Many Sikh participants in a recent government funded Muslim-Sikh dialogue, have said the initiative was ‘faulty’ and ‘constricted‘. They say it failed to allow a clear and comprehensive discussion on core issues that define tensions between Muslim and Sikh populations in the UK.
Aggrieved Sikh participants say only 20% of the specially organised 3-day dialogue, over 4-6th July 2008, was spent on core issues. The rest, they say, was directed into generic discussions and cultural befriending activities. “An important opportunity for engaged dialogue about Sikh experiences and fears about Islamic conversion, kaffirism and social separatism; was vitally missed.”
Sikh participants say these prickly issues were genuine, fundamental concerns. However, they were met with palpable shock by both the organisers and the Muslim participants. “Whilst the deep felt Sikh experiences and concerns were clearly and calmly presented; the response from the Muslim participants was one of dismissal and rejection and nervous avoidance by the organisers and facilitators.” The organising body, FAITH MATTERS, was subsequently quoted as describing the expressed concerns as ‘myths’.
FAITH MATTERS published an official report about the dialogue, on 9th September 2008. Several Sikh participants have compiled an alternative report (copy attached) of the whole experience, as they feel the official report does not capture the Sikh experience precisely and fully. They are recommending that, both reports are carefully considered by the government and other bodies working on ‘community cohesion’. The 18-page Sikh report details the seven key issues raised by Sikhs in the dialogue, and explains the serious dissatisfaction with the methodology used.
The report gives observations and recommendations about public engagement of ‘community cohesion’ issues affecting Sikhs and various other communities in the UK; including a common sense of concern about issues emanating from the Muslim population.
A copy of both reports are being forwarded to Hazel Blears (Minister for Communities and Local Government), the Sikh Parliamentary Group chaired by Rob Marris MP and other key figures concerned with community cohesion. Rob Marris MP has very recently written to Hazel Blears5 asking for detailed information on “what steps your department is taking, to ensure that Sikhs and the other groups…are not being left out” of ’community cohesion’ .
GOVERNMENT FUNDED MUSLIM-SIKH DIALOGUE, 1st October 2008
FURTHER INFORMATION
The dialogue was organised on 4-6 July 2008, at the famous Corrymeela peace centre in Northern Ireland. Fifteen Muslim participants and nine Sikh participants, drawn from Slough, Derby, Coventry, London and Yorkshire, participated in the special weekend dialogue.
The dialogue was organised by Faith Matters (www.faith-matters.co.uk), and delivered through a set of facilitators from the famous Corrymeela centre, experienced in Northern Ireland tension issues. Faith Matters received government funding of £30,000 (‘Sikh Of It!’, Eastern Eye, 14th March 2008), from the Department for Communities & Local Communities, to organise discussion on issues of social tension between the two communities.
Both Sikh and Muslim participants raised separate, independent issues. Sikh participants raised several core issues around: Islamic conversion campaigns; derogatory labelling of Sikhs as ‘kaffirs’; and, general social segregation and separatism in Muslim communities. Sikh participants feel there was a distinct lack of focus on these pivotal issues.
Sikhs detailed their concerns, as:
a. Systematic harassment and bullying of Sikh, Hindu, Jewish children, and youth from the host communities.
b. Use of the misleading word ‘asian’ in the media and public policy.
c. The word “kaffir” should be termed as a racially and religiously hostile.
d. Devastating impact of 9/11 on the Sikh community, unrecognised and unacknowledged.
e. An investigation into the issues surrounding the “mothers for prevention” case in West Yorkshire. We wish to see if similar behaviour of “grooming” is happening in other cities.
f. Proportionate state funding that muslim community is getting, to be made available to Sikh communities to provide support for its members.
g. Sikh ethnic monitoring.
These are fully detailed in the attached report (see page 7) from Sikh participants.
Fiyaz Mughal, Director of Faith Matters was quoted in the Eastern Eye, 18th July 2008 : http://www.easterneyeonline.co.uk/iframe_story.asp?NID=5637
On 23th September 2008, the Sikh Commission on Race & Cohesion wrote a detailed email to Rob Marris MP and John Spellar MP, Chair and Co-Chair of the Sikh Affairs Parliamentary Group, on the subject of Sikh concerns about the government’s exclusionary ‘community cohesion’ agenda and the gross lack of inclusion of Sikhs and other diverse communities like English, Scottish, Greek, Italian, Polish and Jewish. In response, Rob Marris MP wrote, on 25th September, to Hazel Blears: “Based on my own experience, there is a large number of Sikhs who feel that, when it comes to community cohesion, their needs are overlooked. Therefore, I should be grateful if you, or one of your colleagues, could let me know, in some detail, what steps your department if taking, to ensure that Sikhs and the other groups to which Mr Singh refers, are not being left out (however inadvertently).”
Sikh activists have long expressed anxiety about the government’s ‘community cohesion’ strategy, which they believe is centred on befriending the Muslim populations and discriminates and ignores the rest of the UK diverse communities. Sikh activists say, there is no evidence of the British government reaching out and engaging other communities. They say the government’s predominant focus on the Muslim community is having a divisive, discriminatory and alienating affect on many other communities.
