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On Sunday, the Orange Juice Blog, at the invitation of one of our Sikh friends, took a field trip to Buena Park’s Guru Nanak Sikh Temple. You may have read, in the Weekly or elsewhere, that this fine peaceful temple was vandalized with “FUCK ISIS” graffiti in the wake of the recent terrorist attack in San Bernardino. I know – hell of ignorant, huh? Not only do the vast, VAST majority of American Muslims condemn such attacks, but the Sikhs are a completely different and peaceful religion who don’t even “seek” converts, and come from a different part of the world. They DO wear headgear however. And serve really good food after their services.
The good news is, the 20-year old who committed this vandalism felt real bad about it afterward, turned himself in, apologized to the Sikhs, helped clean up the mess, and is not going to face charges. I have to admit that one of my biggest reasons for showing up was to meet this kid, interview him and ask him what he was thinking when he did it and what made him change his mind. But I just missed him. Or else this would be a more interesting story. I won’t mention his name here because I’m sure he’s tired of all the bad publicity (and mean things said about him on social media) but bro, if you see this and you want to talk, get in touch!
This service was a special one, with over a dozen local religious figures, civil rights leaders, and Democratic politicians showing up to speak and express solidarity with the temple – Sikhs are often attacked when Islamophobia is in the air, and it’s bad enough it happens to Muslims. We heard short and heartfelt talks from the Anti-Defamation League’s Mike Ruben, a couple of women from CAIR whose names I couldn’t catch, LULAC’s Ed Portillo, Muslim Iyad and Sikh Mani from the OC Democratic Party, local school board Democrat Connor Traut, and Sukhee Kang, who was the only candidate there to mention the race he was in.
Juice friend and LGBTQ activist Jeff LeTourneau talked about how honored he was to be in a room full of people who celebrate their differences, and decried both extremist Islam and extremist Christianity. Former (and possibly future) assemblywoman Sharon Quirk-Silva introduced herself as a schoolteacher and talked about how her students had just sung a song about martin Luther King to their parents. And Congressional candidate Joe Dunn pointed out that all religions preach peace on earth and goodwill to men, and stressed that we should strive for unity rather than divide ourselves into different communities. Don’t believe me? Here they all are, wearing the acceptable Sikh headgear and no shoes:
That’s weird, I wonder why it was just Democrats there? Did Supervisor Shawn Nelson not hear about this disturbing vandalism in his district? Were Young Kim and Ling-Ling Chang, the opponents of Sharon and Sukhee, too busy that day? Oh well, I am going to go ahead and assume that Orange County’s Republicans also condemn attacks on religious minorities, despite the blathering of their leading Presidential candidate.
Next Orange Juice field trip is Wednesday to Silverado, to hear the County describe their preparations for El Niño!
*Life is complex enough…now we have to figure out “the Who’s Who in the Muslim Religion” of over 1.5 Billion folks. OK, let’s start with our the brother and sister Sikhs.
Those are folks from Kashmir…..who Pakistan and India have been fighting with since
1946 when Independence from Great Britain occurred. The Muslim majority in Pakistan wanted the rich land and the India Hindu’s wanted it too. The Sikhs are like American Independent Voters were during the Ross Perot era. They don’t like either side. They got a very bad name for being blamed for the death of Gandi, but actually they are fairly non-terrorist in nature. The Pakistani’s took the Pashtoon area to their east which was supposed to become Independent by another English Agreement from both Afghanistan and Pakistan in 2005,….but that ship has sailed. OK, most of the Muslims are Sunni – About 85%. Of those only about 10% are part of the ISIS World Caliphate Organization….stressing Shariya Law – Cut off hands and heads and killing infidels at will. The Saudi’s, Arab Emirates, Abu Dabi and South Yemen are funding the ISIS Forces in Syria and Iraq. Meanwhile, Iran, Assad of Syria, Baghdad Iraq Government are Shia Muslims….who although have done terror….are mostly peaceful. Meanwhile, the Kurds had their country broken up at the turn of the 20th Century, Turkey killed a bunch of Armenians and the whole Ottoman Empire collapsed. The Kurds have native rights in Part of Syria, Turkey and Iraq. Turkey hates the Kurds, because they want to be independent and they have lots of natural resources. The Kurds need to be United into one country called “The New Kurdistan”. The ISIS/ISIL Forces in Syria and Iraq are nothing more than local Sunni Tribes that have gone into business for themselves as the new Muslim Mafia in the Middle East. They extort money (called taxes) from every resident. Their awful deeds are not worth noting. We need to take back Mosul, Ramadi, Falluja and secure Erbil for the Kurds. Meanwhile,
some idiot calls the LAUSD and we close all schools in the Los today. Dust those folks Homeland Security….drone them into the next century. We cannot have that. Meanwhile, arrest Donald Trump for inciting a riot and put him in jail. He can then call himself Lyndon Larouche and write several books from prison about how bad the US Government is and about the world Corporate Conspiracy. Meanwhile, leave the regular Muslims alone….they are nice.
Matt Coker puts it much more clearly:
“A quick primer for haters or those who skipped comparative religion: Sikhism is a monotheistic dharma which originated during the 15th century in the Punjab region of South Asia. Its followers, known as Sikhs, rarely seeks converts.
“Islam is a monotheistic and Abrahamic religion that originated during the seventh century in what is now Saudi Arabia. Its followers, known as Muslims, do seek converts. The confusion likely stems from the facts some Sikhs and Muslim men wear turbans.
“These days, especially after terror attacks linked to Muslim radicals, Sikhs get mistaken for followers of Islam, at times to violent ends.”
In other words, Sikhs are not any kind of Muslim.
*Sorry Chairman Vern that I didn’t make that clear. You are entirely correct
regarding the Sikhs.
Also missing is DINO Lou Correa.