{"id":10453,"date":"2011-03-11T13:21:29","date_gmt":"2011-03-11T13:21:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tat.reddaisytrading.co.uk\/index.php\/2011\/03\/11\/just-say-no\/"},"modified":"2016-01-07T17:23:43","modified_gmt":"2016-01-07T17:23:43","slug":"just-say-no","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/2011\/03\/11\/just-say-no\/","title":{"rendered":"Just Say No"},"content":{"rendered":"
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How British Sikhs are Fighting the EDL Recruitment Drive<\/h3>\n
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WHEN the English Defence League burst onto the scene in the autumn of 2009 at a violence-fuelled demonstration in Birmingham it was clear their agenda was purely directed at the British Muslim community.<\/strong><\/div>\n

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A quick scan on the group\u2019s website says it all. In and around pictures of supporters draped in the Union Jack flag are articles titled \u2018What is Sharia Law\u2019, \u2018The Great British Pub In Muslim Occupied England\u2019, \u2018England and France: Common Ground in the Struggle against Islamisation\u2019 and \u2018A Consideration of Muslim Crime in the UK.\u2019<\/div>\n

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Since that early demonstration in Birmingham, British Muslims have worked alongside anti-fascist campaigners to counter the groups hate message. <\/div>\n

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But last month in Luton the campaign against the EDL took another turn. <\/div>\n

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As EDL supporters filled the streets of Luton, so did another group.<\/div>\n

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British Sikhs, eager to stand shoulder to shoulder with the Muslim community, proudly displayed a banner which read \u2018Sikhs Against the English Defence League \u2013 Fighting Intolerance since 1699\u2019, a reference to the establishment of martial Sikhism by the 10th Guru of the Sikhs, Guru Gobind Singh Ji <\/div>\n

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It was significant moment, particularly so because Guramit Singh \u2013 EDL spokesman is a British Sikh. <\/div>\n

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He has in the past been accused of creating a \u2018divide and rule\u2019 technique in recruiting young impressionable Sikhs to the EDL cause. <\/div>\n

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But it\u2019s now clear the Sikh community are fighting back. <\/div>\n

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The Sikh turnout in Luton was organised by The Turban Campaign \u2013 a group who amongst other things are fighting the EDL\u2019s recruitment of British Sikhs.<\/div>\n

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But the Sikh fight against the EDL began long before last month\u2019s demonstration in Luton.<\/div>\n

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Balwinder Singh Rana from Unite Against Fascism became aware of the EDL\u2019s Sikh recruitment tactics last year and set about a campaign of awareness amongst leading British Sikh organisations and religious establishments.<\/div>\n

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A resident of Southall, Balwinder has spent all his life fighting oganisations like the EDL. <\/div>\n

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In 1969 he became founding president of the Indian Youth Federation of Gravesend \u2013 the country\u2019s very first Asian youth organisation. <\/div>\n

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\u201cWe were forced to get organised after a wave of racists attacks, disgustingly termed by the media, \u2018Paki bashing\u2019, had spread through the country\u00a0following the infamous \u2018Rivers of Blood\u2019 speech by Enoch Powell,\u201d he recounts. <\/div>\n

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Ten years later and he found himself as chief steward at the infamous 1979 Southall demonstration against the National Front.<\/div>\n

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While the day will forever be associated with the tragic death of far-left activist Blair Peach, for Balwinder there was another added significance. <\/div>\n

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\u201cOn that day in Southall the whole community was united,\u201d he says. \u201cYoung and old, men and women, black and white, Sikhs, Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Jews, people of others faith and people of no faith, we were one.<\/div>\n

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\u201cOn that day we broke the back of the National Front from which they were unable recover and thus withered away.\u201d<\/div>\n

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Fast forward to 2011 and Balwinder hopes the spirit of that united front can resurface to battle the EDL.<\/div>\n

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Having witnessed the groups early protest marches, Balwinder admits he had hoped the EDL would eventually \u201cburn themselves out\u201d.<\/div>\n

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But when he heard they were beginning to recruit Sikh youths he decided to act. <\/div>\n

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\u201cI started to hear that some Sikh youth were beginning to support them and the name of Guramit Singh started to appear in the media. I was very shocked by that and when they came to Harrow in September, 2009, I was there to protest against them,\u201d he says. <\/div>\n

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\u201cSoon a lot more was beginning to appear in the media, especially on the internet, about their so-called Sikh supporters, to a lesser extent, Hindu supporters, and it was clear that the EDL were cynically exploiting them.<\/div>\n

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\u201cThen, when in Bolton, at the EDL rally, I saw them carrying the Sikh flag it really made my blood boil. That is when I decided that something had to be done and some of these miss-guided Sikh youth had to be directly challenged and people had to know that they do not represent the Sikh community.\u201d<\/div>\n

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Balwinder believes the EDL\u2019s targeting of the Sikh community lies not in the need to increase numbers, but in a deliberate attempt to \u201cexploit divisions between the Sikh and Muslim communities.\u201d<\/div>\n

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\u201cLong before the EDL, and ever since 9\/11, the BNP had been looking for any opportunities where they could try to use any gullible Sikhs against the Muslims,\u201d Balwinder says.<\/div>\n

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\u201cAlthough they still had the racist policy on recruitment they began to put up on their websites and into printed material some stories about the \u2018brave Sikh soldiers\u2019 who fought in the world wars while totally ignoring the contribution made by the Muslim and Hindu soldiers. And above all, completely ignoring the irony that those \u2018brave Sikh soldiers\u2019 had actually fought against the racists and fascists whose policies the BNP would like to follow.<\/div>\n

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\u201cIn a similar vein the EDL decided on the same agenda. “However, while not many Sikhs fell into the trap of the BNP, unfortunately the EDL had more success and seems to have bagged some \u2018useful idiots\u2019.\u201d<\/div>\n

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As a Sikh himself, Balwinder is as a loss to explain why one Guramit Singh chooses to front the EDL.<\/div>\n

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\u201cIt\u2019s his ignorance of the facts that astonishes me most,\u201d Balwinder says.<\/div>\n

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\u201cHe claimed in the BBC program \u2018Who\u2019s Afraid of the EDL?\u2019, that Sikhs have been trying to \u201cprotect the world from Islam\u201d\u00a0for\u00a0\u201c300-400 years.\u201d However, anyone with the rudimentary knowledge of the Sikh religion would know that the Sikhs actually never fought against Islam. They only fought against the oppression and intolerance from some Mogul rulers.\u201d<\/div>\n

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\u201cThe truth is that Guru Nanak Dev Ji, founder of Sikhism, sought nothing but to create peace and harmony between Hindus, Muslims and all other people. And thus Guru Granth Sahib Ji, the Sikh holy book, contains some passages written by some Muslim saints as well. Furthermore, the foundation stone of the holiest shrine of the Sikhs, Sri Harmandir Sahib Ji, in Amritsar, Punjab, was laid by a Muslim saint, and the city was built on the land granted by Akbar, a Mogul emperor, who was very tolerant towards other religions.\u201d<\/div>\n

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In his drive against the EDL, Balwinder has brought together some of the country\u2019s leading British Sikh organisations and religious establishments through a joint statement condemning the EDL.<\/div>\n

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A number of Gurdwaras and Mandirs in London have readily put their name to the statement, as well as Sikh Student Societies, and members of parliament.<\/div>\n

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Naturally when approached, all were eager to get on board. <\/div>\n

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The plan now for Balwinder is to spread his message across the UK.<\/div>\n

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\u201cIn the past wherever the EDL have tried to march, in places such as Leicester and Peterborough, the local Gurdwaras and Mandirs have always come out against the EDL and have made statements to the local media. Now we would like to bring them all together and urge them all to sign the \u2018Joint Statement\u2019 alongside any other prominent organisations and individuals from the community,\u201d Balwinder says. <\/div>\n

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To end Balwinder has a final message to British Sikhs and why they should avoid the EDL.<\/div>\n

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\u201cPlease do not make this mistake, do not side with the racists and fascists. This path will only lead to divisions and destruction and create disharmony within our communities. The EDL only want to use you in the well-trodden path of \u2018divide & rule\u2019.\u00a0But, once you have served their purpose, they will spit you out and you will have nowhere to go. Please follow the true principles of Sikhism, and not the deceiving politics of the EDL. <\/div>\n

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\u201cMost people in the Sikh and Hindu communities are now waking up to the dangers posed by the EDL. They understand that these racists have a very sinister agenda. Thus they want to unite with all anti-racists and anti-fascists and their Muslim brethren.\u00a0So, please come and join us so that together we can turn this tide of hatred.\u201d<\/div>\n

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For more information about the campaign log onto <\/strong>www.turbancampaign.com<\/strong><\/font><\/a> <\/div>\n

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Correction: This article also appears in the March print issue (148) of The Asian Today. In that article Blair Peach is described as a \u2018far-right activist\u2019. The Asian Today acknowledges that Blair Peach was never a far-right activist and we apologise for any offence caused. We are happy to set the record straight.<\/em><\/strong> <\/div>\n

\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

How British Sikhs are Fighting the EDL Recruitment Drive WHEN the English Defence League burst onto the scene in the autumn of 2009 at a violence-fuelled demonstration in Birmingham it was clear their agenda was purely directed at the British Muslim community. A quick scan on the group\u2019s website says it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11753,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[46,27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10453","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","category-sport"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10453","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10453"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10453\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10453"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10453"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10453"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}