How a UK Sikh group spreads fake rumours to stir up hate against Muslims

How a UK Sikh group spreads fake rumours to stir up hate against Muslims

SUNNY HUNDAL·MONDAY, 17 APRIL 2017·READING TIME: 5 MINUTES
Public

A prominent Sikh group recently claimed London Mayor Sadiq Khan was ‘forcing’ Sikh women to dance at Vaisakhi celebrations organised by City Hall for 29th April.

The group in question, Sikh Youth Birmingham (SYB), posted the video to their Facebook page making this incendiary allegation a couple of weeks ago. The video has had 400+ shares and viewed over 24K times.
It is an example of how some British Sikh groups are aligning themselves with the white far-right and spreading rumours that incite hate against Muslims.
In the video, Deepa Singh from Sikh Youth UK, says:

“The Mayor of London is a Muslim, remember this, and now he's dictating - this is the feedback we've had, so I'm quoting what Singhs have said in London - that we've spoken to whoever's arranging this event, who have been part of arranging this event.”
“They've said the Mayor of London, who is Muslim, is dictating, that we have Bhangra dancers, young girls dancing around, at our Vaisakhi events. Let me reverse this back to him. If it was Eid, would he have his little hijabi nieces, daughters, sisters, dancing at the front? No he wouldn't.”

“They [Muslims] are trying to target our sisters systematically and intentionally, to take them away from our Sikh roots. Today he's dictating what happens at our Vaisakhi events, tomorrow he's going to dictate what happens at our Gurdwaras.”
First, notice how he doesn’t have a proper source to make this dangerous allegations. He heard it from his mates, and doesn’t bother checking to see if its true or not.

Secondly, the (false) allegation is tied to stories of grooming, claiming Muslims are “systematically” targetting Sikh girls. And since Sadiq Khan is a Muslim he must also be in on this conspiracy, right?
Imagine if this generalisation was applied to Sikhs. A white man hears about a Sikh sex-offender assault an underage girl at a Gurdwara and claims all Sikhs are like this. He says Sikh leaders are in on the conspiracy. Would that be ok?
In fact what Sadiq Khan has done is kept a manifesto commitment. In addition to monitoring hate-crimes against Sikhs, he pledged during the campaign to ensure the Mayor of London’s Vaisakhi celebrations get equal billing to other big events like Eid, Chinese New Year, Diwali etc. Boris Johnson had earlier downgraded Vaisakhi celebrations from an event at Trafalgar Square to the over-crowded City Hall.

I asked the Mayor of London’s team whether the claim in the video was true. They told me in a statement:
“The entire celebration has been developed alongside a steering group, made up of members from across London’s Sikh community, to ensure the family-friendly event truly reflects the best of Sikh and Punjabi heritage and culture.”
It isn’t that the steering group includes Sikhs, it’s that the Mayor of London page on Vaisakhi is explicitly focused on religious celebration than Bhangra dancing.

But here is the best bit. 30 seconds of Googling would have shown that earlier Vaisakhi celebration at Trafalgar Square (in 2013) already featured Bhangra dancing. If the event on 29th April features Bhangra, it wouldn’t be the first time.

So did these people make similar allegations when Boris Johnson was Mayor? Did he also force Sikh women to dance to Bhangra so he could groom them?
Is grooming a problem? Yes it is, and I’ve written about it for years. But if anyone thinks it is just a Muslim problem they are ignorant. Just a few weeks ago several Sikhs were arrested as part of a gang accused of grooming, raping and trafficking girls in the UK. Why does Sikh Youth UK not focus on them?
These allegations don’t just stem from a misunderstanding they stem from deep hatred and bigotry.
Deepa Singh is a fan of the white supremacist Tommy Robinson, inviting him to speak at Sikh Youth UK events. This was his posing with a few days ago.

Tommy Robinson’s appreciative tweet was then re-tweeted by Dal Khalsa UK.

He is also very friendly with Hindu nationalists from the RSS, BJP.
Is this the kind of politics that Sikhs in the UK want to be aligned with?
Tommy Robinson (real name Stephen Yaxley-Lennon) his a convicted fraudster who has been in jail several times. The group he founded - the English Defence League, was a virulently racist group and frequently posted racist messages on social media.

And he has made no secret of his far-right sympathies either, using their language.

Furthermore, he is a big supporter of Marine Le Pen, the French fascist candidate who wants to ban Sikhs from wearing their turbans in public.
Again, is this the kind of politics that Sikhs in the UK want to be associated with?

Most don’t. I have several friends who led the Sikhs Against the EDL movement, because they saw that some were ready to links hands with them. Some Sikhs are still so consumed by their hatred of Muslims they willy happily align with far-right white nationalists.

As Sikhs in America have realised, empowering white racists ultimately hurts Sikhs too, and they have been working with Muslims to combat all forms of bigotry. Sikhs are meant to be about truth and against bigotry. Yet its clear that some adopted the banner of religion to push their racist agenda.

First, notice how he doesn’t have a proper source to make this dangerous allegations. He heard it from his mates, and doesn’t bother checking to see if its true or not.

He is also very friendly with Hindu nationalists from the RSS, BJP.
Is this the kind of politics that Sikhs in the UK want to be aligned with?

The group in question, Sikh Youth Birmingham (SYB), posted the video to their Facebook page making this incendiary allegation a couple of weeks ago. The video has had 400+ shares and viewed over 24K times.
It is an example of how some British Sikh groups are aligning themselves with the white far-right and spreading rumours that incite hate against Muslims.
In the video, Deepa Singh from Sikh Youth UK, says:

First target muslims then other groups like Sikhs and Hindus. Divide and rule policy was used to rule India.

Sikh Youth is an oxymoron. In Sikhism we do not discriminate on religion.

It's always that few percent that give the rest the bad name. Sikh people are really great, it's the new generation that are been brainwashed by the Hindu extremists with fake news. It's a shame that few Sikhs are believing what Britain's first are saying. End of day all of us are originally from India through great Grandads roots.