Sri Guru Granth Campaigners

[Guest]

Gurfateh Sadh Sangat Ji,

I came across with couple of posts here against Sri Guru Granth Campaign.usually just one liners criticism against them or sarcasm remark thrown against them. No one here I think told us - why they don't like the sevadars who are associated with sri guru maharaj ji campaign?

Please enlighten the sangat, please in details tell the sangat- what you think they are doing wrong ? what's lacking in them?.. if you were part of the campaign, how would u have change things around ? how would you approach the mass to stop the beadhi?

Lets not be part of the problem, but - Be A Solution !!!!!!!!!

[tSingh]

(I started this on R4GGS, but its enlarged a little, apologies)

I personally have utmost respect for what they are doing.

I have seen weddings myself, where during lavan the bride and bridegroom have been stopped for a photo here and there. The focus is shifted further and further away from Guru Maharaj. If people stay true to their beliefs then they are performing a ceremony in which the Guru himself is sat, for old orders, the Guru is sargun Akal Purakh as shabad form. How could anyone show such disrespect to orient the ceremony toward the needs of the attendees and away from maryada? Is it the effort required to attend a gurdwara? Is that a 'hassle'? That I find repulsive.

What I am disappointed and angered by is the R4SGGS campaign's naivety at times. They don't take in the wider picture and draw on the usual idiotic 'Singhs of past' argument for getting heavy and breaking the law. They were made to look like fools on the radio documentary on BBC about young Sikh fundamentalism a year or so ago. How many of the white middle classes along with the powers that be listen to radio 4? What an own goal. I see some have blamed the journalist behind the documentary, but it wasn't him stating clearly that if necessary violence has to be used to meet their campaign's goal.

What I mean by naivety was shown by the shock and surprise when the media turned out to be biased and ignorant in their coverage...which begs the question, where the hell have these people been all their lives? Do they not know ANYTHING about how Britian is, about it's history, its nt views or its media?

To be in the media and not be thinking about Britain's legacy as a nation antagonistic to strong religious identity, tetchy about any challenge religion poses to liberal demoncracy, nervous about brown men with beards and turbans carrying 'weapons', etc...to be in the papers seen to be attacking a wedding party is about as much of an own goal for practicing Sikhs and the Sikh community as you can get. So that made me angry that they can be so mindlessly foolish, ignorant and arrogant. They played the part of a puppet in a media play designed to reinforce their firmly held illusions about the 'irrationality' and 'dangerousness' of religious beilef and identity.

With a bit of luck the episode may have given those campaigners an insight into the reality of the west. Britain has been committing REAL violence against people for centuries in the name of empire or global interest just like France, Germany, western europe and America (For example, Britain or rather the RAF have been bombnig Iraq since...the 1920s!!..on and off in its attempt to control its oil). Equally Britain and the majority of its media find it quite acceptable for their 'lads' to turn city centres into no-go zones on a weekend, to marginailse the issues of racism endemic within British institutions, to ignore the consequence of its imperial legacy as manifested through asylum issues, global poverty and environmental destruction. For such things are considered 'civilised' or the inevitability of 'civilisation' while making a moral stand (or in this case hitting back against a denigration of a tradition the media know little nor care anything about) is always 'barbaric'.

It is my opinion that never before in the world's history has there been a need for Sikhs to be up and active; opting out of the crash course that the west is leading the world into. I'm not talking about middle east politics (although this is part of it), but the moral, spiritual, political rot that has gripped everyone in the name of unrestricted consumerism and capitalism at the expense of the poor and weak. Much of the war and violence is playing out postcolonial politics. Yet perverse exploitation by American/Western capitailst imperialism throughout the world of its resources has never been so great.

[Guest]

wow great post tsingh veer ji