Sikh Priest Gets Life For Killing His Spouse

Holy cow:

A gurdwara priest has been awarded life imprisonment for murdering his wife. The court of additional district and sessions judge Priya Sood pronounced the judgment on Monday.

The convict, identified as Ashok Singh of Dehlon, had a troubled relationship with his wife Swaranjeet Kaur. On several occasions, villagers, including panchayat members, had intervened and made them reach a compromise. But the situation went out of control in March 2010. Ashok gagged his wife by putting a rubber ball in her mouth and then strangulated her.

Oz Sikhs Declared Exempt From Helmet Law

Some are more equal than others:

Members of the Sikh community will be exempt from wearing a bicycle helmet in Queensland [Australia] under new laws to accommodate religious beliefs.

Transport Minister Scott Emerson announced the change to the state’s bike helmet laws allowing religious exemptions on Tuesday morning.

Mr Emerson said it was a “common sense approach” to the issue.

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The law change comes after practising Sikh Jasdeep Atwal successfully fought the $100 fine he received last year for riding a bike without a helmet [photo].

He took the case to court, arguing that as a Sikh he was required to wear a turban that could not fit inside a helmet.

Selflessly acting as Mr. Atwal’s freelance personal shopper, I’ve endeavored to help him with his quest for spiritually-approved head protection. While a turban will not fit inside a helmet, a helmet can most assuredly fit inside a turban. Just Think Big, my friend.

turbans

By the way, last month, a Canadian court decided that Sikhs may carry ceremonial swords in the courtroom for religious reasons.

[Jasdeep Atwal image via Just Commodores]

Sikh’s Bald Move Gets Hair-Trigger Response

If you want to make money, don’t sell sand in the Sahara, and don’t become a barber in Sikh territory; the Sikh god says never to shave your hair.

So now, the world’s actual problems be damned,

Malaysian Sikhs are angry with a local Sikh politician who has shaved his head bald at a Chinese temple in the Northern Peninsular city to protest against money politics in the General Election being held today. Jagdeep Singh Deo, a candidate for the Datuk Keramat state seat in northern peninsular Malaysia, joined other Chinese candidates campaigning in the General Election to protest by having their heads shaved bald.

baldness

Why, sir, that’s an insult!

The Gurdwara Sahib Kangar president Pritpal Singh has described Jagdeep’s act as an insult to Sikh religion, the basic tenet of which is never to shave their hair.

He’s right. Has Mr. Jagdeep no sense of duty?

Pritpal said Jagdeep had forgotten the fundamentals of his own religion. … “Cutting your hair or going bald without any medical reason is unacceptable. It is worse coming from a public figure like him,” the New Straits Times quoted Pritpal as saying. “There are many other ways of showing one’s displeasure. As a Sikh, it is his communal duty to bear in mind the sensitivity of all Sikhs and their religion,” Pritpal said.

[image via Sojourn Church]

Cutting-Edge Lawmaking: As of Today, Canadian Sikhs May Carry Religious Swords in Court

Canada bows to its religious minorities over and over, like a dipping bird. Two days ago, we learned that Muslims in Toronto successfully demanded that girls’ swim lessons, in public pools all over the city, may not be watched by men — not even by the fathers of the girls in question. Now, from British Columbia, comes word that as of today, it’s legal for Sikhs to wear small religious swords in court.

Know of any other group that is allowed to carry deadly weapons in courtrooms?

As of Friday, Amritdhara Khalsa Sikhs will be able to wear their kirpans —  small stylized swords, part of their five articles of faith — when visiting public areas of a courthouse.

Sukhvinder

“It’s a relief,” said Sukhvinder Kaur Vinning, executive director of the  World Sikh Organization of Canada. “I can focus on being a good civic citizen and I don’t have to worry about compromising my faith, so that’s a huge burden that’s been lifted.”

Having to testify in court can be a stressful situation and, for Sikhs, having to remove the kirpan made it worse, said Vinning. “To take it off, that’s a painful thing to ask,” she said. “It eats away at a person.” …

Similar kirpan accommodation policies already exist in the Parliament of Canada, as well as in Alberta and Toronto courthouses.

Just so we’re clear, I have absolutely nothing against Sikhs and don’t fear them in the slightest, though it should be fair to point out that just like other groups of believers, they’ve not always been, let’s say, unfailingly kind. Just so we’re even clearer, I’m hardly a xenophobe. In fact, I’m one of the xenoi:

• a first-generation immigrant to the U.S.
• a member of a distrusted, much-maligned minority
• the father of two adopted children from Asia
• not a native speaker of English

Yet I am also one hundred percent OK with the age-old principle that in Rome, we do as the Romans do. I expect no special accommodations for my culture of origin, nor for my race or heritage, nor for my daughters’ race and their heritage, nor for our beliefs (that goes for my wife’s  beliefs — Christian — and for mine — secular).

Were lawmakers to carve out special dispensations for my tribe, allowing us to do things that are forbidden to others, I would reject the gesture as unwanted pandering; and I would wonder what had happened to my adopted country’s professed dedication to equal treatment under the law.

[photo via vancouverdesi]

Watch: NY Sikhs’ Sword Assault — In Temple

This website features mostly current news reports, but we occasionally bring you older examples of religious wickedness if they amuse us. Here’s an oldie but goodie we just came across: a 2011 video of a brawl inside a Sikh temple in New York City where worshipers attacked each other with cricket bats and small swords. Seven people were charged with assault.