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Berkshire Sikh meeting to take
on prejudice
WSN Network
LONDON: A
conference is being held in Berkshire to address what organisers say
is continued prejudice against Sikhs after the 9/11 and 7/7
terrorist attacks. Slough MP Fiona McTaggart will talk at
Wednesday's event, during which a film called Turbanology will be
shown.
The Met Police
recorded more attacks on Sikhs after the
London
and US attacks.
The director of
Turbanology, Jay Singh Sohal, and councillor Diana Coad, who is
Slough's Conservative parliamentary candidate, will also speak at
the event.
A message from
South East MEP Caroline Lucas will also be read out.
Many Sikhs found
themselves being accused of supporting terrorism because they wore a
turban. Jagdeesh Singh, from the Sikh Community Action Network in
Slough, said he had been punched and verbally abused twice because
of his turban and beard.
On one occasion
he was walking with his eight-year-old nephew in his home town of
Coventry when two white men started racially abusing him before
hitting him more than 30 times.
On the other
occasion he said he was subjected to violent threats and name
calling such as "Bin Laden" and "terrorist" by the pupils at a
Slough school. "Emotionally and psychologically it gave me a major
shake, it really left me really, really upside down emotionally," he
added.
"It really
caused me to re-evaluate 'where are we' in this world as Sikhs, 'how
do we fit in'?"
According to the
2001 census, Sikh residents make up about 8% of
Slough's
population, the highest figure by local authority in
England.
26
August 2009
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