A British school with a strict uniform policy has suspended Sarika, age 14, because wearing a kara violates the school’s policy. Sarika’s mom plans to sue the school citing basic human rights acts and legal precendents set for Sikh symbols in the 1970s. This should be an interesting one to follow.

Full Article at the Telegraph

Sikhs are required to be expert musicians, because the hymns in our sacred text are set to Raags–musical scales. The following video is evidence of this fact.

I’m staying with some British friends in San Francisco, and they pointed me to this hilarious clip from Goodness Gracious Me. The video reminds all of us that there’s more to being a Sikh than just sporting the outward identity. What are your thoughts?

Hey, check it out, the Sikh Coalition is having a housewarming bash. Click the image to view the full-size invitation. I had the distinct pleasure of receiving this invite from one of the Sikh Coalition Sevadars, Manbeena Kaur. Thanks Manbeena!

I need to attend this parade next year:

Yuba City, CA (PRWEB) November 5, 2007 — The 28th Annual Sikh Parade in Yuba City turned in record crowds this weekend, exceeding the expectations of organizers. Near perfect weather brought in an estimated 75,000 to 80,000 Sikhs and non-Sikhs on Sunday to enjoy one of the Sacramento Valley’s largest religious and cultural celebrations. The weekend activities honor the receipt by Sikhs of their Holy Book, the Guru Granth Sahib, in 1708, which Sikhs use as their spiritual guide.

Full Press Release

The AMU DVD has been released, get your copy at AmuDVD.com. The film is eye-opening, thought-provoking, and engaging. It’s the work of a talented director named Shonali Bose, who I had the opportunity to meet in Seattle. All I can say is we need more people like Shonali in this world–people that are passionate, driven, and pursuing a higher cause: the cause of justice, rights, and freedom for all.

Here are some great links:
Main Site
IMDB Page

To my surprise, when the film was screened in India, it had to be first reviewed by a censorship board. Can you believe that? The world’s largest democracy has a censorship board! That doesn’t sound very democratic. The censor board recommended the deletion of several ‘controversial’ lines of dialog from the film. Instead of removing these scenes, they merely muted the audio when the film was shown, prompting the immediate question in the post-film Q&A — “What were they saying?” Read the details here!
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Awesome little video on Kabaddi in California. I had no idea you could be a Pro Kabaddi player in Canada. For those that don’t know, Kabaddi is an age-old Punjabi game that requires strength, speed, and tenacity. The last time I played Kabaddi was at the fabled Lohgarh Retreat Sikh Youth Camp in 2003.

If you’re in the Boston area, head out to BU to remember the thousands of innocent lives that were lost in this tragic military attack on the center of Sikh authority.

The Sikh Coalition chalks up another success with its response to this incident, reported in its press release, included after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »

Earlier this year, the Sikh community in California pushed for the revision of a textbook, and the board of education listened. The textbook contained an inappropriate image of Guru Nanak, the founder of the Sikh religion. Stickers will be distributed to cover the image, and new prints of the textbook will be revised. Wow. All I can say is it’s a great example of Sikhs getting together, pushing for change through the right channels and the right ways, and our government reacting appropriately in response to concerns. Check out the New York Times article: Bowing to Sikhs’ Call, California Wants Textbook Change. What brought my attention to this incident was an article I read in Reform Judaism Magazine, which highlighted the incident as an example for how Jews should take action for similar errors in textbooks. Many have cited the Jewish community as a great community for all minorities to model in the United States, so it’s exciting to see that the Jewish community is giving us props. Congrats to all that made this happen.