SIKH ACTIVIST NETWORK: STAND UP AND FIGHT BACK IN OAKLAND

Subject: Stand Up and Fight Back: Oakland Resists Police Impunity

Fellow SAN comrades,

Many of you have seen the tragic video footage of what happened to Oscar Grant, a young father, worker, who was executed by BART police in the Fruitvale District of Oakland, California. If you haven't, I will include a link at the bottom. (And I, Mai, am embedding it here.)



It is of the utmost importance for us, as fellow people of color to stand in solidarity with the African-American community at every opportunity. As Prashad discusses in "Karma of Brown Folk", the American Government's (racist) goal is to find groups of people to continue to divide non-white communities; and have used us for far too long. We have been that group, serving as propaganda about "model minorities' who "prove" racist claims against African-Americans.

Right now, as I write this, the city of Oakland is in revolt. People are tired of the regular murder of young black men, and the promises of justice that are never fulfilled.

Some of you may be wary of the 'violence' that is occurring in downtown (broken windows), and respond more than you do when Oscar was killed. Broken windows are not violence, killing a young man in cold blood is violence; and it occurs regularly here i the Bay Area and all over the country.

I hope you will join me in the streets of Oakland to struggle and alongside folks of many colors, genders, and beliefs to demand that we hold people accountable for what happens within our community. Stand up, as our ancestors did, for justice.

Remember our legacies as people of color, from the Ghadar Party to the Black Panther Party.

In love, and endless solidarity,
Harjit Singh Gill
Oakland, CA
harjitgill@gmail.com

LINK: http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2009/01/05/18558793.php

*For more information or organized resistance and action in the Bay Area, please contact Comrade and SAN Activist, Harjit Singh Gill*
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Abandoned Sikh boy...

Today, at least for this post, I am taking a break from the war between Israel and Hamas with all its horrors. Yes, it continues. Of course.

Today, however, I have an update on an old story from April of last year. Does everybody remember the story of the little Sikh boy with the beautiful kesh found wandering around Southall, London? If you don't, please go and read the strange story of Gurinder Singh. The mystery of who he is and why he was alone in a strange country where he didn't even speak the language seems to have been solved by the power of DNA. (Every time I look at this picture, I have a burning desire to tie a patka on him. He looks very, very exposed and vulnerable, even with the brave smile on his face. Especially with that brave smile on his face. That mother thing, I guess!)

Read on...

FROM THAINDIAN NEWS

DNA test confirms abandoned London boy is from Punjab
January 4th, 2009 - 11:55 pm ICT by IANS
Hoshiarpur, Jan 4 (IANS) The DNA tests of an 11-year-old Sikh boy found abandoned in London last year have established that he belongs to a family near Tanda town in Punjab’s Hoshiarpur district and would be returning home soon, family members said Sunday.Several families, including those from Punjab and Bihar, had laid claim to the boy after he was found abandoned in London’s Asian-dominated Southall area.

Clearly a case of rampant illegal trafficking from Punjab, the boy, Gurinderjit Singh, had no idea how he landed in London and could converse only in Punjabi in the English-speaking country.

The confirmation of the DNA tests has been informed to Hoshiarpur’s Lok Sabha MP Avinash Rai Khanna by External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee through an official communication.

“Our High Commission at London has informed that as per DNA report of Oct 27, 2008, Kuldeep Singh has been identified as the paternal uncle of Gurinderjit Singh,” the minister wrote to the MP.

“The child - at present under interim care of Ealing Council, London - has desired to return to India to stay with his paternal uncle. A local court has consented that the council should make plans for the child’s future and send him back to India,” according to the communique.

Kuldeep Singh, a farmer who lives in a village near Tanda town, 180 km from Chandigarh, had laid claim to the boy after media reports about him.

“We are overjoyed with this news. We are eagerly waiting for him to return and his ordeal to end,” Kuldeep Singh said from his village.

A court in London has decreed that the boy should be sent to India in the custody of his paternal uncle. It stated that the boy should not be handed over to his mother at all.

The boy is believed to have been abandoned by his mother, who entered Britain illegally through France. The boy’s father, who himself is an illegal immigrant in a European country, also could not come forward to claim his son for the risk of being deported.

All's well that ends well, right?

WRONG!

We are Sikhs and nothing can be simple and clear cut. At least little Gurinder Singh his Didi ji, Navjit Kaur, seems more interested in bringing her brother home than in using him in some sort of a power struggle. I also note in this second story, just barely mentioned, there is also a daughter missing We move on to this second story...

Also FROM THAINDIAN NEWS:

London’s abandoned Sikh boy now has family trouble brewing

January 7th, 2009 - 2:06 pm ICT by IANS -Tanda (Punjab), Jan 7 (IANS) A Sikh boy found abandoned in London last year is headed for family trouble in India even before he sets foot on home soil to be reunited with relatives.As if last year’s drama of 11-year-old Gurinderjit Singh’s mysterious appearance outside a clinic in the Asian-dominated Southall area was not enough, his maternal family has now demanded the boy’s custody.

A London court had recently decreed that the boy be sent back to his paternal family in a village near this town in Punjab’s Hoshiarpur district, 180 km from Chandigarh, after his DNA samples matched with his paternal uncle Kuldeep Singh.

The boy is believed to have been abandoned by his mother, who entered Britain illegally through France. The boy’s father, who himself is an illegal immigrant in a European country, also could not come forward to claim his son as he risked deportation.

But just before the boy is headed for home to be reunited with relatives, his maternal family has threatened to take legal recourse to seek his custody.

“We want his custody. We had spent money to send his father abroad. Our daughter is also missing. His (the boy’s) sister also lives with us. We will take legal help to get his custody,” Mohinder Singh, the abandoned boy’s maternal grandfather, told IANS at his home in Jalalabad village in Hoshiarpur district.

Gurinderjit’s 13-year-old sister, Navjit Kaur, is also waiting to meet up with her brother.

“I have been missing him for so long. I want to be united with him now,” she said.

But his paternal uncle, Kuldeep Singh, disputed the claim of the maternal family.

“He is being sent to us under court orders from London. No one else has any claim on him. We have proceeded legally. Where was this family when the boy was found abandoned last year. We sent DNA samples from here to get him back. A divorce case of his father and mother is already on. We will not let anyone take him,” Kuldeep Singh told IANS.

“We are overjoyed with this news of his return. We are eagerly waiting for him to return and his ordeal to end,” he said.

Several families, including those from Punjab and Bihar, had laid claim over the boy after he was found abandoned in London’s Asian-dominated Southall area last year.

Clearly a case of rampant illegal trafficking from Punjab, the boy had no idea how he landed in London and could converse only in Punjabi in the English-speaking country. Investigations into his case in London had revealed that he was abandoned by his mother after she illegally came to Britain from France.

The boy’s ordeal seems to be headed for a conclusion after the latest decree by the London court to send him back to his paternal family. The confirmation of the DNA tests was conveyed to Hoshiarpur’s Lok Sabha MP Avinash Rai Khanna by External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee through an official communication.

“Our High Commission at London has informed that as per DNA report of October 27, 2008, Kuldeep Singh has been identified as the paternal uncle of Gurinderjit Singh, the child - presently under interim care of Ealing Council, London - has desired to return to India to stay with his paternal uncle. A local court has consented that the council should make plans for the child’s future and send him back to India,” the minister wrote to the MP.

Guru Gobind Singh - The Spiritual Warrior

This came in today from D. S. Gill, the Chairman of IHRO. With all the trouble in the world these days, it is good to stop now and then, especially on Gurpurab, and remember. And learn.

This time, it was different. I wanted to know the spiritual aspect of the Guru, the Tenth Nanak, Guru Gobind Singh on his 342nd birth anniversary that was celebrated on Monday, January 5, 2009. I started searching Google and found abundant literature to feel the theme.

As Guru Gobind Singh is the last of the ten Gurus, the one who transformed the Sikh faith, I was curious to know his spiritual contribution to the Khalsa Panth. In 1699, he created the Khalsa, a community of the faithfuls who wore visible symbols of their faith and trained as warriors so that people would no longer be easy victims of those in power, whether Hindu or Muslim. A select group of Sikhs who undergo an initiation becomes Akal Purakh ki Fauz (army) and the Khalsa Fauz must dedicate themselves to the defense of the oppressed at all times.

In 1708, the Tenth Master of the Sikhs named the Guru Granth Sahib his successor. Shortly before his death in October 1708 at Nanded, now Hazoor Sahib, he gave corporal Guruship to the Khalsa Panth.


"The Eternal Father willed and I raised the Panth. All my Sikhs are hereby ordered to accept the Guru Granth Sahib as their Preceptor. Have faith in the holy Granth, as your master and consider it the visible manifestation of the Gurus. He who hath a pure heart will seek guidance from its holy words." These are the words uttered by Guru Sri Gobind Singh, before he left for his heavenly abode, on October 7, 1708 at Nanded in Maharashtra.

Whenever there is degradation in moral and human values in the world, God sends His messengers to give proper guidance. Bhai Gurdas (the second) expresses, "Guru Gobind Singh (the Tenth Nanak), molded in the image of God, appeared in the world, as warrior." Bhagat Kabir too says in Maru, "Truly brave is he who fights for Dharma (righteousness)."

Guru Nanak says, 'The Lord hath called to His service a bard of no consequence' (Guru Nanak in Manjh). And Guru Gobind Singh says, "I (God) bless thee (guru) to be my son and I commission thee to propagate the Way.' Thus the first Nanak started the Way and the tenth Nanak propagated the same. 'His light and the way of his life were basically the same as those of his Master (Guru Nanak). He was the Master's reincarnation in spirit as the other Sikh Gurus were' (Var of Satta Balwand in Ramkali).

Thus, after ten gurus, we have the Interfaith Guru- Sri Guru Granth Sahib, that was bestowed to us by Guru Gobind Singh. And the Guru preaches: Ek Pita Ekas ke hum barik (Guru Arjan Dev in Sorath) - We all have a common Father (God) and, on that basis, we are all His children (brothers). The Interfaith Guru gives us the concept of world brother-hood. The enlightening and revolutionary word by the first Nanak- Na ko Hindu, Na Muslman (there was neither a Hindu nor a Muslim) should also be seen, in this context.



It is an admitted fact that, because of this, the Muslims at large, in this part of the world, regarded Guru Nanak as one of them. Hence, this popular verse describing him as a Guru for the Hindus and a Pir for the Muslims. It is also because of the fact that the interfaith Guru- Sri Guru Granth Sahib, consists of seven saints from Muslims and fifteen from Hindus, and it preaches universal humanism and spiritualism.



Besides Guru's spiritual aspect, the temporal horizon of the Guru– 'When all other means of resistance against tyranny and oppres­sion have failed, it is legitimate, as a last resort, to turn to the sword' (Guru Gobind Singh in his Zafarnama (1704) is too of the world consequence and importance.



That is why; the United Nations had to declare in the Preamble of its Universal Declaration on Human Rights, December 10, 1948, 'Whereas it is essential, if a human being is not to be compelled to have recourse, as a last resort, to rebellion against tyranny and oppression, that human rights should be protected by rule of law.'



And that is why, the Sikhs believe in the Sikh concept of Miri-Piri (spiritual-cum-temporal) or Saint-Soldier inspiration of the Khalsa Panth.



- D S Gill

Chair IHRO

If You Support Israel...

I have been accused of one-sided reporting on this topic of Gaza, so I am posting this, sent from an IHRO member.

I will be honest. I think both sides are full of crap! Israel has behaved inhumanely toward the civilian population of Gaza by blockading Gaza and now by invading.. Hamas has been acting inhumanely toward the civilians of Israel be lobbing rockets at them.

AS I HAVE SAID REPEATEDLY, I DO NOT CARE WHO IS TO BLAME. I JUST WANT ALL THIS NONSENSE TO STOP. And if the rest of the world can stand together and insist that it stop. It will stop.

I have been looking for a picture of Israeli children killed by Hamas rockets, but haven't found any . These pictures of the Hamas rocket attack on Ashkelon in the West Bank on 3 March 2008 was as close as I could come. If any reader has picture of Israeli children killed by Hamas rockets, please send them to mt at simayanan@gmail.com. I will be publish them here.

Here is the proIsrael post from an IHRO member:

PLEASE COME, JOIN AND SUPPORT ISRAEL IF YOU CAN SPARE A COUPLE OF HOURS ON JAN. 6TH.

NARAIN KATARIA
(718) 478-5735

From:
Date: Mon, Jan 5, 2009 at 8:08 AM
Subject: Fwd: Rally Tues Jan 6 12:30 PM Israeli Consulate 43 & 2nd - call 914- 393-8071



FOR INFORMATION - PLEASE JOIN AND SUPPORT IF YOU HAVE TIME. REGARDS.

NARAIN KATARIA


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: hitaya@gmail.com
To: bel21mar@gmail.com
CC: katarian@aol.com, kensy7@aol.com
Sent: 1/4/2009 7:48:57 P.M. Eastern Standard Time
Subj: Re: Rally Tues Jan 6 12:30 PM Israeli Consulate 43 & 2nd - call 914- 393-8071


Marvin and Hillary,

The following Organizations would like to express our support.

1) Hindu Human Rights Watch
2) Global Hindu Heritage Foundation
3) Mahatma Gandhi International Foundation
4) Indian American Intellectual Forum
5) Coalition for Peace

Regards,
Satya
732-252-6792 (H)
732-939-2060 (M)


On Sun, Jan 4, 2009 at 5:09 PM, Marvin Belsky wrote:

Hillary, Beth

These are our Indian Hindu friends who should be encouraged to endorse
and speak as well as
arrange for flyers detailing their Wash DC Inauguration protest march.
Still working on more Christian Zionists
as Eagles' Wings sending out 'blast' email. What's with Norpac and
Rabbi Pruzansky and Rabbi Algaze
and NY Board of Rabbis ?

Mass rally in support of Israel for this Tuesday at 12 30pm. (CHANGED FROM 1 PM)


Mass rally in support of Israel for this Tuesday at 12 30pm. (CHANGED
FROM 1PM TO ENABLE MORE TO COME ON LUNCH) in front of the Israeli
Consulate in Manhattan. (42nd Street at Second Ave

I ask that you come out in support and stand strong with us. Please
bring friends, family, colleagues, members of your Churches &
Synagogues.

Some of the many sponsoring orgs:
Fuel for Truth,
UJA, AJC,
ZOA,
Act for America,
National Council of Young Israel,
CJC-AMCHA,
AFSI,
Mothers Against Terrorism,
Students for Peace in the Middle East,
Betar,
Yeshiva University Center for the Jewish Future,
Aish and Hasbara Fellowships,
Northeast Queens JCC
...and more.

Thousands of rockets have been launched by the terrorist organization
Hamas into Southern Israel since Israel left Gaza in the name of
peace. Israel has the right to defend herself. Please come out and
show your support for Israel's war on terror.

<

THE PALESTINIAN CHRONICLE - and more pictures

These pictures were taken before the current ground invasion of Gaza, so they might seem a bit out dated now. I believe they are still relevent and need to be seen.

BREAKING NEWS - ISRAELI GROUND TROOPS ENTER GAZA

Israeli troops 'move into Gaza'
Israeli ground troops have entered Gaza, Israeli military officials say, a week after the offensive against Hamas began




This just came into my inbox from BBC. I have turned on CNN, MSNBC and Faux News and am watching those horrible green night vision pictures of green toy soldiers carrying rifles and wearing backpacks marching across my screen. I'll report more as I learn more, although I expect you to keep watch on your own television and news sources, as I am just an observer, just as are you.





Israel has confirmed the invasion. I just heard that Hamas fighters are returning heavy fire. The air strikes are continuing ans the invasion continues



At present, I have only this one picture from BBC.

Whichever side you may support in this war, the civilians of Gaza are the ones who are suffering most. Let us remember them in our prayers that they somehow hold onto hope and that they have the strength to endure.

And let us remind the Israeli soldiers that their Jewish religion teaches of a God of mercy who loves all his children of every nationality.