To Dr. Prabhjot Singh’s Attackers: A bed time story about white supremacy
Op-Ed printed in The Harlem Times Nov/Dec Issue
White supremacy typically evokes images of Klansmen on night rides setting homes ablaze with burning crosses or white policemen hosing down African American protesters during the civil rights movement. However, white supremacy is also what led a group...
Quebec proposes another ban on religious garb (off the soccer field)
Quebec is at it again. Just a few months after the Quebec Soccer Federation reversed its ban on turbans and other religious headwear on the field after a whole lot of public outcry, officials in Quebec have introduced a proposal to ban “conspicuous religious symbols” from public sector workplaces....
As a community we mourn, but together we will lead
During this past week following the tragic events in Wisconsin, our community has changed substantially. We have grown as a people and identified even more with Sikhi, standing up in a time of crisis, and responding in a positive and effective way, battling apathy with activism and suffering with solidarity.
SALDEF’s SikhLEAD Leadership...
This is what profiling looks like
It’s been quite a day here in New York City. I woke up at 3am this morning and arrived at Liberty Square at 4:00 to protect the Occupy Wall Street encampment from eviction. Sleep deprived but fired up, I joined with thousands of others who showed up to stand in solidarity with this growing...
Fatting It Up at the Langar Hall
Guest blogged by Navdeep Singh Dhillon
My wife’s family is Hindu, with varying degrees of connections to the religion. Some of them have statues of deities like Krishna and Ganesh scattered throughout the house, others have entire rooms sectioned off for bhajans and pujas, and then there are those,...
Canadian Sikhs run cross-country
In order to provide a little bit of cheer as we head into the weekend, I thought I’d share this news bit.
A team of 32 Sikhs partnered to run across Canada, as well as fundraised $10,000, on behalf of children’s hospitals in Canada and in Africa. The runners were commemorating the 10th...
Sikh MTA Workers Say, “Don’t Brand Our Religion!”
Things are heating up as Sikh transit workers organize against the MTA’s requirement that Sikh workers wear an MTA logo on their turbans. The rationale? The MTA’s position is that this policy is necessary for customers to identify their employees. However, neither the NY City Council, nor...
The Coercive Uses of Rescue Aid in Pakistan
Earlier this month I asked if the Taliban’s rising influence in Pakistan and their removal of Sikhs from the Swat Valley was a harbinger for more extreme religious persecution. This week, two articles caught my eye:
The first depicted multi-religious protests in Kashmir over Pakistan’s inaction...
Does the Taliban’s Influence in Pakistan raise the stakes for Sikhs?
There were two blurbs in the news this week regarding the ethnic cleansing of Sikhs from Pakistan’s tribal regions along the Afghani border [full disclaimer: both stories are from the Indian press, so there is certainly a different political interest/stake in representing Pakistan as a state...
The Roti Club
Photo by Howard Koplowitz.
Swaranjit Singh is running for New York City Council, representing Queens. An underdog in a new campaign for a new voting enclave, he’s running, in part, to ensure that “roti-eating people” have a voice, and a say, in New York’s politics:
“My biggest...
When every home is a gurdwara, when is it a home?
Is the question facing Sikhs in Oxford, England, as they try to find a central location to pray as a sangat without having to convert private property into religious property.
A religious community in Oxford is reeling after the city council ordered members of its congregation to stop worshipping at...
