Jump to content

Spot a mistake...


S1ngh
 Share

Recommended Posts

Its game time, lets see who can spot the mistake:

-------------

Police learn about Sikh religion

http://www.connpost.com/Stories/0,1413,96~...1679894,00.html

By GENEVIEVE REILLY

FAIRFIELD - Town resident Inni Kaur said she and her family did not leave the house for six weeks after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

As Sikhs, they feared they could be targets, suspected of being terrorists by those who knew little or nothing about their 500-year-old religion.

Now Kaur and Pamma Singh Gulati, a Norwalk businessman, are visiting area police departments in a campaign to bring more awareness of their religion and its doctrines.

Last week, they brought their message to training classes for Fairfield police officers.

"There is a fear on your part and there is a fear on our part," Kaur said. "We need to understand each other."

Sikhs are often mistaken for Muslims, largely because of the turbans that Sikhs traditionally wear. Rather, they are Hindus.

"In America, when you see a person in a turban, 99.9 percent of them are Sikh," Gulati said. "Muslims in the U.S. don't usually wear turbans. In the last 10 years, I have not seen a single Muslim wearing a turban."

Turbans and long beards usually distinguish a man as a Sikh, they said.

Rather than seeking to dominate or convert others to their religion, Sikhism has a heritage of speaking out against injustice and standing up for the defenseless, they said.

It is, Kaur and Gulati said, a very egalitarian religion, believing all people are equal.

"Sikhs are a peace-lovi

ng community," Gulati said, "but they don't tolerate injustice to anyone."

The pair also gave the officers advice on how to interact with a Sikh. "To ask a Sikh to remove a turban is sacrilegious," Kaur said. Don't ever forcibly remove it, they said. Instead, take the person to a private room and ask him to remove it.

Though women Sikhs are not required to wear turbans, many of the younger generation do so, Kaur said.

There are five items, including the turban, that Sikhs are required by their faith to wear.

All Sikhs, males and female, carry a kirpan, a small ceremonial sword that is not a weapon, something that is important to know if an officer needs to frisk a Sikh.

To determine whether a Sikh has a kirpan, Kaur told the officers, simply ask and if it must be taken, explain the reason and handle the kirpan with respect.

"Ask, and they will be more than happy to give it to you," he said.

Sikhs also wear a kara

a steel bracelet.

They do not cut their hair or beard, and officers should not ask or attempt to forcibly cut, trim or pull the beard or hair.

They carry a kanga

a comb

and wear special undershorts called kaccha.

Male Sikhs traditionally use Singh as a middle or last name, while women use the name Kaur.

Singh means lion; Kaur means princess.

The atmosphere in the United States has gotten better in terms of understanding the religion during the last two years, Kaur said.

Police Lt. Daniel Gombos said he'd heard the presentation at a recent meeting of the Fairfield County Training Officers Association.

"We're always looking for different things to broaden our horizons," Gombos said of the local presentation. "Cultural diversity is one area where we do a lot of training."

Gombos said he thought the session would be valuable for the department's officers.

Genevieve Reilly, who covers Trumbull, can be reached at 330-6256.

--- by Bal Singh from Sikh-his

tory.com forum ---

Editor : greilly@ctpost.com

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
 Share

  • advertisement_alt
  • advertisement_alt
  • advertisement_alt


  • Topics

  • Posts

    • yeh it's true, we shouldn't be lazy and need to learn jhatka shikaar. It doesn't help some of grew up in surrounding areas like Slough and Southall where everyone thought it was super bad for amrit dharis to eat meat, and they were following Sant babas and jathas, and instead the Singhs should have been normalising jhatka just like the recent world war soldiers did. We are trying to rectifiy this and khalsa should learn jhatka.  But I am just writing about bhog for those that are still learning rehit. As I explained, there are all these negative influences in the panth that talk against rehit, but this shouldn't deter us from taking khanda pahul, no matter what level of rehit we are!
    • How is it going to help? The link is of a Sikh hunter. Fine, but what good does that do the lazy Sikh who ate khulla maas in a restaurant? By the way, for the OP, yes, it's against rehit to eat khulla maas.
    • Yeah, Sikhs should do bhog of food they eat. But the point of bhog is to only do bhog of food which is fit to be presented to Maharaj. It's not maryada to do bhog of khulla maas and pretend it's OK to eat. It's not. Come on, bro, you should know better than to bring this Sakhi into it. Is this Sikh in the restaurant accompanied by Guru Gobind Singh ji? Is he fighting a dharam yudh? Or is he merely filling his belly with the nearest restaurant?  Please don't make a mockery of our puratan Singhs' sacrifices by comparing them to lazy Sikhs who eat khulla maas.
    • Seriously?? The Dhadi is trying to be cute. For those who didn't get it, he said: "Some say Maharaj killed bakras (goats). Some say he cut the heads of the Panj Piyaras. The truth is that they weren't goats. It was she-goats (ਬਕਰੀਆਂ). He jhatka'd she-goats. Not he-goats." Wow. This is possibly the stupidest thing I've ever heard in relation to Sikhi.
    • Instead of a 9 inch or larger kirpan, take a smaller kirpan and put it (without gatra) inside your smaller turban and tie the turban tightly. This keeps a kirpan on your person without interfering with the massage or alarming the masseuse. I'm not talking about a trinket but rather an actual small kirpan that fits in a sheath (you'll have to search to find one). As for ahem, "problems", you could get a male masseuse. I don't know where you are, but in most places there are professional masseuses who actually know what they are doing and can really relieve your muscle pains.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

Terms of Use