#anti-sikhism

[allthecanadianpolitics]

A ruling by Quebec’s highest court upholding the law banning religious symbols to be worn by public sector employees in the workplace is “dangerous” and a “fascistic approach to human rights”, a Canadian anti-hate organisation said Friday, Anadolu Agency reports.

The secularism law, known as Bill 21, bans employees, such as teachers and police officers, from wearing religious symbols at work. Included are Muslim hijabs, Christian crosses, Sikh turbans and Jewish kippahs.

In a 200-page decision made public Thursday, the court upheld Bill 21 and also extended it to cover English school boards that had previously been exempt.

“Clearly the judges on the panel care little about the human rights of the communities primarily affected by the law who all happen to be racialised religious communities or the bigotry and racism that the law enables,” Canadians United Against Hate founder, Fareed Khan, said in a news release.

Full article

Tagging: @politicsofcanada

#cdnpoli #canadian #canadian news #canadian politics #canada #anti-sikhism #antisemitism #islamophobia #québec #bill 21 #quebec #religious discrimination #religious oppression #religious minorities

[shut-up-rabert]

Jo log India mein rehte bhi nahi unhe India se Khalistan chahiye

Not lahore that was Maharaja Ranjit Singh’s Capital

Not Gujranwala that was Guru Maharaj’s birth place

Not US/UK/Canada where they live kyunki sasura wo log jail mein daal denge.

Bhaisahab ko chahiye bhi India mein, aur west punjab lene ki himmat nahi hai kyunki jis ISI se funding/training mil rahi hai usse gaddari kaise kare, but India se Haryana Himachal bhi maang rahe hai.

All while Indian Sikhs inka support bhi nahi kar rahe. Because they believe this is not what the Gurus taught them, but these people are speaking over them in saying that all the Sikhs want it.

Bhai, jigra chahiye hota hai itni entitlement rakhne ke liye, koi aam baat hai itna besharm hona?

#khalistan #bhoi being bitchy #sikhism #desiblr #anti khalistan #Harmandir Sahib allowing those pro protests tho #It hurts

[aardvaark]

atheism is cool but i’m still annoyed by the time my friend admitted to me that they do see themself as better and smarter than religious/spiritual people because believing in higher powers means you’re irrational and not very smart. which was probably the first time i had a strongly atheist person to admit that to me but not the first time i met an atheist who i was pretty certain felt that way. and this person was very leftist, yet they felt all religions should just end. you don’t have to believe in anything, you can have reasons for it of course, but there’s no need to disrespect people or want to make them to stop being religious. i think that’s something that comes from a lot of white people with christian backgrounds in majority christian societies, where they know christianity is often used for oppression (it is) and so they think that every religion is the same and always inherently bad (they’re not).

other religions exist, religious minorities are already disrespected and persecuted enough without your input as someone who apparently wants equality. you talk about acceptance but you see some people as lesser. if you side with conservatives on ‘other religions bad’ but also think christianity is bad, you’re still upholding the ‘other religions bad’ concept that conservatives believe. and if you go about life thinking other people are stupid for their beliefs and you’re better than them, then you’re probably just a shitty person.

#atheism #theism #again atheism is perfectly fine and being an atheist is great #wren speaks #xtianity #religion #judaism #islam #hinduism #jainism #sikhism #leftist #leftism #spirituality #annoying anti theists #don’t fight me on the white christian background thing cause i’m FROM a white christian background i KNOW i’ve SEEN it

[aboutanancientenquiry]

#anti-sikh pogroms of 1984 #india #sikhism #never forget 1984

[onlinesikhstore]

Sarbloh Kara Meditation Praying Beads Sikh Singh Kaur Khalsa Simran Bangle DD2 Sarbloh Meditation Praying Beads (Solid Beads) Hindu Budh Sikh Singh Kaur Simrana Kara. Kara Ref: DD2 Size of each bead is approx 8mm, separator Bead/Big Bead is approx 1.1cm 28 Beads Simarana Sarbloh Sikh Kara - Meditation Beads Please note 28 beads are only in Kara over size 6cm, Kara less than 6cm has 25 and 24 beads. Number of beads will vary (either 27 + 1 beads or 25 beads or 24 beads) in each bracelet. If you are after particular number of beads please let us know in order notes (Subject to availability) Every one should own one of these. "This Masterpiece, a Pleasure to own, a delight to receive" Will be a beautiful gift on Christmas or on some other occasions. Made with Pure Sarbloh - Loha (Iron) - this is a premium quality product  - excellent beads  for removing negativity and negative energy of any kind and  transforming them to positive energy. It is also a very protective and grounding stone.   Sarbloh Beads helps with creativity, prioritising needs and wants, and wisdom. In addition, Sarbloh beads are beads that brings abundance, prosperity, good luck and good for meditation. Why use the Meditation Beads? Meditation can be quite a tricky practice because the mind is like a naughty child. By its very nature, the mind tends to wander off during the meditation practice. If ones energy is low at the time of meditation, falling asleep can result. If the energy is too high, fantasy and distraction become the barriers.  At such times, the mala provides the much needed anchor. The mala beads are moved in rhythm with the breath and the mantra, so that both-sleep as well as excessive mental distraction-are prevented by this action upon the beads. For wearing: A personal mala is a wonderful accessory to meditation, which when used regularly with a personal mantra, absorbs the vibrations of the practice.  It becomes like a close friend or a comfortable piece of clothing! How to Use?  The mala is traditionally held in the right hand and used in two ways - in one method; the mala is hanging between the thumb and the ring (third) finger.  The thumb is used to rotate the mala by one bead towards oneself with each repetition of the mantra. In the other method, the mala is hanging on any finger. Hand Held Meditation Beads SIMARNA KARA/Bracelet  Ideal Meditation Mala for Sikhs, Hindus, Muslims, Buddhists, Yogis & many more. Sarbloh Beads Stunning Kara, also used as: ·  Mala · Praying Beads · Meditation Beads Please note Rust is characteristic of pure iron/sarbloh and you will notice these on beads. On wearing these beads acquire blackish taint and won't rust. These only rust when these are taken off for few weeks due to oxidation process. These can be easily cleaned with sharp sand or soap. Singhs use coconut oil to keep these rust free.                                                                              Brilliant finish and very decorative. Ideal gift item for loved ones on any Occasion. We provide funky looking Gift Bag with our all Kara. Please follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter @OnlineSikhStore #OnlineSikhStore Free Royal Mail Postage in UK.  Postage discounts will be given to International buyers for multi-buys. Any questions please do not hesitate to contact us. P.S. Colour of item may slightly vary due to camera flash and light conditions. Size is approximate it and may differ by few mm from Kara to Kara or because of Digital Vernier Calliper errors.

#praying beads #Singh Kaur Khalsa #punjabi kada kara #Sarbloh meditation #simran Simarna tasvi #mala mankay loha #pure iron bangle #steel bangle #positive energy #anti depression yoga #sikhi sikhism punjab #panjabi punjabi kada #beautiful bangle

[metamatar]

im asking this out of pure ignorance but I've always wondered how does hinduism handle people who are not hindu? i know Christianity is essentially 'be the right kind of christian or go to hell' (so much as to beleive that Jewish people are literally devils, for example) but i was wondering how hinduism deals w people who are in proximity but not of the same religion. also if a dalit or lower caste person converts from hinduism to another religion, how does that affect thier life and how they're treated? appreciate your answer if u feel like explaining ^__^

it depends, in some parts of the country the non hindu has the same status as the lower caste dalit by default – so exclusion but in most places its a detente where religious and caste endogamy is strictly maintained. housing and employment discrimination is v common. its actually much harder to marry under the special mariage act and violence against interfaith and intercaste couples by their own families is common. in 2023, the muslim is the designated enemy of the state. the christian was fooled by the british and/or money to give up their culture or is literally a foreign agent. if you're looking for a textual answer, the equivalent of the "infidel," there isn’t really one because the streamlining of the canonical religious texts and construction of the hindu is recent. hinduism has aimed to appropriate instead of convert.

in modern india, legally anyone who is not a christian or a muslim is treated as a hindu. you are hindu by default in india to the state, governed by hindu codes for marriage and inheritance. for indigenous tribals it is a matter of coercing their children to feel shame at the (state sponsored but outsourced to private religious groups, love privatisation!!!) residential schools about their animist practices and making them worship the proper gods. for sikhs, jains and buddhists their is marginally more toleration. but they are basically seen as wayward hindu sects. this does change when they're in conflict with the majority in a way that resists "national cohesion" – see sikh pogroms in 1984 and the recent moves against sikhism due to the invocation of khalistan in the farmers protests. when dalits convert to buddhism many right wingers will invoke the spectre of predatory conversions.

since you are supposed to be hindu by default, christians and muslims are then seen as invasive outsiders and conversions are regulated very strictly by many states. it is historically true that christian missionaries brought christianity as part of a broader civilising mission, but imo it says something really depressing about hinduism that its epithets for christians is 'ricebag converts' bc people apparently converted for a bag of rice. islam's foothold in the continent is older, accompanying immigration from the west as well as the sultanate and the mughals. returning these christians and muslims to the fold, or "ghar wapsi" is a major project of the hindutva right. note that india is home to one of the world's largest populations of muslims (~200mil).

lower caste dalits have long converted to christianity and islam but caste violence follows them there anyway. caste may have textual origins in religion and focus on ritual purity but it is a socioeconomic form of subjugation. this means that while still subject to caste violence, dalit christians and muslims will be denied redressal through state protections like legislations against anti caste violence or reservations because those are restricted to hindu dalits.

#asks #religion

[handweavers]

my babaji (grandfather) who observed kesh (unshorn hair) wasn't being gender nonconforming for having extremely long hair, that's not something that's gendered in sikhism but me having long hair is read as gnc or feminine by white people when it's got nothing to do with subverting gender at all actually. and then you get self loathing "anti-transtrender" white tboys on here who have nothing better to do than harass other trans people who aren't performing their white supremacist bullshit ideas about gender to their personal satisfaction. absolute loser behaviour

[sunstar706]

Hear me out: Bucky Barnes is 100% not Jewish.

I’ve been doing a lot of scrolling on Tumblr/Ao3 the past few days looking for other people’s opinions on the nitty gritty of Bucky Barnes’ background, and realized- a lot (a *lot*) of people headcanon him as Jewish, which I find really interesting. Judaism, on the whole, is an extremely interesting subject, as the only non-universalizing Abrahamic faith, the only ethnic Abrahamic faith, and the oldest Abrahamic faith (making it one of the oldest monotheistic religions ever to exist).

Let me present to you my speculation on Bucky’s religious background. First of all, we know Steve is Catholic. Just getting that out of the way.

Am I a geography and demography nerd? Yes, yes I am. And I also have a strange hyperfixation on names. That’s why this stood out to me immediately.

James Buchanan Barnes, born March 10, 1917, into a poor family in Brooklyn, New York.

James is a really ambiguous name, with versions in pretty much every Indo-European language, as far as I know. It’s the number one baby boy name in the United States of all time, beating out the second place name (Robert) by over 300,000. Honestly, this name tells me nothing. Moving on.

Buchanan. It’s Scottish. That says a lot. It was fairly common at the time for the eldest sons middle name to be the mothers maiden name, so we can safely say that Winnifred Barnes (née Buchanan) was most likely Scottish.

Now, this is where we get historical, and also where speculation starts. As many Outlander fans will know, things went south for Catholics in Scotland after the battle of Culloden Moor and the Jacobite rebellion, however… The Roman Catholic ecclesiastical hierarchy was reestablished in Scotland in 1878. Catholic emancipation occurred in 1829, and there was a revival of Papism in Scotland, along with an influx of Irish Catholic immigrants coming in (especially with the potato famine starting in the 1840s in Ireland), so, while Catholicism isn’t as popular in Scotland today (approximately 15% of modern Scots are Catholic), when Winnie was born (likely somewhere between 1897 and 1900, I usually put it at 1899) there would have been a good number of Catholics in Scotland. There’s a really good chance she was Catholic.

Now. Barnes. If there was ever an extremely English surname, it was Barnes. It’s pretty hard to provide reasonable evidence that George Barnes was not English, so, let’s run with that. While England today has high percentages of Islam, Hinduism, and even reasonable amounts of Sikhism and Buddhism, it was… very Christian back in the day. In fact, the only really established non-Christian religion in England was Judaism (England contained approximately 60000 Jews in 1880, a number which rose to 300000 by 1914. However, please consider that the majority of these people were fresh immigrants escaping anti-semitism in Eastern and Northern Europe, who would not have had the surname ‘Barnes’). Delving further into English Christianity- they were Anglican, pretty much.

Guess what? Protestants (ex. Anglicans like George) and Catholics (like Winnie) don’t like each other. While marriage between Protestants and Catholics wasn’t illegal in the uk at the time, it is extremely unlikely their families would have approved. So, Winnie and George moved to NYC. (Actually, this is how my very own great-great-grandparents ended up in New Zealand).

So, where does James Buchanan Barnes lie on the religion side of things? I can tell you The chances that he’s Jewish are very low. I’d say he’s probably Catholic, even if just to blend in- New York is extremely Catholic, even today. He could be Anglican. After all the shit Hydra put him through, he’s might’ve given up on religion all together. Or maybe he converted to Buddhism. A lot of people do that (Buddhism is the third largest universalizing religion on earth). I’m kidding, don’t take that seriously, he’s not a Buddhist.

I think he’s Catholic.

But hey, nothings concrete. I’ve read some really great stories where he’s Jewish. I’ve read great stories where he’s Catholic.

-Ranger616

#bucky barnes #steve rogers #captain america #winter soldier #the avengers #george barnes #winnifred barnes #religon #marvel #marvel cinematic universe #judaism #christianity #catholiscism #protestantism #anglicanism

[aelloposchrysopterus]

HEY DO YOU KNOW ABOUT THE ASSASSINATION OF A PROMINENT SIKH LEADER IN CANADA AND WHY THIS MATTERS?

I generally don't like to write current events-y stuff here, but since I'm not seeing any people talking about this in my corner of this hellsite, I figured I might as well.

DISCLAIMER: For the record, I'm part Punjabi, raised culturally Sikh in the United States, I don't actively practice Sikhism, and I'm writing this assuming a non-Sikh, non-Desi audience that knows little to nothing about Indian politics. I am trying to be as factually accurate as possible but if certain information is incorrect, I will correct this post because a) this is an ongoing issue so the information I have right now may not turn out to be correct and b) my memory is fallible and while I did try to fact-check the background information I remembered, many of these historical events have accounts that differ drastically from each other, so it is difficult to establish a definite truth. This post was written and last updated 25 September 2023.

So, the basic facts of what happened:

Hardeep Singh Nijjar was killed on 18 June 2023. He was a proponent of the Khalistan movement. In the past week or so, Canadian government officials have accused India of orchestrating his assassination.

Khalistan? What's That and Why Does It Matter?

Like quite a few things in Desi politics, the idea of Khalistan can be traced back to the Partition. At the heart of the Partition, the idea was that Pakistan is for the Muslims and India is for the Hindus.

However, India is not exclusively populated by Hindus, no matter how hard Modi and the BJP* try to make it a Hindu-only nation through their Hindu nationalist policies. Among other religious minority groups, many Sikhs had to made the new India their home, because of the religious persecution they would face in Pakistan. The Radcliffe Line (the line of partition) runs right through Punjab, the ancestral homeland of, among others, most Sikhs. In Punjab, during the Partition, Hindus, Sikhs, and Muslims carried out sectarian violence against each other.

What this means is that a lot of Sikhs were displace from their homeland and subjected to discrimination and violence based on their religion in both Pakistan and India. As a result, some members of the Sikh community started calling for a new nation to be carved out of the Punjab regions in Pakistan and India. This new nation was to be a Sikh nation, much like Pakistan for the Muslims and India for the Hindus, and it was to be called Khalistan.

(Little bit of anecdotal trivia: apparently identifying as Punjabi first and Indian second when describing ethnic background is more common among Punjabi Sikhs, due to Sikh efforts to show their connection to Punjabi in an attempt to make Khalistan a Sikh nation in the Punjabi region.)

Needless to say, the Indian government did not and does not like the idea of a Sikh nation and sees the idea of it as a terrorist threat.

*Bharatiya Janata Party, the Hindu nationalist party currently ruling over most of India.

Operation Blue Star and Indira Gandhi

As part of this rising call for a Sikh nation, Sikh militant groups sprung up. Indira Gandhi's government wanted to arrest one of the most prominent leaders of a Sikh militant movement. However, he and his supporters were holed up in the holiest site in Sikhism, the Golden Temple in Amritsar.

On one of the holiest days in Sikhism, the martyrdom day of Guru Arjan Dev, the Indian military began their attack on the Golden Temple, known as Operation Blue Star. Long story short, Sikh pilgrims were killed during both the fighting and in extrajudicial killings by the military afterwards.

In anger at how Gandhi's government had carried out Operation Blue Star, two of her Sikh bodyguards assassinated her. Anti-Sikh pogroms then occurred, with independent estimates of the number of Sikhs killed ranging from 8,000 to 17,000.

This only made tensions between the Sikh community and the Indian government worse; I see this as a defining moment in how the government of India responds to the Khalistan movement and both Sikh extremist violence and peaceful support.

Oh and did I mention yet that the Indian government has outlawed the Khalistan movement?

The law that does this dates back to 1967, by the way.

Hardeep Singh Nijjar

And so now we come to the story of the recently-assassinated Hardeep Singh Nijjar.

Due to Khalistani activism being outlawed in India, many Khalistani activists have settled abroad. This includes Nijjar, who became a Canadian citizen in 2007 and had first come to Canada to apply for asylum after having been arrested by the Indian police in connection with his pro-Khalistan stance. He continued his Sikh and Khalistani activism in Canada until he was killed in the parking lot of the gurdwara he belonged to by two masked gunmen.

The Canadian government recently alleged that the Indian government war involved in the killing of Nijjar, but has not yet provided firm evidence.

Why Does This Matter?

Obviously, as a culturally Sikh person, it matters to me because this assassination is part of a legacy of violence targeting my community due to perceived associations with terrorism. (Yes, there are some Sikh extremists and terrorists, but the overwhelming majority of Sikhs are neither extremists nor terrorists.)

But this has ramifications that everyone should care about.

Canada and India have recently done tit-for-tat diplomatic expulsions due to the Canadian government's allegations

The US may also get dragged into this because Canada alleged that American intelligence gave them some information necessary to prove the involvement of the India government

The UK may also get dragged into this because they, too, have a sizeable Punjabi Sikh community that includes multiple MPs and the government has historically had strong relationships with both Canada and India

Despite the BJP's involvement in anti-Muslim violence, Modi and his government still enjoy a cozy relationship with many Western nations; this may start to change, although change is unlikely as Western governments see being allied with India as key to countering Chinese influence

If India is proven to be behind the assassination, this could be bad for other Khalistani activists in the Sikh diaspora because it means the Indian government could potentially target and kill them, too

This is important. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere, and this isn't an isolated incident. I know I probably didn't do a great job explaining this, but it's hard to summarize about 550 years of oppression and violence and politics and culture and how that has manifested over the past 80 years, leading to the murder of a prominent leader in the Sikh diaspora.

For further reading on this, I'd suggest this BBC article, which includes information on some other Khalistani activists recently killed.

Anyhow, I'll keep trying to follow the news on this and update this post as needed, likely through reblogs.

#current events #sikhism #religion #khalistan #canada #india #hardeep singh nijjar #look i really don't like to write politics and current events shit #but it's important to me to just put this out in the hopes that more people hear about this and also understand what it means #i tried to keep this short so there's a lot i left out

[no-terfs-no-swerfs-no-fascists]

I seriously dislike the "if you are anti-religion, that just means you grew up around Christianity and are equating all of religion with Christianity" and the "it's only okay to be anti-religion if you have religious trauma" philosophizing I've been seeing more often on Tumblr these days.

I know atheists get a bad rep (and if you know me, you've heard me criticize the movement atheism plenty of times), but there's one thing we are, in fact, right about - religion IS, by and large, bad.

That doesn't mean a religious person is automatically bad, but what you end up realizing after observing a variety of religious groups is that the concept of religion is, by its very nature, a breeding ground for abuse, bigotry, and anti-intellectualism like no other.

Half my family are Muslims, the other half are Eastern Orthodox Christians, and I've grown up around those groups + Catholics, Jews, and Seventh Day Adventists (and yes, three of those five groups fall under the Christianity umbrella, but trust me, cultural differences between them can be staggering). I've also studied these religions, as well as Judaism, Buddhism, Zoroastrianism, Hinduism, Sikhism, Jainism, Unitarianism, Mormonism, Scientology, Happy Science, the Unification Church, Wicca, and a variety of neopagan revivals, mostly through books written by authors of those religious groups.

I've read histories of those religious groups and followed them in the news, less so after entering the work force in full capacity, but I really did have an obsession of learning about different religions and what makes them tick for about ten or so years. And I didn't study them from the point of view of an atheist/nonbeliever. Hell, I didn't even subscribe to atheism until about five years ago (I am currently 40yo).

Again - a religious person is not automatically a bad person. Plenty of people I love are religious and almost everyone I know is religious too. Being religious in never going to be the reason why I dislike, don't trust, or won't engage with someone.

But a religious person does automatically support a lot of incredibly unsavoury things by the simple act of actively taking part in a religion, and especially if that includes monetary support. The easiest, most obvious example of this is, of course, Catholicism - you going to church services, giving to the collection plate, taking part in church-organized activities, it all shows tacit support for an organization that not only historically has oceans of blood on their hands, but to this very day actively supports, protects, and finances fascists, rapists, murderers, abusers, paedophiles, the anti-LGBTQIAP+ movement, the anti-abortion movement, and subjugation of women, indigenous people, and pretty much anyone who isn't a rich cishet white Catholic man, not only in their religious capacity but also by influencing lawmakers in every country they have even the tiniest modicum of power.

Whether you like it or not, whether you personally subscribe to those parts of your belief system or not, bigotry, subjugation, exploitation, and abuse are baked into the principles of religion as a concept.

Plenty of religious people simply choose to ignore those parts of their religion. They do not practice them, do not teach them, and consider them a vestigial part of the religion they belong to that is simply no longer applicable to them as they have moved on with the times and do not subscribe to those moral principles.

But they're still there, and plenty of people who belong to your religion still practice them, and use the same texts and teachings you do to justify them as morally just and correct. Where you had the fortune to be taught by progressive religious leaders, many others have not. You may share a religion and have radically different view on what it is while using the same words to describe it, and theirs is just as valid a reading of it as yours.

And then, of course, is the matter of the corrupting influence of power. Even the cursory look at the headlines surrounding any religion will tell you that, while individual religious people and even groups who belong to a certain religion can be the most wonderful, accepting, generous people, their religion is but a stone toss away from using its teachings, principles, and beliefs as an excuse to commit unspeakable atrocities. The most infamous example of this is Buddhism, a religion which has radical anti-violence as a core component of their teachings... which has not stopped Buddhists from committing genocides as recently as the late 2010s. Buddhism sells itself as the most enlightened, accepting, and kindest of belief systems, but in those countries where it has power and influence, it is often a willing tool of oppression of its believers and weaponized othering of outgroup people.

Being religious also leaves people vulnerable to various trappings of anti-intellectualism. A religious person is, on average, less likely to trust experts, less likely to be intellectually curious and seek out new knowledge, and more prone to adopting bigoted views and conspiracy theories. Religion has historically had moments when it has been at the center of scientific discovery and development of new thought and knowledge. Medieval Islam is a great example of this, having made incredible strides in the exploration and development of medicine, mathematics, and astronomy, as well as the amazing job it did preserving the scientific and philosophical legacy of Ancient Greece. But it is far more common to see religion as the active suppressor of scientific explorations of reality and free thought, and it is such a common occurrence that I genuinely do not think I need to list the myriad examples of this happening, both historically and in the modern day.

Now, there are people who would reply to everything I've written here by, for example, citing studies that contradict my statements, such as the ones that show being a part of a religious community is good for people's physical, emotional, and mental health, or the fact that there are religious groups that put great importance on pursuing science and arts, such as Orthodox Judaism.

To that, I would reply with - yes, but studies also show same health benefits people get from taking active part in a religious community happen if a person is a member of any actively social community (that is, that the benefits come from socializing with people you have things in common with and taking part of community activities with them, not from religion itself), and that, without exception, the religious groups that put an emphasis on study and creativity will just as often actively discourage their female members from being anything but docile submissive broodmares without ever considering themselves hypocritical or wrong for doing so. Trust me, it wouldn't take too much effort to find similar counters for any other argument against what I've written in this post.

I can appreciate that religion plays an important role in your life and that it is a positive influence for you. Life is awful, unfair, and cruel, and you will never hear me begrudge you any ray of sunshine you can catch or any coping mechanism that gets you through life's horrors. I will also not go around telling people that they should abandon their religion - it is neither my place nor my job to tell you how to manage your life.

But don't expect me to indulge the position that religion is a net-positive as a whole or that anyone who isn't blind to the fact that this is demonstrably not true is just a victim of Christianity.

Yes, absolutely, educate yourself on other religions, it will do you a world of good, just like most other honest intellectual pursuits, and you will learn a lot of fascinating and fun things, and broaden your cultural horizons.

But go into it with open eyes, study the history behind those religions too, and try to do so from as objective sources as you can find.

[iambloop]

Some Reflections on Faith

A very close friend of mine is undergoing surgery this week. Being ill is never easy (I get existential every time I have a bad cold), but being seriously ill is a different thing. The whole experience is clouded with pain and uncertainty. It's uncomfortable to talk about it in an ongoing sense. You can detach yourselves from the past, and you can abstract away the future possibilities of age and illness, but in the now, all of this... it is unbearably heavy. Even as a witness standing at an arm's distance, I feel its weight radiating on me.

This brought me to the idea of God: people pray for health, for wealth, for hope.

...

I am not a "believer". I have been an atheist for as long as I can recall (although I have prayed during the occasional rock bottom life crisis). I do enjoy going to the gurdwara, but that's mostly for the prashad (halwa! in desi ghee!). Of all the religions I have witnessed, Sikhism and Buddhism are probably the most palatable ones, although I am sure there exist extreme forms of these as well. Even the most palatable ones have not converted me into a believer - I remain tolerant, but that's about as far as I have been able to go.

My relationship with God has always been strained. Even as a child, I don't think I really could believe. It was never a matter of choice - I just couldn't convince myself of those ideas. Instead, my early years were dotted with encounters that lean closer to "spirituality". I had a 4th grade teacher who introduced us to meditation and the idea of 'manifestation' (looking back, this is surprising - ideas of this form were considered very exotic back in 2010). I didn't (and still don't) consider these to be incompatible with atheism, but I no longer believe in these (I do advocate meditation, but not the manifestation kind).

It was a bit later that I claimed my (anti) religious identity of being an atheist. And until college, its tenets remained largely unchanged: that there is no proof of the existence of a higher being, and that phenomenon with no known explanations are not valid proof to support the existence of any supernatural entity.

...

In college, as I was exposed to a more abstract level of thought, my perspective began to shift. My beliefs remained largely static, in that I remained an atheist, but the lens through which I saw this problem changed entirely. Rather than fixating on the idea of religion and God as propositions to be evaluated, I became interested in religion as a part of the social fabric and the human experience. This shift simmered silently in me until it found its reflection in the outside world: here's a video by a fairly famous biologist at Stanford painting a tiny partial picture of what's called the cognitive science of religion.

But beyond understanding why religion evolved across nearly all known human cultures, there is... not much to it. Science is not a substitute for religion. Being religious has health benefits, but understanding that "being religious has health benefits" does not itself have any health benefits (maybe it makes you smarter, and that makes you richer, and I'm sure being rich has health benefits). It makes for better conversations, and hopefully a kinder attitude towards fellow religious friends and family members. I concede that.

...

It's only over the last two years that I've had a glimpse of the chaos that is woven into the fabric of the world. And in face of this chaos, I find my atheism too cold and rigid. "Chaos" is quite abstract. This is not the place for a lengthy illustration of my own experience of it, but it's enough to say that this has been a period punctuated with uncertainty, with relationships straining and expanding, with my sense of self and purpose and work ebbing and flowing, moving in different directions at different times. There is no pattern to the chaos when you are in it.

Ultimately, there's a lot of uncertainty and a lot of pain in life, and there's not a very clear reason for a lot of it. I'm sure that some doctor could explain why a lump formed on my friend's rib cage. They could very well explain why my mother's knees have started hurting suddenly and why they will likely stay this way now. But the anatomical or biological explanation is just a part of the whole picture. In the final analysis, it is not clear why we have to suffer through so much uncertainty and pain in the first place. It's the problem of finding meaning in a meaningless world (that is, if you concede it is meaningless in the first place).

...

I find myself going back to two chants that are quite different in essence. They offer me some comfort without imposing (m)any magical ideas on me.

#reflections #journal #religion #thoughts #Youtube

[allmacrofurrynazitheatre]

#Spotify

[mask131]

I know that it is kind of horrible for me to say that, but something within me, the part of me that loves balance and symmetry and neatly classifying stuff, is somehow satisfied with how we have two open forms of discrimination on each of the two opposite sides of the political spectrum, making a full racist rainbow: against Blacks and Muslims/Arabs for the extreme-right (because for them Muslim and Arab are the same thing), against Jews and Asians for the extreme-left.

Mind you, I am going to speak mostly about the situation in France here - but I do suspect the same logic and workings apply to other countries, such as the USA.

What is even more interesting with this four-way display is that it clearly shows you how racism, as a principle, can exist on radically opposite political poles. You think these two sides would not share such a vicious concept - and yet they do, and what is fascinating is to see why each side is racist at different levels. [Also there's something to say about how each time a political ideology gets "extreme" it also gets racist. That's just the Horseshoe Effect for you.]

For the extreme-right, we know why they are racist, but I'll still recap some stuff. Mainly... I would say xenophobia. The extreme-right in Europe and America, dominated by white people, by Christian people and by nationalists, hate the "other", the "different", the "foreigner", the one who isn't doing "like we are". Because they live in Christian countries, are Christians and want everything to stay Christian, they pick on what they present as the "rival of" or "anti" Christianity, Islam. But it is just a replacement for how before it was Judaism ; and who knows, when Islam won't be in fashion anymore they'll attack... I don't know Sikhism or Buddhism probably. And the religious motivation for the discrimination gets fascinating when you compare European countries where Catholics dominate, and the USA where Protestants dominate, because despite being two branches of Christianity, they still discriminate each other in the extreme-right perspective, because "they are not doing the proper Christianity". They are racist towards Black as a whole because they are obsessed with people coming from their own country, hate anyone who might descend from another culture or another country - even worse when it is another continent ; and the whole "There's a white continent for white people, a black continent for black people", blabla...

I mean we know all that and it is foul enough that I do not want to repeat it all here, it already gives me a migraine. They discriminate black people because they're not white, they discriminate Muslim people because they're not Christian, they discriminate Arabs and African people and diasporas because they come from "elsewhere" and are "foreigners". The extreme-right is born in a specific state of society where a given ethnicity and a given religion dominates - and they want to preserve this society at all costs, refusing openings, diversities or fluctuations in terms of culture. They demonize the idea of any "outside influence" and in return glorify a certain form of idyllic past during which nothing but the dominant factors existed.

And this is why when the extreme-right moves from country to country or continent to continent, they always keep the idea of one ethnicity/one religion that must dominate the others - but which ethnicity and which religion changes... Look at far-right movements outside of Europe and Northern America, and you'll see.

That being said, when it comes to the extreme-left, now things get viciously interesting! Because the left has precisely built itself against the ideals of the 20th century extreme-right, against all the racism and discriminations of a post-Nazi world. They have presented themselves as "against racism"... And yet they are being openly racist today, just racist towards ethnicities the extreme-right does not openly target. Why? Precisely in the name of "anti-racism" fight, and that's where things get crazy.

Everybody jokes about how the left hates the "rich old white dudes", right? I mean there's the whole Velma scandal going on and everybody jokes about it right? But it becomes less funny when you realize this hatred for the most racist group within a society (wealthy elderly white people) becomes a vehicle for... racism. Because by a perverse set of association, the extreme-left will derive in a game of "pick and choose your favorite minority", and thus decide which ethnicity is "worth" or "truly" a "minority" within their own country. Why are extreme-left movements targetting the Jews and the Asians? Or, to be more exact, why are they either completely ignoring the violences and hatred they fae, or silently/passively supporting the actual hate groups turned against them? Because that's part of the thing with the extreme-left - extreme-right politicians are very vocal about active discrimination, while extreme-left work on passive discrimination, through ignoring certain topics, silencing certain scandals, changing a situation's point of view, and passively supporting foul groups.

So why? Because Jews and Asians, unlike, for example, people of African or Arab descent, are too close to their taste to "white people". And because they are "too white", because they are too "well-inserted", precisely because they are what some call "model minorities", the extreme-left lumps them together with the "white people" and declare: They are not minorities, or rather they do not have the same rights at being a minority than other actual minorities. It is a fucked up "Who is the most prejudiced against" competition. We have seen before all the "Jews are White" or "Japanese people are White" posts and discourses, right ; but also consider how a lot of people who fall into the extreme-left declare that "racism", as a word, should ONLY be applied to Black people. For example, some people do declare that you can't be racist towards Asian for the same reason you can't be racist towards white people. Which is completely missing the fact "racism" is a discrimination based on race, not a discrimination about being black. One can be racist to people of India. And they're not black. One can be racist towards Arabs. And they're not black. Etc, etc...

And then, we slip into pure racism because of... wealth. I am, myself, quite baffled by how the extreme-left creates what I honestly thought was a joke more than anything, but is a real thing now: a classicist racism. As in, the extreme-left doesn't just associate the minorities and ethnicities it doesn't like with white people - it specifically associates them with the "rich white people", to completely wrap everything it was built to dislike into one neat little package. And from this dislike of hyper-wealth, and a capitalist society, or whatever - we slip into racist cliches. "The Jews are all rich and wealthy", "We know Asians have more money than regular people". Recent public investigations in France have proven that most of the people who are invested in left-leaning political parties do believe in myths such as "The Jews are part of the upper-class and naturally wealthier than other people" or "The Jews are well-placed and deeply linked to the world of finances and media". And this is coupled with a rise of violent, racist attacks that have been happening in France before these investigations were led - some years ago there was a whole series of violent street-robberies in the Parisian area targetting Chinese (or Chinese-looking) women, and when the thieves were arrested, they always said "Yeah, but it's because we know Chinese folks are rich and always carry with them lot of money". Asian-looking women, at the time, feared to get out because of this wave of delinquants that had their head filled with completely idiotic stereotypes... But this reflects what is happening in general, and why from ideals against discrimination, the left becomes "extreme" by feeding into racist stereotypes. From opposing a majority to defend minorities, it devolves into "We only defend the minorities worth defending".

[Mind you, the balance is not perfect. There are still in France active extreme-right groups who are virulently antisemitic and racist towards Asian people. Because the extreme-right in France will always be racist towards everybody that isn't a Christian-white. But the thing is that,for dozens of years now, the extreme-right has been doing a huge effort we call the "de-diabolization" to erase their embarrassing and shameful past as supporters of the Nazi and nostalgics of the Occupation, so now the defense and support of Jewish people is one of their most open priorities, which is... deeply ironic to say the least. But it also explains why they had to switch from one target to the other, and the rise of terrorist groups and the ungodly amount of Islam-inspired terrorist attacks in France made they go "Great, now Arabs are out shooting target." With the added bonus that they can feed off the whole "Arabs hate Jews" idea. And the further you go in, the more twisted and convoluted and messy it becomes...

EDIT: I just discovered that I was writing this whole time "extreme right" and "extreme left", due to this being the terms used in French - when American-English speakers use "far right" and "far left". As such consider that "extreme" is just synonymous with "far" - though I will keep using "extreme" because I think it is more appropriate than just "going too far"

#racism #political extremes #discrimination #extreme right #extreme left #mechanics of racism #antisemitism #far right #far left

[aboutanancientenquiry]

#1984 anti-sikh massacres #sikhism #india #never forget 1984

[onlinesikhstore]

Simarna Sikh Kara 27 Iron beads Singh Kaur Meditation Bangle Bracelet DD1 - New with tags

Simarna Sikh Kara 27 Iron beads Singh Kaur Meditation Bangle Bracelet DD1 - New with Tags Meditation Praying Steel Beads Buddhism Hindu Muslim Sikh Singh Simarana Kara Design: DD1 Size of each bead is approx 8mm, separator Bead/Big Bead is approx 1.1cm 28 or 19 Beads Simarana Chrome Plated Stunning Steel Sikh Kara - Meditation Beads Weight approx 26-50g (Variable due to size) Number of beads will vary(either 27 or 19 + 1 BIG bead) in each bracelet. If you are after particular number of beads please let us know in order notes (Subject to availability) Every one should own one of these. "This Masterpiece, a Pleasure to own, a delight to receive" Will be a beautiful gift on christmas or on some other occasions. Made with high quality steel - this is a premium quality product Steel beads are excellent beads for removing negativity and negative energy of any kind and transforming them to positive energy. It is also a very protective and grounding stone. Steel Beads helps with creativity, prioritizing needs and wants, and wisdom. In addition, steel beads is a beads that brings abundance, prosperity, good luck and good for meditation. Why use the Meditation Beads? Meditation can be quite a tricky practice because the mind is like a naughty child. By its very nature, the mind tends to wander off during the meditation practice. If ones energy is low at the time of meditation, falling asleep can result. If the energy is too high, fantasy and distraction become the barriers. At such times, the mala provides the much needed anchor. The mala beads are moved in rhythm with the breath and the mantra, so that both-sleep as well as excessive mental distraction-are prevented by this action upon the beads. For wearing: A personal mala is a wonderful accessory to meditation, which when used regularly with a personal mantra, absorbs the vibrations of the practice. It becomes like a close friend or a comfortable piece of clothing! How to Use? The mala is traditionally held in the right hand and used in two ways - in one method; the mala is hanging between the thumb and the ring (third) finger. The thumb is used to rotate the mala by one bead towards oneself with each repetition of the mantra. In the other method, the mala is hanging on any finger. Hand Held Meditation Beads SIMARNA KARA/Bracelet Ideal Meditation Mala for Sikhs, Hindus, Muslims, Buddhists, Yogis & many more. 28 or 19 Beads Stunning Steel Kara, also used as: · Mala · Praying Beads · Meditation Beads Brilliant finish and very decorative. Ideal gift item for loved ones on any Occasion. We are UK based supplier SinghKaurKara. Items can be collected from our shop in Rochester, Kent, UK. We have 100% positive feedback. Please buy with confidence and check our other fantastic listings. If you are not happy with your purchase we will give you 100% refund on return of item. No hard and fast rules for refunds and returns. Please follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter @OnlineSikhStore #OnlineSikhStore Free Royal Mail Postage in UK. Postage discounts will be given to International buyers for multi-buys. Any questions please do not hesitate to contact us. P.S. Colour of item may slightly vary due to camera flash and light conditions. Size is approximate it and may differ by few mm from Kara to Kara or because of Digital Vernier Caliper errors.

#sikh Kaur Kara #singh sikhism sikhi #meditation bangle #praying beads #steel beads bracelet #evil eye protection #yoga yogic medic #anti stress spinner #punjabi kada bangle #loha kara bracelet #praying beads bangle #punjabi panjabi

[nijjhar]

Punjabi - Why Six Satgurus or Christs in Sikhism? Satguru = Christ Angad... Why Six Satgurus or Christs in Sikhism? Satguru = Christ Angad Dev Ji laid the FOUNDATION of Sikhism https://youtu.be/bJeInw8nvJ8 Punjabi - Why Ten Lights? Six Satgurus = Christs and 4 Royal Kings to protect righteous Sikhism. https://youtu.be/Vfta2i63AFI This Dark Age belongs to the people of the Juda, Princes and Khatri, Kings and Emperors of Darknes tribes. The Second Coming of Christ Jesus was Satguru Nanaj Dev Ji of Punjab among the most greedy Khatri people, the Kings and Emperors of Darkness. https://youtu.be/BTiRCMd1iLI Holy Gospel of our Supernatural Father Elohim, Allah, Parbrahm, etc., delivered by the First Anointed Christ, which in Punjabi we call Satguru Jesus of the highest living God Elohim that dwells within His Temple of God created by the demiurge Potter, the Lord of the Nature Yahweh, Brahma, Khudah, etc., the Greatest Artist of all and it is called Harmandir or “Emmanuel” according to Christ Rajinder. Hi Brother, I can give a talk on the Second Coming of Jesus among the most greedy and Satanic people of the Khatri tribe in Punjab, India. This Golden Temple is the replacement of the Holiest of Holy Temple of Elohim whose Curtain Jesus tore from the Top, the Temple High Priest = Pope to the Bottom, the village Rabbi off you go and everyone is to make a direct approach to God for his Salvation. The people have been introduced to our Supernatural Father through His Word and those who have perceived His Word, have Perceived God within them. His Word is God and His Sons represent God and not the daughters. That is why Jesus had all 12 men and no woman in his inner circle whilst the 70 outer circles were the Prophets and not the Saints. The Samaritans were a Nation of Prophets that the "Saltless" Jewish people unfaithful to Abraham and Yahweh hated our Bridegroom Christ Jesus the most. Youtube channel - Truthsoldier I served in the satanic Iraq war. I openly am shamed for that and I asked for forgiveness for taking part in that war. I actually had my awakening while over in Iraq. My eyes were opened to the injustice of that war. The Iraqi people loved Saddam; they had whole stories with nothing but Saddam’s face on everything. Since then I have been speaking out against the US and ISRAEL on my Youtube channel. Here is my contribution:- Holy spirit, common sense, shatters the fetters of the dead letters, the Holy Books. If we have One God, our Supernatural Father of our souls, then there should be one Faith. In Christianity, Jesus said One Fold called the Church of God headed by One Shepherd, our Bridegroom Christ Jesus/Christ = Satguru Nanak Dev Ji, the Second coming of Jesus. Solid Proof; this Golden Temple is of the same size as the Holiest of Holy that used to be in Jerusalem and its Curtain held the Secrets of the Oral Torah = His Word was rendered from the Top, the Temple High Priests, to the Bottom, the village Rabbis off you go – Luke 16v16; Law and Prophets were till John and thus, everyone makes a direct approach to God through His Word = Logo = SATGUR PRASAD. So, these hireling Dog-Collared Priests and Mullahs, cannot give your account to God as the Rabbis used to give at Passover. So, they are "ANTICHRISTS" that have a following of the spiritually blind Super Bastard Fanatic Devils - John 8v44 -, Hindu, Jew, Sikh, Christian, Muslim, etc. Outwardly, and not spiritually inwardly. These spiritual selves Hindu, Jew and Christian, are never born like Christ, the Title and they never die but the tribal selves Judah, Levi, Jatt, Tarkhan, etc. were born and they will die. Thus, Jesus was born and Jesus died on the Cross and rose on the Third Day and NOT CHRIST, THE TITLE. Books:- ONE GOD ONE FAITH:- www.gnosticgospel.co.uk/bookfin.pdf Greatest Blasphemers and Killers Blair and Bush being considered by Anti-Christ Bishops for Nobel Peace Prize. Nobel Peace Prize should rather go to Assange and the Iraqi Journalist who threw both his shoes at the hypocrite Bush in Iraq. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qHdTpTXHvE&list=PL0C8AFaJhsWz7HtQEhV91eAKugUw73PW1 Christ Jesus was killed by the Temple High Priest Hypocrite/Blasphemer against the Holy Spirit. Blair and Bush’s blasphemies against the Holy Spirit are bearing Fruit in economic chaos created by Virus https://youtu.be/0WBYOmpDuCs American Jews are today – http://www.gnosticgospel.co.uk/GrimReaper.htm Destroying one country after the other. For the unlisted videos:- www.gnosticgospel.co.uk/Unlisted.htm My ebook by Kindle. ASIN: B01AVLC9WO Private Bitter Gospel Truth videos:- www.gnosticgospel.co.uk/JAntisem.htm www.gnosticgospel.co.uk/JOHN 8V44.htm www.gnosticgospel.co.uk/Rest.htm Any helper to finish my Books:- ONE GOD ONE FAITH:- www.gnosticgospel.co.uk/bookfin.pdf and in Punjabi KAKHH OHLAE LAKHH:-  www.gnosticgospel.co.uk/pdbook.pdf Very informative Channel:- Punjab Siyan. John's baptism:- www.gnosticgospel.co.uk/johnsig.pdf Trinity:- www.gnosticgospel.co.uk/trinity.pdf

#youtube