It is with sadness that we read about the statement made by the Network of Sikh Organisations (NSO) about the support and solidarity that was being shown with Sikhs who are attacked because of their identity as Sikhs and because of racism. It is also clear that some Sikhs are attacked on the perception that they are Muslims, which does not detract from the fact that this creates fear within Sikh communities and impacts on families.

The reference made in the statement is to a project that took place 10 years ago – the Cohesive Communities project. The subsequent report is listed here and with clear references to explore issues of division between Sikh and Muslim communities and therefore deeply conflicting social narratives. These issues are even listed in the project overview and the Cohesive Communities report did not list some of the troubling discussions that took place which were confidential. The discussions caused facilitators to feel saddened that two communities with so much in common, were at polar opposites of the social divide.

We are also saddened to see that tweets that were made in 2012 and subsequently deleted are being used to create an atmosphere of mistrust at a time when communities need to work together and when the NSO statement itself suggests that a minority of participants were unhappy. Such difficult discussions around grooming, forced conversions, historical attacks against Sikhs by Muslim Indian rulers, amongst the many topics discussed at the Corrymeela Centre, are never easy and will bring out a range of emotions.

Given the Cohesive Communities report and what we heard, Faith Matters commissioned a further report to try and untangle and unpack the difficult narratives that were causing division. Hardly the act of an organisation that did not care or chose to reflect one communities’ perspectives. The Adab research report can be found here and details the narratives, history and perspectives coming from Sikh and Muslim communities.

However, we are glad to hear that the NSO (Network of Sikh Organisations) and partners in the Hindu community have a commitment to work with True Vision, which Tell MAMA has. Tell MAMA, which was founded by Faith Matters, has shown that its values are fundamentally based on inclusion and in supporting all communities who suffer hatred, prejudice and racism. Tell MAMA has also, on many occasions – stood against hatred against LGBT, Jewish, Shia and Ahmaddiya communities from a small number within Muslim communities showing that it will fearlessly stand for the rights of all communities and does not pick and choose on issues of human rights. Therefore, it is even more depressing to see that division is being called for at a time when Muslims, Sikhs, Jews and many other communities, should be working together. This on the basis of 4 individuals and on tweets made a decade ago on a project that explored some of the most difficult topics that were causing divisions between Sikhs and Muslims.

We within Faith Matters will continue to stand for the human rights of all communities to be protected. This means that when Sikh communities are attacked, their defence is our defence. When Sikh women or Gurdwaras are attacked, their honour and their integrity is our honour and integrity; and when young white girls in Rotherham are abused, their honour and their well-being is the responsibility of all communities, including ours. These are the core values of Faith Matters and what we stand on.

Finally, we have spoken to the Tell MAMA team and the round table was set up in solidarity with Sikh communities and was set up to share good practice. Support was also offered, though what was expressly stated was that it was for Sikh communities to find solutions within their communities to reduce hate crimes against Sikhs. This was expressly stated on a number of occasions at the meeting. Sadly, if the response for a call for solidarity is a call for division and separationism, then the only people who are strengthened by these actions are those who seek to divide and play off one community against another. In the end, protecting the dignity and safety of Sikhs means protecting the dignity and safety of us all as communities and people. We therefore continue to put out the hand of friendship to all communities and we will always do so. This also includes maintaining our openness to work with any group whose values are based on the defence of pluralism within communities.

Faith Matters investigated tensions amongst young Sikh and Muslim men which threatened to create local and national hotspots of tension. Conducted in 2008, it took Sikhs and Muslims to Corrymeela in Northern Ireland to explore some of the issues causing tension in some parts of the East and West Midlands and to look at commonalities between the two communities. Faith Matters was aware of rising tensions and even in 2008, it was clear that a handful of Sikhs were looking to join groups like the British National Party (and later the English Defence League), groups that were attempting to woo young Sikhs on the premise that they supposedly had historical angsts against Muslims.

What was clear was that issues of identity were affecting both Sikhs and Muslims and whilst both communities had been active in the ati-racist movements of the 1970’s, 80’s and 90’s, young Sikhs felt that their identity had to be defined against Muslims, rather than through any ‘organic’ movement within the community. Therefore, Muslims who were historically defined as the other, were further caricatured post 9/11 and 7/7 on the basis that Sikhs were being attacked since ‘Muslims’ were the real problem. This twisted narrative did not take into account the fact that those who had attacked and killed Sikhs, thought that they were Muslims and that Muslims had also stood in solidarity with Sikh communities against these anti-Muslim attacks which also had strong undertones of prejudice attached to them. Furthermore, leaflets distributed in Derby and Leicester and attributed by some Sikhs to Al Muhajiroun were then used to support the narrative that Muslims (in general) were looking to convert Sikhs. Allied to this, strong residual feelings that Muslims want to convert Sikh women, has led to small groups of morality police within some Sikh groups breaking up interfaith relationships and suggesting that the Sikh women have been brainwashed. Evidence on such cases to the Police have not been provided.

A summary of the work of Faith Matters on these narratives can be found through the following reports:

Cohesive Communities Report: https://faith-matters.org/images/stories/cohesive_community_report090908.pdf 

The Adab Report: https://faith-matters.org/images/stories/publications/The_Adab_Respect_Research_Programme.pdf 

Our primary reason for this work is to try and improve relations between both faith communities at a time when the Far Right, including the English Defence League, are trying to play on differences. The EDL are no friends of Sikh communities. Nor are they friends of other faiths, nor of Christianity, which they have tried to hijack. The EDL remain a threat to our country, our values and our freedoms. They are a national threat to our futures!

Working Towards Bridging Divides Between Sikh and Muslim Communities

Confronting Regional Barriers and Divisions Between Sikh and Muslim Communities Through Conflict Resolution Programmes at Corymeela

This project was completed on the 2nd of September 2008 and full details of the project are listed in the introduction below. This was a particularly tough project that roused passions particularly within the young male Sikh participants and it brought to the forefront the kinds of areas of tension that exist. This project is the first national programme of it’s kind and attempted to look at the localised areas of tensions, which if not addressed, will link up and become national flashpoints. This is partly because the Internet provides the medium to spread these tensions which need to be contextualised.

The full report on this programme is attached here for your information and we hope that it may be used as a resource to develop cohesion and to look at divergent dialogues.

Introduction

The Cohesive Communities programme is primarily targeted towards Sikh and Muslim communities within the UK and will target a variety of groups such as students, religious and organisational leaders and individuals involved in the political life of this country.

Cohesive Communities will involve taking groups of 20 members of each faith community from each of the vocational groups outlined to Corymeela in Northern Ireland and which has been involved in conflict resolution over the last 40 years. Corymeela staff have helped to create spaces where people of diverse backgrounds can come and meet each other and where there is an atmosphere of trust and acceptance and where differences can be acknowledged, explored and accepted. It is a site to develop community cohesion through conflict resolution.

Corymeela has made a sustainable difference to community relations and reconciliation work over the last 40 years and many of the people involved in reconciliation at Corymeela are now active throughout Northern Ireland .

Background to Cohesive Communities

This project has come about due to previous and continuing tensions between members of the Muslim and Sikh communities. These tensions include:
• Breakdowns in community relations in areas like Derby between Sikh and Muslim communities

• Sikh community members feeling vulnerable to attack because they ‘look Muslim.’
• Continued tensions between the two communities and especially between young people
• Issues around the ‘Bezhti’ play and the impact that this had on community and race relations
• Attacks on Sikhs by people thought to be Muslims
• Lack of employment and progression opportunities for members of both communities
• Stories of alleged forced conversions.

Further information that has led to this project includes the fact that there have been serious incidences of youth violence between Sikh and Muslim communities starting in 1996 within the Slough area of London .

In Derby 2001, tensions between Sikhs and Muslims worsened following September 11, as rumours spread that Al-Muhajiroun members were active in the area distributing anti-Sikh leaflets. A hoax letter, which had been circulating on the internet for some years and aimed at fomenting Sikh-Muslim conflict, inflamed the Sikh community when it was allegedly distributed in Normanton Road , the heart of Derby ’s Asian community. There was talk of a boycott of Muslim shops and angry meetings were held at the Gurdwara. With many Sikhs having already moved out of the Normanton area to Derby ’s suburbs, those who remained felt vulnerable and outnumbered.

These are therefore some examples of underlying tensions between both communities and this project aims to tackle some of these by bringing groups of Muslims and Sikhs together within a comfortable and neutral environment which has decades of experience of working through community tensions and problems. It is also interesting to note that the tensions become more acute on national days like the Independence days of Pakistan and India and on the anniversary of the invasion of the Golden Temple in Amritsar in the early 1980’s.

Aim of Cohesive Communities

The aim of the project is to facilitate a platform through which much needed discussion and dialogue can take place between key British Muslim and Sikh community and organisational leaders, students, religious leaders and up and coming politicians.
Objectives

• To provide a platform in Corymeela through which dialogue and discussions can take place between key members of the Sikh and Muslim communities in the UK . There will be five key areas from which participants will be picked and these include London (Southall, Slough and Hillingdon), Derby , Coventry , Birmingham and Wolverhampton.
• To engage with students, organisational heads, community and religious leaders and up and coming politicians from both communities. The primary focus of the programme will be to engage with as many Muslim and Sikh youth and student groups as possible.
• To develop a work programme that enhances continued contact with both communities and which lays down the basis for a strategy to counter-act those that prey on divisions and on fomenting extremism within both communities. The strategy will also have a key section that includes youth and student groups and work that may be conducted on university campuses.
• To help to break down stereotypes and barriers that have built up over time between British Muslim and Sikh communities.
• To work towards the production of a tool kit that can be used to provide frameworks to reducing tensions between both communities. This will include sections on combating myths, national and local contacts etc
• To produce a web-site that specifically facilitates contact with members from both communities.
• To utilise other good practice being conducted between groups and to introduce that within the project.
• To create community cohesion champions between Muslim and Sikh communities throughout the UK.

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Faith Matters explored local issues of tensions amongst young male Sikhs and Muslims which threatened to create local and national hotspots of tension.

The project culminated in the Cohesive Communities report which can be used by communities as a resource to develop cohesion and to look at divergent dialogues between Sikh and Muslim communities.

The following text is the introduction from the Cohesive Communities report which can be downloaded through the link:

A Growing Divide and the Need to Acknowledge Triggers that are Dividing Both Sikhs and Muslims

About six months ago, Faith Matters put together the framework of a project to try to address the growing gulf between Sikhs and Muslims in certain localised areas of England. We knew that there had been historical flashpoints and tensions and we were aware of a deep rooted set of dynamics that were corroding relationships. Our own learning journey through this process has been steep and with it a need to understand the key triggers that are dividing both Sikhs and Muslims and the anger that is brewing within a younger male Sikh section of the community. Core to trying to bridge divides is the need for issues raised by the Sikh community to be acknowledged and vice versa, though this seems more so from the Sikhs to Muslims. We also acknowledge that within Corrymeela, that there were different personal aims that individuals wanted to achieve and some of these were different to the aims of this project. Whilst we could not attempt to meet all of these within this project, we believe that because this was the first project of its kind in the UK between Sikhs and Muslims, a lot of issues came out in the process. Some of these opinions were polarized; some were based on a sense of collectivism whilst others were more receptive, thoughtful and inclusive. This report therefore lists some of the findings that came out from facilitated group and person to person interactions. We have also corresponded with participants and have informed them that comments that were seen as inflammatory and which could lead to further barriers to interaction in the future, would be left out. As the name suggests, the Cohesive Communities project was a chance for key issues to be aired and a start to the interaction process between both faiths. It was not meant as a basis to provide legitimisation for either community to use the report or findings against the other and we firmly adhere to this principal.

Today, we can honestly say that the dynamics are becoming polarised as each community starts to mentally map the corresponding faith group as the ‘other.’ The primers and triggers that facilitate  space for this divergent thinking include on Sikh side, the view that resources are going to Muslims be it funding or others and that there are programmes of alleged forced conversations of women. Furthermore, some Sikhs feel that Muslim leaders do not speak out when there are attacks on Sikhs who are considered to be Muslims and there are those voices which suggest that Jews, Hindus, Sikhs and Christians are targeted by Muslims. Conversely, Muslims are starting to voice concerns that a handful of Sikhs are starting to work with the BNP and this is made more relevant when the language used against them sounds like statements from British National Party literature. There are also those within Muslim communities who have no idea of some of the issues outlined and who blindly think that there is a commonality based on race, a minority faith and links to the sub-continent.  There are others who believe that pictorial depictions of Muslims killing Sikh believers within Sikh Gurdwaras do nothing for cohesion and feeds radicalism within the Sikh community from a young age. Then there are those culprits of the night, the shape shifters who feed the fears about Islam and Muslims and who talk about a Muslim take over and the struggle to push back unbelievers. Their texts on Kaffirism and non-believers further exacerbate fears and their names are Al-Muhajiroun and Hizb-ut-Tahrir. On the Sikh side, there are also those small numbers of groups who take a radical polarised view of Muslims and to other faiths and these have come out of a gang culture that was based on the perceived control of local areas. In this concoction, it is not hard to see that both communities are on divergent tracks and that potential problems are being stored up. Indeed, the questions that participants’ from both communities put to each other at the end of this report, show inter-community fissures and why we felt that facilitation was much needed in this project. These questions came out from a flip chart session where each member was told to list their views and thoughts and which led to some wide ranging and deeply troubling thoughts being listed. The questions put to each faith by the corresponding faith group have not been changed, though they thankfully took a more constructive and less inflammatory approach.

In light of the above, we are of the opinion that more programmes are needed to get Sikhs and Muslims to deal with these and ongoing issues. Whilst the approach taken by Corrymeela was based on their experience of conflict resolution (i.e.) looking at commonalities before moving onto areas of contention, this was something that some Sikh participants queried. Their perceptions were that they had come to try to raise issues of contention and get them resolved. We believe that the approach of Corrymeela was justified since conflict resolution always looks at issues of agreement or similarity before moving onto contentious issues. However, this pilot will be adapted in the future to look at the key issues and relevant methods of overcoming the barriers which has been mentioned by a few participants. We acknowledge this and if a model is to be developed which can be replicated throughout the UK, then it needs to include actual tangible methods of overcoming the areas causing conflict. However, this project has achieved three fundamental and key objectives that will need to be built upon. Firstly, it has flagged up the internalised thought patterns of what may be circulating within each faith community. It has also flagged up and summarised in a set of 10 questions, the contentious dialogues through which each of the two faith communities are taking towards  each other and finally and more importantly, this work has provided us with the basis on which to make some key proposals that are listed here. It is our firm opinion that these will make a substantial difference through national work programmes and public messages that show that the issues affecting both faiths are being taken seriously.

Whilst the issues are currently localised to a few regions across the UK, it is also clear that the use of the Internet and chat rooms are pushing localised issues within the wider national domain. If this continues and the no action is taken through further investment in the proposals made within this report, then it is our opinion that localised tensions may well ‘link up’ and create national tensions that will deeply affect community cohesion and interfaith relations between Sikhs and Muslims in the future. We are also mindful that if this takes place, there will be those groups like the British National Party, as well as other anti-Muslim or anti-Sikh groups who will attempt to manipulate the tensions. This is a real and credible threat given the past history of the British National Party and its recent campaigning against Muslim communities, for example during the local elections of the 5^th of May 2006.

Deep rooted fears need to be respected through sensitive language and acknowledgments. It has been a very tough and difficult process to date though this is part and parcel of dealing with two communities who have complex sets of interactions. We are determined that such issues listed above are acknowledged and then actioned so that further corrosions around community relations do not take place in the future. This is the basic respect that can be given to both communities. It is also why we will be calling for statutory sources and those with resources to set up national Muslim and Sikh commissioners who can work within local areas and act as a bridge between statutory authorities and communities from both faiths. We will also be calling for a national Muslim and Sikh media group which will work together when there are issues of tension or incidents involving Muslims and Sikhs. We will also be pressing for Government sources to get local authorities to set aside local community chests for Muslim and Sikh led community organisations to apply for funding for joint partnership working projects, where there are large populations of Sikhs and Muslims in relevant cities. Finally, we sincerely believe that with the lobbying work that we are undertaking, that an independent report will be commissioned through an academic institution around suggestions of forced conversions that have been raised by Sikhs. Changing religion and converting is the basic right of any one of us if we chose. Forcing vulnerable people to do so is not on and is condemned by all faiths. With that in mind, it is time to find out and deal with this issue once and for all and we are proud to have worked with Sikhs and Muslims over the last 6 months. Easy it has not been, but we have valued every minute of it and hope that we can have the pleasure to work with both communities in the future.

Fiyaz Mughal
Director – Faith Matters