Are The Sikhs 2 Close-Minded 2 Live In The West ?...

According to police 400 sikhs showed up with bricks outside the Birmingham
Repertory Theatre to protest a black comedy play written by a sikh. BBC did
show the aftermath ; broken windows, several arrests and five policemen injured
while trying to keep the violent mob from storming into the theatre. The author,
fearing for her life has gone into hiding.

Sounds familiar ?. Well, it’s not. Nothing of the sort actually.

Firstly, the sikh religion is not targeted in this play. It’s not even brought up,
aside from one scene having a gurdwara as it’s backdrop. As in Amsterdam,
they didn’t have the verses from the sikh holy book written on a naked girl,
who’s raped and murdered. The thrust of the play was not to malign Sikhism.
Secondly, in Amsterdam only one Muslim turned violent and took the law into
his hands (and the whole Muslim community has since been profusely apolo-
gising for his actions). Here, hundreds of sikhs carried out pre-meditated
violence, under the stewardship of their local community leaders. Not only is
the whole lot unrepentant, they remain proudly self-righteous to date.

And what do you suppose is the reaction of free-speech loving, european
christians who wanted to deport close-minded Muslims a few weeks ago ?.
The Archbishop of Canterbury was on BBC urging the playrights and theatre
companies to exercise ’restraint’ and ’good judgment’ when working with
topics that may be of a sensitive nature to other communities. 8-|

BC.


Play scrapped after Sikh protests
Published in CNN - Indexed on Dec 20, 2004
LONDON, England (Reuters) -- The directors of a British play depicting sexual abuse and murder in a Sikh temple reluctantly scrapped their production on Monday due to fears that violent Sikh protests against it would escalate. The directors said they stood by the play and by the principles of free speech, but had taken their decision to avoid a repeat of riots at the theatre on Saturday night. "Sadly it’s clearly evident that the violent protesters have won," said Stuart Rogers, executive director of the Birmingham Repertory Theatre. "We cannot operate this theatre in a state where people are throwing bricks through our windows.

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