It's been a busy week for some Sikh organisations of recent with the discovery of a really filthy blog encouraging .......

 "[Muslim] soldiers go hunting for Sikh slappers"

The Network of Sikh Organisations Media Monitoring group has taken action along with a number of other Sikh organisations including the Sikh Community Action Network, to tackle what could be deemed to be a form of 'Cyber-Terror'. There have always been stories and fears within both the Hindu and Sikh community about girls being drawn into relationships by predatory men under the guise of building what they deem to be legitamate relationships. On occassion it has even been rumoured that Muslim men will wear the Sikh Bangle (Kara) & provide a Sikh name to befriend the unsuspecting girls. By the time the bubble of perfection bursts and the girls realise (according to these stories) that the relationship was a ploy to induce or coerce to convert to Islam (apart from the whole sexual denigration of it all), it's all too late. Many of us have had experience or know of girls who fell in this trap during our University years, however this 'Seduction' blogsite is just a symptom of a bigger disease that lurks beneath the veneer of everyday University life. I wonder what Whitehall make of it all? Certainly the immediate concern is that this type of filth on the internet targeting a specific community and being derogatory to a faith group & it's women could ignite further tensions between Sikhs & Muslims. These were last seen in the late 1990's and resurfaced post 9/11. Oh dear, just when Sikhs thought they had been relegated to the 'vauxhall conference' of enemies by extremist groups. Its not only western Governments that extremists want to annihilate, it's all which is deemed as other. I wonder who they will have a pop at next? perhaps homosexuals.

There is one thing for certain though, If I were one of the 25 girls on this site I would see a good Liable lawyer and cash in, I am sure the damages could encourage a nice early retirement & defeat the challenges of the credit crunch we all face.

Ashish Joshi chairman of the Network of Sikh Organisations' media monitoring group, said he had been inundated with angry responses from Sikhs in the past 24 hours.

"I have never seen anything like this," he said. "There have always been concerns about grooming but to advertise such behaviour and encourage others to do so is absolutely shocking."

Mr Joshi denied suggestions that Sikh the anger may have stemmed from Sikh men being uncomfortable about Sikh women having sexual relationships with Muslim men.

"This is not about love, no-one can help who they fall in love with," he said. "This website is all about the deliberate and targeted sexual degradation of Sikh women purely because of their religion. It is about young Muslim men boasting about seducing kaffirs [unbelievers] while keeping their Muslim sisters chaste."

Until the identity (if ever) of the 'seduction blogsite' mastermind is known, people can only speculate on the reasons why the site was put together. Some will argue that it has been created just to foment tension between Sikhs and Muslims & others argue it may have even been a non-Muslim who created it. This blogsite certainly does not provide evidence of 'grooming' and Sikh groups should be cautious in their statements in light of this. It does however give a snapshot of the mindset of it's author, a dark insidous place with sexual exploitation on the mind 24/7.

The Maidenhead advertiser called this a "Victory for Sikhs as ''hate blog' is shut down", on the back of a campaign by the co-founders of SCAN, the high profile Jagdeesh Singh. As with the premier league, it's always a long season and I guess the Sikhs have started their season well, but should take caution to rest on their laurels, cyberspace is a huge place & like Freddy Krueger more websites may pop up when you least expect them!

For those who are following this story please see links below, this story is bound to get further coverage.

http://blogs.independent.co.uk/independent/2008/10/sikh-and-muslim.html

http://www.maidenhead-advertiser.co.uk/news/article-8415-victory-for-sikhs-as-hate-blog-is-shut-down/

By Jennifer 8. Lee

The Sikh Film Festival on Saturday will feature “Ocean of Pearls,” about a young Sikh doctor struggling with the inequities of the American health system and ultimately his own identity. (Photo: Sikh Arts and Film Foundation)

Governors love proclamations. Months, weeks and days are endlessly designated to draw attention to a wide buffet of causes and celebrations. They come with nice, official-looking documents with fancy scripts and seals. Constituents are happy. Everyone wins.

In his six months in office, Gov. David A. Paterson has already made 158 proclamations, including Beef Day, Blind and Visually Impaired Entertainer’s Week and Rabies Awareness Month. In just over a year of his term as governor, Eliot Spitzer declared Brain Injury Awareness Month, Arson Awareness Week and even a Paralegal Day. His last one, on March 10, was Multiple Sclerosis Week.

So today is the first day of Sikh Heritage Week, which was also declared by proclamation from the governor [pdf]. (Note that the Jews and Hispanics get a whole month, while the Korean-Americans only get a day). If you want your get your own proclamation, the state Web site encourages people to call the Executive Chamber Operations Proclamations group at (518) 474-6499, or to write to the governor.

Among the highlights of the heritage week is the Sikh Film Festival, which runs all day Saturday, starting at 10 a.m., at the Asia Society on Park Avenue. One short documentary, “Warrior Saints,” by Kevin Lee, profiles the Sikh community in New York City, centers on Richmond Hill, Queens.

The 9/11 attack spurred the community to organize after an elderly Sikh and two teenagers were violently attacked in Richmond Hill in “reprisal” attacks by fellow Americans. The documentary interviews a number of younger professional Sikh New Yorkers who formed the Sikh Coalition from the volunteer group, who explain how they came to realize the value of protest in drawing media and political attention to their problems. Most recently, for example, they organized protests around attacks on Sikh schoolchildren.

The group galvanized after a 2004 attack when five men beat Rajinder Singh Khalsa Ji, telling him to remove the “dirty curtain” from his head. The documentary also recounts an episode in 2004 when an Irish-American M.T.A. employee who converted to Sikhism had been exiled because he would not wear a regulation transit cap.

As a result, among the coalition’s legislative lobbying pushes: a bill that would get the city to form a contingency plan to mitigate backlash violence against Sikhs, Arabs, Muslims and South Asians in the aftermath of events; and another bill that would ban discrimination on the basis of religious garb in New York City uniformed agencies. They also have made a push to educate law enforcement about Sikhism. A 2005 episode saw the police mistakenly handcuff a group of Sikh British tourists in Midtown.

Among other movies at the festival is the feature film called “Ocean of Pearls,” directed by Dr. Sarab Singh Neelam, about the story of a young Sikh doctor struggling with the inequities of the American health system and ultimately his own identity. There are four documentaries: “A Dream in Doubt,” directed by Tami Yeager, which profiles the violent aftermath of 9/11 in which Sikhs were singled out because of their turbans and beards; “The Sky Below,” by Sarah Singh, which takes a contemporary look at the 1947 partition of the Indian Sub-Continent; “Sikhs in America,” which won an Emmy, shows how Sikhs maintain their traditions while also participating in the American dream; and “Pahelwani,” by Navdeep Singh Kandola, which traces the history and traditions of the dying art of Punjabi wrestling.

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/10/03/sikh-film-festival-kicks-off-heritage-week/

France is not discriminating against Sikhs by banning the wearing of turbans in publicly-funded schools, said the President, Nicholas Sarkozy this week. He said that no religious symbols were permitted, and therefore no discrimination against any minority was being practised.

Sarkozy said that he expects Sikhs to respect the customs and traditions of the French people. “We respect their traditions and customs and I hope they also respect France's rules,” Sarkozy said in a joint interaction with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who also belongs to the Sikh community, after the India-EU summit last week.

“We respect Sikhs, their customs, their traditions. They are most welcome to France. But we have rules concerning the neutrality of the civil servants, rules concerning secularism and these rules don’t apply to just Sikhs, they apply to the Muslims, they apply to all on the territory of the French Republic,” Sarkozy said.

In 2004, France imposed a ban on the wearing of religious symbols in schools, which included Muslim veils and Sikh turbans as well as overt Christian symbolism. Sikhs have been trying to get themselves exempted from this ever since.

http://www.secularism.org.uk/sarkozysaysfranceisnotdiscrimina.html