription firm apologized for their mistake, and vowed to work with the Sikh Coalition to air a positive story about the Sikh American community in Chicago in the coming weeks.

Tourist-TerroristTo understand how this mistake happened, read the apologies from ABC News and the transcription service.

This immediate and remarkable result wasn’t accidental. The Sikh Coalition knew exactly who to contact at ABC 7 News because they had previously worked with the station and built a reputation of credibility and respect. The network knew that if they didn’t fix the problem, they would be held accountable.

My family and I are very grateful for this valuable work and the work that organizations like the Sikh Coalition do every day to positively educate Americans about the Sikh faith, community and culture. They analyzed the problem, fixed it and turned it into an opportunity for positive exposure about the Sikh community. They do this work not just in Chicago, but across the country.

Please consider making a donation to the Sikh Coalition today, so they can continue to do amazing and impactful work on behalf of all of us: http://www.sikhdonate.org.

Now when I tell my children what happened, I can share how proud we are to be Sikh and to have an organization like the Sikh Coalition fighting for our rights. I look forward to showing my children the upcoming ABC 7 news story about the Sikh community.

Bibi Rajni was the youngster of seven daughters of Rai Duni Chand. The father summoned all the daughters and asked, “Whose salt do you eat?” All the daughters replied, “Yours.” Bibi Rajni jee replied, “I eat the salt given by Waheguru.” In anger, the father married Bibi Rajni jee to a leper. Bibi jee accepted Waheguru’s Will. Once she left her husband next to the lake of Amritsar and went to get something. Her husband, Bhai Mohan jee, saw black crows go in the lake and come out white. Having faith in Waheguru he dips his body in the lake but leave one finger our so that his wife can he recognise him. He becomes cured and Bibi Rajni comes back and sees the miracle. This happened on Vaisakhi day. Guru Ramdas jee blessed the couple. Guru jee named their son, Bhai Gurmukh jee.

Narendra Singh is a bus operator for CMBC. He joined the team in 2015 as a Community Shuttle operator and moved to conventional buses this past spring.

But to two different families, Narendra is more than a bus operator, he is a hero who located two missing children this past long weekend.

When a child in the area goes missing, operators receive messages via TMAC, the onboard computer screen. The messages include descriptions, last seen locations and any other information from police departments looking for the child.

On the first occasion, Narendra noticed a child standing by a bus stop sign alone as he was driving his route. The child looked distraught and matched the description of a missing boy Narendra had received just moments before. Narendra stopped the bus, let his passengers know why and had the child to get on board so he could verify if it was indeed the missing boy and alert the Vancouver Police Department (VPD).

“Hey,” I asked him, “Aren’t you supposed to be at home? Where’s your mom and dad? They must be worried.” The boy stated he got separated from his mom.

“I went back to my passengers and said ‘sorry folks, there’s another bus right behind me. I’ll be stationary and must wait for police.’ Most of the passengers understood a missing child was more important.”

VPD was on the scene in minutes and the boy was returned to his home. All of this only took about 90 minutes!

Narendra managed to save the day again two days later, except this time, he wasn’t even at work yet! Luckily he was wearing his uniform and safety vest to identify himself and he was able to wait with the child until police arrived to help the little lost girl find her way home.

For Narendra, he says it’s “Just a regular thing we (bus operators) do.”

Two children are back safe with their families because of the great communication between police services and CMBC, Narendra’s keen eye, quick thinking and kind heart.

We salute Narendra and everyone who help keep the children of our region safe.

Source-buzzer.translink.ca