About a month back news broke around these parts about a damaging video that came out of Glidden Gurdwara. The story was basically a raagi staying at the Guru Ghar booked one of the committee members pocketing money from out of the golak. In light of this the next time the committee got together to presumably do the seva of cleaning out the golak and organizing the change, he [Raagi Singh] went all Mission Impossible and video taped the entire incident.

Anyways turns out the video got put on youtube where it’s since been collecting hits and furthering the tale. Surprisingly the video isn’t as breaking news, as I was originally lead to believe, and instead has been sitting around for 2 years before it managed to resurface. Whether its surfacing was part of a grander scheme on the part of a black mailer turned righteous do-gooder (we seem to have a lot of those in our Quam), or nothing more then mud that is being slung by opposing committees, is better left to those in  the know, and actual journalists to uncover and reveal.

For the rest of us there’s only mindless speculation on what could be / is happening and echoing the same old rhetoric that we’ve become so accustomed to:

• We need to take the gurdwara away from these masands
• Where did all the Singhs of Guru Gobind Singh go, who let such actions happen??
• Why hasn’t there been a morchaa against such individuals and committee’s!!
• Where are our youth!!?!?!
• Is this what Gursikhi has come down to??
• What about the children, will somebody please think about the children!!

Anyways, the video’s posted below and I’m not sure what to make of it just yet since its not in the bright vivid HD quality I’ve come to enjoy. Also having half dazedly watched it once, I never really picked up on at what point the crime takes place. For those looking for more details, the original site that had the video on display (a pro Afghanna/Ghagga site) had this to share:-

This movie is of a Golak Chor who is stealing the money from the Golak at the time of counting at Sri Guru Nanak Sikh Center, Glidden Road, Brampton, Canada. Golak Chor Devinder Chhokar was a president of the Gurdwara at the time he was stealing money. It is believed that he stole the money for last 5-6 years and it was discovered in middle of 2006, when a young parcharak made this video through the roof opening. Chhokar has other associates in the Gurdwara committee, who are defending him to date and want to get rid of those from the committee who are opposing to the Golak Chori.

And without further ado the video at the center of all this hub bub -

Also noting the time shown when the videos being shot, its nice to see our commitees taking in an interest in being up during amrit velaa to do such sevaa, assuming off course the timer on the video is right.

Check this article from the National Post:

Study suggests “turban effect” as a source of Islamophobia

Shannon Proudfoot, Canwest News Service Published: Sunday, June 29, 2008

A Muslim-style turban is perceived as a threat, according to a new study, even by people who don’t realize they hold the prejudice, dubbed “the turban effect” by researchers.

Research volunteers played a computer game that showed apartment balconies on which different figures appeared, some wearing Muslim-style turbans or hijabs and others bare-headed. They were told to shoot at the targets carrying guns and spare those who were unarmed, with points awarded accordingly.

People were much more likely to shoot Muslim-looking characters — men or women — even if they were carrying an innocent item instead of a weapon, the researchers found.

“Whether they’re holding a steel coffee mug or a gun, people are just more likely to shoot at someone who is wearing a turban,” says author Christian Unkelbach, a visiting scholar at Australia’s University of New South Wales. “Just putting on this piece of clothing changes people’s behaviour.”

Mr. Unkelbach largely blames one-sided media portrayals for the bias.

The results would almost certainly be the same if this study was conducted in Canada, says Mohamed Elmasry, national president of the Canadian Islamic Congress.

“I’m hoping that Canadian Muslims one day become invisible,” says Mr. Elmasry. “As such, Canadians will treat them like any others.”

Islamophobia — “latent” before 9/11 — is on the rise, he says, but there is very little research on the issue in Canada.

The new study “does confirm our biggest fear that there is discrimination and prejudice within our society, and unfortunately people don’t recognize it or don’t admit it,” says Salam Elmenyawi, president of the Muslim Council of Montreal.

“Sometimes they really don’t know that it does exist.”

Beyond a turban or hijab, someone’s name, skin colour or a long beard may also identify them as a Muslim and make them a target of prejudice, he says. Mr. Elmenyawi wears a head-covering and long beard and says he struggles between recognizing that negative stereotypes exist and not becoming “paranoid” that he might fall prey to them.

In fact, the Australian study, which will be published in an upcoming issue of the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, confirmed that people don’t even realize they hold these biased views. When the true intention of the experiment was revealed, Mr. Unkelbach says participants insisted they were not prejudiced and must have reacted differently from everyone else.

“The most common response was, ‘I’m sure I didn’t show that effect,’” he says.”They’re uncomfortable and I believe them — people are not doing this willingly. If they could, they would control that. Here, people are almost the victims of what they are fed by their environment.”

A quick sampling of news items related to Muslims and the Middle East confirmed this, he says, with a focus on violence and terrorism almost obliterating more balanced stories about the culture and people.

“If everything about Middle Easterners is associated with terrorism, people tend to form stereotypes in their head,” confirms Rima Wilkes, a sociology professor studying media at the University of British Columbia.

Even fictional media feed these biases, she says. One study showed that movies tend to feature “socially acceptable” villain stereotypes that have evolved over time, from evil Germans in the post-war years to vaguely Muslim bad guys more recently. Even swarthy, pixelated video game adversaries send the message that “ethnic others are bad,” Ms. Wilkes says.

Seeing as how a good number of Sikhs have felt the brunt of this turbanized islam-o-phobia it would be nice if they added ‘non’ muslim turbans to this study.

For more info check out the article in the star - http://www.thestar.com/article/346963

I haven’t heard much about the Laibar Singh case out here on the East Coast. It hasn’t been headline news and it hasn’t been a topic of discussion on any of the popular talk radio programs that I listen to, so all I really know about the case is what I found out while checking the various news outlets and snooping around on some West Cost blogs.

Basically, Laibar Singh came into Canada on forged passports, filed a refugee claiment saying he fears being tortured and prosecuted if he returns to India because he’s been unjustly blamed for terrorism. The fed’s end up not buying his story and order him out. He then seeks refuge of the Sikh Sangat, and then suffers a stroke which has left him a quadrapalegic. The community again files for asylum on compassionate and humanitarian grounds, stating that he’s in no condition to be deported and will not recieve the care he now needs if sent back to India. The government again turns a deaf year to all the lobbying and Labair Singh was to have been flown back to India last Sunday. Fortunately for him, the Sangat stood by him and came out in the thousands to protest at the airport, blocking all traffic and making it impossible to get Singh on the plane. Left with no choice the government granted Singh an extension and so thats where things were left, last I checked.

Not having all the facts let alone most of them, I still have a hard time believing the original refugee claim. Not that it can’t be true, just seems like everyone plus their mother has been taught to use it. Same time you can’t blame the portion of society, who wants the man out, he did after all break the law and could potentially be a burden on the system, and the law is the law, so why make exceptions or pick up the tab for his misfortunes when there are others who may very well be more deserving.

All that aside though, the fact that he is in the unfortunate circumstance that he’s in; having no family, and not being able to begin help himself, it’s only fitting that society as a whole lends out a helping hand. Also, with a community willing to pick up the tab, its hard to imagine what burden he can be on the system if any, so why make a fuss over it.

The politics of the matter already have the conservatives red in the face, and having a reputation of being anti immigration you would think they of all people would want to do something to change that. Then again, if nothing else comes from this, as someone else had pointed out to me earlier, its always good to see a community known throughout the mainstream for its infighting and distention amongst its groups, to have come together and put up a united front.

Tolerance is one of those things that while living in Canada is not only expected, but any act contrary is met with great scorn and public outrage in the media. Yet, it would seem that not all Canadians have come to accept ‘tolerance’ as being a vital corner stone of Canadian Society.

An article by Danielle Crittenden, of the National Post for instance, is shitting on the entire system because she wasn’t harassed as much as she was hoping to have been by people in public or even the security detail that handled her at the airport, while wearing a burqa.

I would guess that Danielle would receive the same level of harassment by society had she chosen to conduct the same experiment having chosen to dress like a nun, but I guess that wouldn’t count seeing as how it’s the Muslims we’re after.

Anyways check the link for the article, and also check what the French are now demanding in Quebec, .h the crazy world we live in.

• Keep hijabs off judges, teachers, says union boss
• Too tolerant by half

Everyone’s heard the saying, “Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned”, but no one ever said anything about the fury of a punjabi chic who got cheated on.

This recent story about the punjabi bibi in the UK probably tops even some of more outlandish Jerry Springer themes and guests, and even though the incident is quite tragic and shouldn’t be made light of, after reading the story one can’t help but look at the situation and think WTF!?!?

Anyways check it out, some shit out there is just messed: Sikh student jailed for stabbing of pregnant Muslim love rival.

Prof. Uday Singh, has over the years earned himself a reputation of being straight with it. Whether he agrees or disagree’s with you he very seldom leaves it to interpretation as to what he means and leaves no doubts about where he stands. Whether he’s writing in favour of certain kakaars over others or against gurdwara committee’s he doesn’t seem to care for who he offends or airs out, but says what he feels needs to be said; whatever it is that he believes to be the truth.  By all means this is a noble and even respectable trait in any person, even if what they say may be hard to swallow. since not everyone will always agree with what he’s saying, but the fact that he’s often the only one saying it the way it is needs to be said still needs to be respected.

It’s for that reason that Kim Bolan’s latest article where she interviews Prof. Uday Singh leaves me both smirking at the fact that he said things the way many conceptualize and feel, yet have me shaking my head thinking, “damn he so shouldn’t have said that”, knowing full well how easily it can be misinterpreted by the general public.

Then again, it is refreshing since I was getting tired of all the politically correct rhetoric that has started to appear all over the place. [You know, those interviews and quotes from Sikhs who continuously try to convince the media and the public that the Kirpan is nothing more then a symbol, that the Sikhs are far from being a martial race and try to compromise the faith at every turn.]

Chullo, Gurparsad, it’s all good, enjoy the article…

No room in his heart for Hindus

Uday Singh, retired professor, is uncompromising in backing the battle for an independent Sikh homeland. He celebrates as ‘our Nelson Mandela’ a man who pleaded guilty in the 1985 Air India bombing that killed more than 300 people

KIM BOLAN

CanWest News Service

Saturday, August 04, 2007

He may be the oldest Khalistan supporter in Canada and 84-year-old Uday Singh does not mince words when he talks about the struggle for a separate Sikh nation.

Though Singh says he is financially “stretched,” the retired Laurentian University math professor has for years sent a monthly cheque to the family of Inderjit Singh Reyat because he believes the convicted B.C. bomb-maker is “our Nelson Mandela.”

He also gave financial support to Air India bombing suspect Ajaib Singh Bagri during his trial.

Despite Reyat’s guilty plea in the 1985 Air India bombing, Singh believes Reyat was desperate to get out of jail and had nothing to do with Canada’s worst act of terrorism, which was commemorated in Vancouver July 20 with the unveiling of a memorial in Stanley Park.

Reyat’s admission, “it appears to me, is something that was born out of his crying need to get out of jail. His admission is not necessarily a statement of fact,” Singh said in a recent interview at his humble country home near Brampton, Ont. “He is our Nelson Mandela.”

Singh helped arrange the marriage of one of Reyat’s daughters in 2003 to the son of the former Ontario leader of the Sikh militant group Babbar Khalsa as a way of helping Reyat’s family.

“I have every sympathy with the whole family, especially with the mother who has suffered most,” Singh said. “To me, they are like a bunch of flowers, very fragrant and very well-behaved and high-quality people to me.”

Well before Singh immigrated to Canada in 1961, he already believed that Sikhs got a rough ride in India, and he is blunt about his feelings for the Hindu majority there.

“They are our traditional enemies,” he said, adding that Sikhs and Hindus cannot live on the same planet together. “Come on, no, not even as neighbours. Not even in separate countries.”

For 37 years, Singh has run a free school in Toronto, teaching Sikh children history, language and culture. His most famous student was Navdeep Bains, now a Liberal MP. He taught Bains and his wife until a few years ago.

“I have taught many sons of my old students and now even the grandsons of my old students. But it is a good thing. For me it gives me my long life and it gives me my health.”

It was his first book, The Waning and Waxing of the Khalistan Movement, that he believes cost him his Indian passport and the chance to return home.

“I have reason to believe it is this book (that) poisoned them against me and my passport was taken away,” he said.

In it, he outlines his relationship with all the original Canadian leaders of the movement, including those identified in connection with the Air India bombing.

Singh said he helped Talwinder Singh Parmar - the man police identify as the suspected bombing mastermind - escape from India in 1982 after police there had accused him of murder.

He later lost faith in Parmar’s leadership, though he still believes the former Babbar Khalsa founder is innocent in the downing of Flight 182 and the murder of 331 people.

“He suddenly popped up here … he is now dead and he died for the nation … But I was struck with his being unlettered, uneducated - that was striking,” Singh said.

Singh said he offered financial help to the families of Bagri and Ripudaman Singh Malik while they were on trial in the Air India case. Malik’s family declined, but Bagri’s wife took a monthly payment, he said. Both men were acquitted in March 2005 in a verdict praised by Singh.

“No Sikh is guilty of doing that. The Hindu government got it done,” he said, claiming an inquiry in Ottawa will eventually reach that conclusion despite the fact that it has so far focused on a conspiracy by Sikh terrorists from B.C.

Singh believes that Sikhs are entitled to use arms when there is no other way to combat a problem, as the late separatist leader Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale did before the Indian army raided the Golden Temple at Amritsar in June 1984.

“Whatever the arms are at your disposal, my religion allows me to use them if it is the end of all other means,” he said, praising Bhindranwale as the only real leader the Khalistan movement ever had.

Singh said he doesn’t understand the recent controversy over portraits in temples and parades of Sikh assassins described as martyrs because they killed political opponents in India. The portraits have every right to be on display in Canada, he said. “They did it for us. They punished the evil-doer, which is heroic,” he said.

The Sikh separatist movement in Canada will rise up again, Singh said, referring to the title of his book.

“It is not dead at all,” he said. “It is waning now, only to wax. It is like you are in a swing - you go down and up again.”