ARCHIVED FORUM: Gurdwara Tapoban Sahib
Angry Sikhs vow to enter Germany despite checks
Posted by : Kulbir Singh
Date: 7/16/2004 5:47 am
Angry Sikhs vow to enter Germany despite checks
Indo-Asian News Service
New Delhi, July 15
Sikhs aspiring to migrate to Germany on Thursday reacted angrily to reports that their community members were being singled out for security checks in Munich but said that would not stop them from going to that country.
Members of the community expressed shock and dismay at the reported profiling of Sikhs at Munich International Airport and the harassment of an octogenarian Sikh gentleman, who was asked to remove his turban to check for bombs.
A community known to be fiercely protective of its religious identity, the sense of outrage among Sikhs was heightened by the apparent absence of a clear denunciation of the incident by German officials here.
The German embassy was evasive, with spokesman Michael Reiffenstuel saying: "The embassy is aware of the incident and has informed the competent authorities in Germany, who are investigating the matter."
Satwinder Singh, 26, who was awaiting visa clearance to Germany, was livid with rage on hearing about the security checks on Sikhs.
"If it had been Punjab, we would have beat them up," he said, sitting on the lawns in front of the embassy.
But his uncle Jarnail Singh, a 51-year-old retired military man, was more pragmatic as he realised that it was more important to gain access to Germany than to take exception to such insults.
"I have no hard feelings, but they should stop searching Sikhs," he said.
"The turban is our religious symbol given to us by our guru (religious leader). If that is taken away, it is as good as taking away our identity too."
Germany has some 15,000 Sikhs, concentrated mainly in Frankfurt, Cologne and Stuttgart. There are about 20 gurdwaras.
In contrast to Satwinder Singh's display of anger, farmer Malkeet Singh pondered with a shrug: "If the defence minister of our country can be strip-searched in the US, can ordinary Indian citizens escape such insults elsewhere?"
He was referring to former US deputy secretary of state Strobe Talbott's revelations in a book that George Fernandes was strip-searched twice in US airports when he was India's defence minister.
Malkeet Singh, who left a thriving restaurant business in Hamburg in Germany to take up farming in his native Gurdaspur in Punjab, was accompanying his elder brother to the embassy.
He said there should be better understanding of religions, and more importantly tolerance for all communities.
"I myself have not faced any problems from Germans. My brother is leaving for Hamburg via Munich on Aug 3, only then I will get to know the truth about the searches," he said.
His elder brother Dalbir Singh, who now runs the Paradise Food Service in Hamburg, hoped the reports were untrue.
"If it is true, I will be really disheartened. Germans have been respecting Sikhism and they should continue to do so," Dalbir Singh said.
Many Sikhs in Germany openly carry the 'kirpan', a dagger, one of the five symbols of a baptised Sikh, without facing any problem, he pointed out.
Even foreigners visiting their gurdwaras abide by tradition and cover their heads, he said.
