Obama Sends Letter to Sikhs

As Sundari recently noted, “[o]ver the next few weeks Sikhs will join together to celebrate the 300th anniversary of the Sri Guru Granth Sahib.”  I didn’t anticipate that Sikhs would be joined by a major politician in those celebrations.  To my surprise, Presidential hopeful Barack Obama (pictured here with His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama) sent greetings to Sikhs on the 300th anniversary of the installation of the Guru Granth Sahib Ji.  In the message — transmitted in a letter to the American Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee (an organization previously discussed here) — Senator Obama said:

Throughout the world, Sikh communities are celebrating the tercentenary of the Guruship of Sri Guru Granth Sahib…. Sri Guru Granth Sahib is considered the universal spiritual leader and guiding light for the Sikh community. In 1708, Guru Gobind Singh officially ordained Guru Granth Sahib as the final and perpetual Guru of Sikhs. This worldwide celebration will commemorate the 300 years of consecration of Guru Granth Sahib and the anniversary of the accession of Guru Gobind Singh.On this momentous occasion, both Sikh and non-Sikh community members will gather together to promote [and] honour the contributions that Gurus have made to the Sikh community. [Link]

I am very pleased that a major political candidate has reached out to Sikhs and has demonstrated some familiarity with Sikh history and the importance of these celebrations in particular.

[Disclosure: In fairness, I attempted to locate any messages that Senator John McCain sent specifically to the Sikh community, but a Google search did not yield any satisfactory results.  If anyone knows of any recent messages from Senator McCain to Sikhs, please provide a link in the comments section.]