Sir,
Mainly because of ignorance and mainly because of racism, many people try to shoot sarcastic questions or comments as and when they meet a Sikh with his traditional SKs. The Sikhs with patience and understanding do not get upset but once in a while they do offer a brief answer or a comment. My father faced some of these situations that I would like to share.
The ignorant people on the West coast of Canada mistakenly called Sikhs as Hindus, because
they did not know much about Sikhs and their Gurus and the Punjabis. To the contrary people in central Canada (Toronto) mistook Sikhs as Arabs because both have long beards and turbans and to them the difference between a Sikh and a Sheikh is just a misspelled word.
Waiting at a bus stop on a Toronto street in the evening a drunk Whiteman approached my father and asked, “Where are your camels?” My father responded, “Where your mother left the sheeps!” The bus came and both rode the bus laughingly.
At another time, a religious looking person approached my father and asked curiously, “Do you believe in God?” My father said enthusiastically, “yes, yes that it is the only thing that I believe in and in Sikh Faith its only the God we trust in.” The gentleman started explaining other niceties of his faith and started propagating for conversion. My father replied, its alright that both of us have trust in God, but there is a difference. The difference is that I trust in God and
not in the son of God. Belief and Respect are two separate things. I respect the prophets of other faiths, but its only one God that a Sikh, believes in. Father always told me that, as a Sikh if I do not have respect for myself, I must not expect any respect from others, and if as a Sikh I respect our Gurus then I have no choice but to respect myself as a Sikh, only after that we can expect others to respect us and respect us as Sikhs.
Ajit Singh Nepean, Canada
Article extracted from this publication >> September 22, 1989
