I completely agree with you. Your thoughts were well put.

I dislike the idea of this shirt because our Gurus emphasized that it does not matter what you are. They also talked about the difference between the two types of pride.Why does it say “not to be mistaken for.. etc” that’s actually pretty offensive to other religions and cultures which is so not Sikhi. The shirt should emphasize that we are all the same not different and if we get mistaken for something else.. who cares. If there is racism toward us, fight against it on a humanist apporach rather than.. well i’m not muslim so you don’t have to beat me up. We all believe in One God.

First of all, thank you for the “my understanding” part. I appreciate the humility.

The example you have given underscores the context of truthful living. Specifically in this case, Sabarat Da Bhalla. Guru Gobind Singh ji realized that we are all created equal. He did not want our Hindu brothers to be slaughtered. When he made sure Sikhs could be identified it was not out of pride and bombast intentions. He made us stood up for Hindus, and we must stand up for Muslims today. It is precisely why he proclaimed Bhai Kanahiya, who gave water to the fallen Muslims in the battlefield, to be a true Sikh. And let us not forget that Gurbani is layered with hymns from Muslim and Sikh bhagats.

The following quote has been widely misunderstood: The Tenth Master, “rehit piari mujh ko sikh piara nahin.” The true translation is I love the conduct of the Sikh, not the Sikh. The conduct, of course, is the one that deals with living truthfully—living with faith, hope, humility, love, forgiveness, and with courage to fight against oppression and for equality.

Lastly, I want to give credit to Fateh Singh-Tarney, who wrote an article in The American Scene: “I Am Not a Muslim, But I Am Honored To Be Mistaken For One!”

I read it a couple of years ago, but it still remains vivid in my mind.

http://gupt.wordpress.com/2006/09/25/profiled-with-pride-i-am-not-a-muslim-but-i-am-honored-to-be-mistaken-for-one/

Perhaps it can be posted in SikhSwim. After all, it is 9/11.

This will be my last post in this topic. We are all works in progress, and so are our understandings.

“American identity as something more enlightened” is only your biased inferiority complex perception, it is not implied by the T-Shirt. The other shirts are “Indian Sikh”, “British Sikh”, “German Sikh” etc… they are all equal, none “higher or lower” than the other.

The truth is that countless so called Sikhs today practice so many non-Sikh customs, it is no surprise that they are mistaken for others, so actually, there is no need for the t-shirt of the kind you propose:”I’m a Sikh, but proud to be mistaken as Muslim, Hindu, Arab, etc.”

david1313: “Are you implying that Guru Gobind Singh’s differentiation was futile and immature?”

Guru Gobind Singh ji gave us our uniform to serve as a catalyst for truthful living. That is, to help us live with hope, compassion, forgiveness, equality, etc.

This t-shirt feeds off haumain. Haumain is just more than ego. It is an attachment to self, extension of the self, esp., to self interestand identity: My being, My community, My religion, My God, My family. In “A Sikh’s Paradigm For Universal Peace,” Dr. Meji Singh, writes, “We are attached to ourselves as individuals, to our communities, or our religious and national identities. These are all an extension of Haumain. A person who is connected with Whaeguru [God] perceives Whaeguru in everyone…”

I’ll buy the t-shirt that says, “I’m a Sikh, but proud to be mistaken as Muslim, Hindu, Arab, etc.”

It is about time Sikhs got up and told the rest of the world who we are and who we are not.

Speaking as someone that has given at least 10 presentations at schools around the US and is 100% positive about everything, I think it’s important to distinguish ourselves from other faiths by saying “we are not X,” for the simple reason that kids and adults still assume that, no matter what positive things we say, we must be some sub-branch of Arabs, Muslims, or other group. I learned this lesson after presenting to about 100 7th graders in Washington state two years ago. At the end of the presentation, they asked, “so how does this fit in to your Arab culture?” and “Thanks for telling us about Arab Americans.” I was forced to say, “Well no, that’s not us, Sikhs are not Arab or Muslim, we are a distinct religion.” (The same line you find in just about every article about Sikhs in the newspapers these days — I see nothing wrong with putting it on a shirt.)

Again, I’m super idealistic, like you. Yes, the idealistic strategy is to never say the word “not” or “no” in your speech, but in this case I see no problem with it. Nor would the followers of other faiths. Yes, there’s the “oh, not us, them” thing–but obviously we don’t support that. No citizen deserves to be singled out and treated differently — but we do deserve to be recognized as distinct faith group from the others.

You have to think about the target audience for the shirt. It’s not the super-well-educated people that could put together that since Sikhism began in Punjab in 1469 it’s a distinct faith from those in the list. Anyway, thanks for your comment.