I met some SAS activists at the Havelock Road Singh Sabha in Southall. The activists were handing out leaflets outside the Gurdwara. I refused to accept one of their leaflets in a rather unfriendly manner, which put our conversation on the wrong footing from the start.
I have seen SAS activists in the company of people who are well known to support violence against people who disagree with them and I suspect that SAS members have been involved in such violence, but I cannot prove it.
But even if I am wrong about possible involvement of SAS activists in violent attacks, I still have some very strong reservations about the notions that SAS men/boys have about ‘Sikh girls’ and Muslim men.
Two issues were mentioned during our ‘debate’ outside the Gurdwara. The first one is that ‘illegal’ Sikh girls work as prostitutes for Muslim pimps, the second that Sikh men/boys have to escort their Sikh sisters to protect them against Muslim men/boys.
I do not know anything about prostitutes and pimps in Southall but I am not at all surprised to hear that women arriving in this country without the required visa end up as prostitutes. These are not Sikh women, but they might be of Sikh background.
A true Sikh might be an ‘illegal’ in time of war, persecution or uprising, but most people arriving here these days are just looking for a better life. This is of course legitimate, but trying to settle in a country in a dishonest manner, cannot be justified for a Sikh when you are not a refugee.
I think that the UK and EU immigration laws are trying to prevent globalisation of people movement, while promoting globalisation of goods, which makes no sense at all, and will not work. But if you settle somewhere illegally, it will make you vulnerable to exploitation by employers, and you risk ending up making a living in a thoroughly illegal manner.
This does not mean that we should not offer support to young women of whatever background who get trapped in prostitution. But remember that while nobody should be pressurised into prostitution, equally we cannot force anybody to leave the ‘profession’.
The statement that Sikh girls/young women in Southall need to be escorted begs the question whether we have brought up a generation of young women who are incapable to look after themselves. The young Sikh women I know are usually more clued up and more committed to Guru’s teachings than young Sikh men. Is this an example of Sikh men not respecting their sisters ? In the next column I will explore this issue further.
I agree with some of your setiments above. But the issue is not with immigrants, but with young sikh girls who have embraced the western life. I’m not going to discuss there values or what they want to achieve in life, but the muslime have put a bounty upon there heads for a girl who wears a turban and they convert her the reward money is 10,000 pounds.
Blue movies made by muslims where asian girls are used during explicit scences the girls wear kirra.
Is that not degrading and targeting a certain race. Our girls are so stupid or our parenting is inadquate that they fall for the paki charm time and time again.
Please explain what you mean by western lifestyle and what is wrong with it.
And that story about ‘the muslims’ and the 10.000 pounds is just too ridiculous for words.
I am a 43 year old father and I am a victim of pakistani muslim predators who targeted my daughter from the age of 12. The man in blue advised us to pray and offered support just by listening and introducing us to other members of the sikh society who are in the same dilema.. If a few people in our community are unwilling to recognise or read the facts..
I have attended seminars to share my experience with students from Universities and cannot recall at which point during the seminar the man in blue suggesting we escort our girls for their protection… what he did suggest was to be AWARE.. know what is going on, what has happened, look at goverment statistics..read the articles from the Times, debate Jack Straws comments, look up the word “taqiya”..and finally what are you or what can you do to make a difference apart from sitting on the wall and making clever conversation…Question; should it not be the Muslim Community who should be more pro-active in defending their morals and values? What actions are they taking?
The Muslims are pro-active in defending their morals and values, just like any other groups.
Too many people call themselves Muslims, Sikhs or Hindus and yet do not behave accordingly.
It is very easy to sling mud at Muslims. After a decade of these ridiculous accusation not a single prosecution has taken place.
Some people are simply stupid in beleiving everything somebody else tells them without realising that their motive is to spread hate and anomosity between the 2 groups.
Southall is a “Little India”. In another words a poor mans place. It has more than its fair share of the problems but the people live peacefully with each other.
The fact that they do respect each other might piss some people off. So what do they do? Invent stories to stir up trouble.