Sikh Who Protested Against Donald Trump Hailed As Hero

‘The PROPOSED TEMPORARY BAN has NOTHING TO DO WITH SIKHS’. This is exactly the sentiment expressed by �good Germans� in the thirties when the Nazis started to discriminate against the Jews. I would remind you that Sri Guru Tegh Bahadur was not martyred for the sake of the Sikh religion but rather for the sake of the Hindu Kashmiri Pandit faith. Should Guru Tegh Bahadur have waited until Aurangzeb had finished off the Hindus and was demanding Sikhs convert to Islam? The example set by the ninth Guru is an important lesson to Sikhs otherwise we shall follow the same path that has led other religions to dead ends namely of pure self-interest. It doesn�t matter if some Muslims (and with their levels of poor education and introspection perhaps even most) behave as intolerantly and brutally as their Moghul forebears that still does not give the Sikhs the right to brand them all as being of the same ilk. I would remind you that Guru Nanak�s closest companion was a Muslim, Bhai Mardana, whom he never tried to convert away from Islam , Guru Arjan Dev Ji was a good friend of a Muslim Pir Mian Mir of Lahore who is reputed to have laid the first foundation stone at Harminder Sahib at the Guru�s invitation, that some hymns contained with Sri Guru Granth Sahib are attributable to Sufi saints and that Guru Gobind Singh, when told a Sikh was giving water to injured Mogul soldiers, himself declared that such an act was righteous i.e. that the Muslim who was fighting you once disarmed was no longer to be seen as an enemy but as a human being in need. He reinforces this message after the martyrdom of the Chaar Sahibzaade and indeed his own mother by NOT exhorting his Khalsa to kill all Muslims on sight which would have been perfectly understandable considering the brutality meted out to the younger two children being walled up alive. Instead Guru Gobind Singh sends a defiant and chastising rebuke, the famous Zafarnama to the one Muslim definitely responsible for the crime, the Emperor Aurangzeb. As Sikhs then we must only hold those who are responsible for misdeeds and not engage in guilt by association (something which as Sikhs we have suffered terribly under Indian misrule).
You say Sikhs should keep their heads down, mouths shut, and not get involved in the civil rights problems of others. RSS Harinder will be so pleased to hear you expound such a view but as a Sikh I cannot agree as such a notion uncouples the vital principle of Miri Piri and flies in the face of Guru Tegh Bahadur�s supreme sacrifice. You are right only in that it is difficult to live the life of a Sikh in a white man�s world but I suggest it has always been difficult to practise Sikhism in any era and our forebears endured harsher conditions for us to receive Sikhism unadulterated.
There is a problem with modern day Islam and that religion certainly needs reform but you will end up pushing moderate or questioning Muslims into a besieged camp by labelling them en masse as rapists and murderers just because a violent minority within their kaum is engaged in a nihilist death cult mentality. Muslims are still human beings and should not be demonised because if we do that then we are ourselves are being corrupted in our Sikh principle to see humanity in all. You may call that political correctness or wishy washy idealist liberalism but think, really think what are you left with but a husk of religiosity otherwise if you can start to divide people up into categories by religion (and remember there are large numbers of white Muslims) which isn�t that far away from the caste approach of dividing people up and judging their worth by the family they are born into (most Muslims too are born into their faith). The Islamic religion needs encouragement to reform not blind persecution and I say this as a Sikh who is fully conversant with the horrors inflicted on the Sikh kaum down through the centuries by those in the name of Islam.

I am well aware of Sikh history. Sikhs need to balance idealism with pragmatic realism.

You sound like you live in India. You don’t know what it’s like for Sikhs to live in California. Situation is already bad enough here, this type of ill-conceived form of protest will only make it worse.

My point was he could have protested in in many ways without exposing ourselves on national television, which will only further embitter relations between whites and Sikhs in America.

As a Sikh, he should have known better than going to a Trump rally. What did he expect? The whole arena is full of white racists. He could have even been assaulted or killed.

Protest if you want, but don’t shoot the Panth in the foot at the same time. Not all publicity is good publicity.

RS I have read your comments very carefully and am willing to concede that I am not best placed to judge the fallout of Arashdeep�s actions upon his fellow American Sikhs as I am not fully cognisant with the predicament they face with American racism. Looking back at our history I see there is very good precedent for �discretion being the better part of valour� when it came to the dire predicament Sikhs were facing being hunted down by the Moghuls. A point came under such relentless persecution that it became necessary to harry the superior (in number) Moghul forces with attack and retreat guerrilla tactics which were extremely successful in both preserving Sikh life and scoring attrition victories over our foe who might have triumphed in a direct confrontation because of their greater numbers and arms. It may well be then better for Sikhs in America to pick and choose their battles with the racist that might otherwise overwhelm them � certainly I have been alarmed by the nature and number of bullying incidents against Sikh boys and murder of Sikh men and appreciate your concern that such hate crimes would only increase in the present Islamaphobia environment. I suppose my objection was more to the notion that Sikhs should not stand up for Muslims as I don�t believe that just because some Muslims are extremely evil that all Muslims must then be tarred with the same brush. You call it idealism which I find uncomfortable as for me it is not some liberal woolly thinking but a spiritual principle at the heart of Sikhism � what other religious faith has so selflessly defended another�s (which hold doctrines opposed to our own at that). As always I appreciate you have presented a rational argument for your case and I would suggest if possible that you present it (without as some other Sikh has suggested �punching him in the face�) to Arashdeep in a brotherly manner as both of you have the same intention if not the same strategy to address the issue. Fateh.

do not put yourself in the line of fire for matters that don’t concern us????????
sikhism was never about being selfish

soora so pahchaniye jo lare deen ke het

�RSS Harinder�, never mind sending me and this other Sikh to warzones, you don�t want us unfurling banners or making protest even in India! We the Sikhs freed you from Islamist extremism and you just want us to die � that is true Hinduvta gratitude. I suggest that you and a clutch of RSS supporters all go to Afghanistan (I would suggest Syria and Iraq but as RSS I know you people don�t like doing any work so walking that far will put you off straight away) and unfurl your banners declaring Ramayana is a true historical event. That way the present day Hinduvta braggadocio about being a warrior people who can stand up for India can make up for the centuries your kaum’s cowardice in the face of Islamist fundamentalism � as you know and envy Sikhs have nothing to prove as we drove the Afghan, Pathan and Moghul from our homeland over two hundred years ago. Right let�s address your remaining claptrap.

�He needs to defend the Country first that feeds him and gives him this liberty and be loyal to his President�. So by this reckoning Sikhs should have just swallowed their sense of injustice when Indira Gandhi attacked the Darbar Sahib, put a bullet into the angs of Sri Guru Granth Sahib in Harminder Sahib, demolished the Akal Takht, and killed thousands of Sikhs spilling their blood into the Amritsarovar? We should have been loyal to Indira Gandhi and then to the next leader her mass murdering son Rajiv because leadership confers dog-like obedience? That is the slave mentality deference that ensured your Hindu forebears could not shamefully throw off the shackles of the Mogul nor the British until the Sikhs turned up to do your fighting for you.

�His nation is at war. He needs to have clarity of mind that in war you got to be united as a Nation. He should go and enlist himself in his Nations army�. President Lyndon B Johnson got full backing from Congress to go to war with Vietnam over an attack on an American ship in the Gulf of Tonkin. It is understood now that no such attack ever took place but the perception of it allowed an agenda – to do something to prevent communist North Vietnam from rolling over �democratic� South Vietnam � to become a self-fulfilling prophecy. As a direct America consequence went to war in Vietnam and its subsequent President Nixon was secretly bombing in Cambodia and wanting to use �a strategic nuclear strike� to force the north Vietnamese to accept more favourable (to the US) terms of a peace treaty. Are you then telling me the millions of Americans who came out and protested on the streets of America at this injustice were disloyal to their country and should have supported anything that was being done in their country�s name and supposed interest (the My-Lai massacre for instance)? The point you are really trying to make is your fascist support for the concept �my country � no matter if it is right or wrong� which urges citizens to support their nation even when it is committing illegal or immoral behaviour. This jingoistic flag-waving � give up your responsibility and hand it all over to the State � is what led to Nazi Germany and Imperialistic colonisation including your country, you nitwit! Every Sikh on this website should clearly understand what you are saying is that India is against terrorism (which country isn�t by the way?) and Sikhs who dissent (for whatever reason � could be protesting against the sacrilege of Guru Granth Sahib for all you really care) can then reasonably be denounced as ‘anti-national’ and dealt with accordingly without the need for legal or moral discomfort. You are in essence trying to create a �new normal� where any form of objection to what the Sarkar is up to (and let�s face it the agenda is Hinduvta in India) can be branded as traitorous in the name of national security and civilised values can then be suspended or denied (just as Bhai Hawara is now not allowed visitors or medical treatment with your callous response being �that he should just write a book�). Before patriotism and nationalistic pride must come humanity and common decency for your fellow man – that is divine writ completely opposed to Hinduvta’s love of caste and hegemony domination over others.

This American Sikh had every democratic right and moral duty to protest at this aspirant President�s rally � his action has actually revealed that Trump�s rampant phobia towards Muslims also extends to Sikhs with his disparaging racist comments about the turban and as he put it �we won�t allow that, we�ll do something about it� . This Sikh has bravely revealed what Trump is truly about which otherwise would have been overlooked by voters who are otherwise blinded by their sympathies to his anti-Muslim rhetoric.

Obviously you don’t know the difference between a Muslim and a Sikh!! His “country” isn’t at war. He is there as an American Citizen to defend his American rite to express his values & American values of the First Amendment!! You & Donald Trump are stamping on this Amendment!!