Sikhs Storm UK Theatre!

Society Religion & Philosophy
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Hundreds of Sikh demonstrators protested outside a Birmingham theatre against a play depicting sex abuse and murder in a temple.
Five police officers were hurt during struggles at Birmingham’s Repertory Theatre on Saturday night.

Two men were arrested and the theatre said some demonstrators stormed the building before the performance of Behzti (Dishonour) was cancelled.

The theatre and the Sikh community will meet police on Monday.

**The protesters claim the play, which centres around two characters and is set in a gurdwara, a Sikh temple, mocks their faith. **

**Mohan Singh, a local Sikh community leader, said: “When they’re doing a play about a Sikh priest raping somebody inside a gurdwara, would any religion take it?” **

In a statement, the Birmingham Repertory said more than 800 people were evacuated, security guards were attacked, a foyer door was destroyed, windows were broken in a restaurant and demonstrators entered back stage and smashed equipment.

It added: "The board and the management of Birmingham Rep strongly deplore the illegal actions of certain protestors.

Theatre management insist the play is a work of fiction and no comment is being made about Sikhism as a faith.

The Roman Catholic Archbishop of Birmingham, the Most Reverend Vincent Nichols, said: “Such a deliberate, even if fictional, violation of the sacred place of the Sikh religion demeans the sacred places of every religion.”
Sikhs Storm UK Theatre!

Hmmmm intresting religion being mocked and militant reaction from sikh community in UK. So much for this notion of freedom of expression which these capitalist harp on about where you can mock others and thier faith which leads to more division and problems!

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AK47

For once I agree with the Sikh reaction - Im not condoning violence or anything but come on, for god sake, is nothing sacred anymore? Fair enough sometimes, such incidents do take place but they are not a religous problem, they occur due to deviant individuals missuing their position.

We have seen this happening with Christianity and Islam even though with Islam it has always been their but subtle and discreet. More recently it has become open to the point where if you dont hear something insulting about Islam in the media, you assume that something important has actually happened in the world.

Freedom of speech says you can insult anyone, anything any place anytime and nothing is sacred unless it is attacking the way of the lives of those advocating the concept of Freedom of speach - then you must be a terrorist!

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The western man has no respect for his own beliefs (e.g. crucifix scene in exorcist), if they can't respect their own faith it comes as no surprise that they'll be insensitive towards others.

For us religion is everything, it’s our lifestyle, a part of our culture not just a Sunday service, funeral or wedding.

The British ought to learn to respect what we South Asians stand for or suffer the consequences.

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Islam is attacked everytime you just have to switch on the TV to see this.

Is it any surprise the reaction of muslims around the world when thier belief is attacked day in day out.

The Sikhs reaction is natural reaction something the Western capitalists have no care for at all. They don't care less if they disgrace your belief, your honour unless of course they lose out moneywise then they will stop it!

Because everything to them is measured in the terms of money and benefit.

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Bloody sikh terrorists

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And surprise, surprise, this play was written by a sikh woman.

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she is probably as religious as Salman Rushdie was!

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She’s a Rajput, they never were dedicated to Sikhism. :smash:

Somebody needs to garland her with a haar of chittars.

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that young Sikh women is 'underground' now as they say she has received death threats' not surprisingly. I’m all for this protest, if this play is so important then change the setting from a temple. It’s quite sad that a fellow sikhni has pulled this sex abuse and murder stunt.. Latest news is the repertory theatre has cancelled this play after heavy protests from the Sikh community leaders in brumland and a few other religious leaders also had a meeting with them and voila triumph for the Sikh’s at last.

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some how the truth always hurts?

it happens in gurdwara, in churches, in mosque/madrassas in any religious institute. i think this problem doesnt relate to the religion at all. its a world wide problem and those places just provide opportunity to some sick individuals to take advantage of it and hide try to hide it behind the religion.
no one is blaming the religions, its the mentality of certain people who give the religion bad name.

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I am not aware of exactly what the play is all about but if it is for highlighting the problems of sexual abuse in the relgious institutions, I am all for it because it does happen and people should become aware of it and do all they can to ensure that it does not happen.

Condemning the victimes or their supporters or those who highlight the problems is not the answer. Taking appropriate action against the perpetrators is the answer. In this case sikhs would be very wrong in taking this thing as religious insult. Religions are insulted by the very persons who have carried out such actions. These are the kind of people whom silkhs are trying to protect against the victims if we really come to think about it. So sikh would be the utmost insulters of their own faith by protecting the people carry out such acts.

Human life and liberty is more sacred than any temple even according to granth sahib. So allowing abusers to get away and condemning the victims would be the real insult in the face of the religion.

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[QUOTE]
Originally posted by suroor_ca02: *
it happens in gurdwara, in churches, in mosque/madrassas in any religious institute. **i think this problem doesnt relate to the religion at all.*
[/QUOTE]

Actually this is the crux of the problem and exactly the point of the Sikh Community, i.e. if it is not to disparage the Sikh's, and if it really is about highlighting these problems that do occur in institutions, any institution, then why not depict the scene in say a community centre? You could make the point just as well without attaching the offending scene to a Gurdwara.

I'm with the Sikh Community 100% on this on. I just caught Newsnight tonight and they had a Sikh Human Rights guy (apna Punjabi bhai) on there and he was a blast. Made some excellent points including that Freedom of Speech does not in any way or form give anyone carte blanche to be offensive. It was great to watch. If only to see Jeremy Paxman being called stupid. That was priceless.

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good point pakistani bhai' if they had got away with this theatrical play this time around then who knows' in the future, they could've used a mosque/synangogue etc setting as their next target, so this protest i feel was totally justfied and vital.

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Muslims favorite Hide and seek me if you can Salman Rushdie has his usual rant about the hoo haa about Sikhs and the insulting play in the UK.

LONDON (Reuters) - Author Salman Rushdie, who went into hiding for years after Iran’s leader ordered him killed, has assailed the government for allowing angry Sikh groups to force the cancellation of a Sikh play last week.

“It is pretty terrible to hear government ministers expressing approval of the ban and failing to condemn the violence, when they should be supporting freedom of expression,” Rushdie told The Sunday Telegraph newspaper.

“If being upset is the only requirement to banning something, there will be nothing on in the theatres.”

Rushdie upset