Usually when I think or talk about shots being fired towards Sangat, I would often think its about some verbal attack. But seems like in this case things got a little more literal, and someone actually fired bullets at Sangat in Sacremento. Not sure what the story is, but a Singh passed on the link so lets see what comes out in the coming days.

In the meantime heres a snippet off of youtube and some links that may better shed some light:

Google News

SACRAMENTO, CA - One man was killed and another was wounded after what authorities called a targeted shooting outside a Sacramento Sikh temple Sunday afternoon.

Bystanders were able to subdue one of the gunmen, while a second was able to escape, a Sacramento County sheriff’s spokesman said.

The shooting happened near the Sacramento Sikh Society building at 7676 Bradshaw Road just before 1:30 p.m. Sunday, Sacramento County sheriff’s Sgt. Tim Curran said.

Curran said the victims were attending a regional Sikh sports tournament going on next to the temple, when the gunmen approached and fired several shots.

One of the victims died at the scene. A second, identified only as a 38-year-old man, was shot in the leg. He was taken to a nearby hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, Curran said. The names of the victims were not released pending family notification.

Witnesses said spectators and athletes near the shooting were able to rush and grab one of the gunmen, beat him into submission before officers arrived.

“I just saw people running and shooting. I saw (the crowd) beating the guy they caught,” witness Sean Virk said.

“The crowd was armed with cricket bats and field hockey sticks,” Curran said. “(The crowd) didn’t hold back the fact that they hit him.”

Curran said the gunman was hospitalized with several blunt force injuries and was expected to be charged upon his release.

The second gunman was able to escape the scene. Investigators were compiling a description of the attacker.

Investigators said a previous conflict between the victims and the gunmen led to the shooting, Curran said. There was no indication the shooting was gang-related.

http://www.news10.net/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=47153&provider=top

One of the biggest blemishes against the Panth in most recent times has had to have been Phoola, who for years paraded around with full immunity; raping, pillaging and murdering while all along masquerading as an Akali nihang.

I remember when I first heard about Phoola years ago; about how he was responsible for having murdered some Singhs from Jatha that were close to Baba Ji [Sant Baba Takhur Singh], and then going on to hear and read about his gross rapes, laundry list of murders, while himself never being touched or got at. While understanding the fear and power wielded by those who not only role deep but remain well connected through corrupt officials and bureaucrats, it remained a disgusting reality that very few ever tried bringing justice to the man. It was this legacy of heinous crimes, in addition to the fear and cowardice that his presence evoked, that would become a breathing blemish and his existance a matter of shame that long stained the Panth; a Panth that prides itself on bringing those like Phoola to justice.

Now, I mean no disrespect to anyone, I am no better or any less responsible for having never acted or attempting to have dared take a go at him. In the end anyone can be touched, and ultimately where there’s a will there’s a way, so I make no attempt to single anyone or any group out in particular, rather it’s burden that for so long we all bore.

But as the history books tend to reveal; sooner or later life has a way of catching up and our past deeds become the weight with which our future is weighed against and judgement passed by. It’s to this end that a man such as Phoola got no more a deserving death then to having been burned alive and suffering a slow and painful death. Not nearly as deserved for all the pain he brought to others, yet justice all the same.

Anyways here are some links to check out for more:

• Panthic.org
• Never4Get84.com {Some graphic pics]
• Google News

About a month back news broke around these parts about a damaging video that came out of Glidden Gurdwara. The story was basically a raagi staying at the Guru Ghar booked one of the committee members pocketing money from out of the golak. In light of this the next time the committee got together to presumably do the seva of cleaning out the golak and organizing the change, he [Raagi Singh] went all Mission Impossible and video taped the entire incident.

Anyways turns out the video got put on youtube where it’s since been collecting hits and furthering the tale. Surprisingly the video isn’t as breaking news, as I was originally lead to believe, and instead has been sitting around for 2 years before it managed to resurface. Whether its surfacing was part of a grander scheme on the part of a black mailer turned righteous do-gooder (we seem to have a lot of those in our Quam), or nothing more then mud that is being slung by opposing committees, is better left to those in  the know, and actual journalists to uncover and reveal.

For the rest of us there’s only mindless speculation on what could be / is happening and echoing the same old rhetoric that we’ve become so accustomed to:

• We need to take the gurdwara away from these masands
• Where did all the Singhs of Guru Gobind Singh go, who let such actions happen??
• Why hasn’t there been a morchaa against such individuals and committee’s!!
• Where are our youth!!?!?!
• Is this what Gursikhi has come down to??
• What about the children, will somebody please think about the children!!

Anyways, the video’s posted below and I’m not sure what to make of it just yet since its not in the bright vivid HD quality I’ve come to enjoy. Also having half dazedly watched it once, I never really picked up on at what point the crime takes place. For those looking for more details, the original site that had the video on display (a pro Afghanna/Ghagga site) had this to share:-

This movie is of a Golak Chor who is stealing the money from the Golak at the time of counting at Sri Guru Nanak Sikh Center, Glidden Road, Brampton, Canada. Golak Chor Devinder Chhokar was a president of the Gurdwara at the time he was stealing money. It is believed that he stole the money for last 5-6 years and it was discovered in middle of 2006, when a young parcharak made this video through the roof opening. Chhokar has other associates in the Gurdwara committee, who are defending him to date and want to get rid of those from the committee who are opposing to the Golak Chori.

And without further ado the video at the center of all this hub bub -

Also noting the time shown when the videos being shot, its nice to see our commitees taking in an interest in being up during amrit velaa to do such sevaa, assuming off course the timer on the video is right.

Rasta Singh passed on this link to me of a video making its rounds - 68K views as of this posting. Didn’t seem like anything speicial until about 1 minute and someting into it, when some of Westerns fineset make an apperance.

As gastly and appalling as seeing our boys featured as muslims in a jihadi clip maybe, I still couldn’t help but laugh at there sudden found internet viral video fame - sorry boys just had to share this one..

Check this article from the National Post:

Study suggests “turban effect” as a source of Islamophobia

Shannon Proudfoot, Canwest News Service Published: Sunday, June 29, 2008

A Muslim-style turban is perceived as a threat, according to a new study, even by people who don’t realize they hold the prejudice, dubbed “the turban effect” by researchers.

Research volunteers played a computer game that showed apartment balconies on which different figures appeared, some wearing Muslim-style turbans or hijabs and others bare-headed. They were told to shoot at the targets carrying guns and spare those who were unarmed, with points awarded accordingly.

People were much more likely to shoot Muslim-looking characters — men or women — even if they were carrying an innocent item instead of a weapon, the researchers found.

“Whether they’re holding a steel coffee mug or a gun, people are just more likely to shoot at someone who is wearing a turban,” says author Christian Unkelbach, a visiting scholar at Australia’s University of New South Wales. “Just putting on this piece of clothing changes people’s behaviour.”

Mr. Unkelbach largely blames one-sided media portrayals for the bias.

The results would almost certainly be the same if this study was conducted in Canada, says Mohamed Elmasry, national president of the Canadian Islamic Congress.

“I’m hoping that Canadian Muslims one day become invisible,” says Mr. Elmasry. “As such, Canadians will treat them like any others.”

Islamophobia — “latent” before 9/11 — is on the rise, he says, but there is very little research on the issue in Canada.

The new study “does confirm our biggest fear that there is discrimination and prejudice within our society, and unfortunately people don’t recognize it or don’t admit it,” says Salam Elmenyawi, president of the Muslim Council of Montreal.

“Sometimes they really don’t know that it does exist.”

Beyond a turban or hijab, someone’s name, skin colour or a long beard may also identify them as a Muslim and make them a target of prejudice, he says. Mr. Elmenyawi wears a head-covering and long beard and says he struggles between recognizing that negative stereotypes exist and not becoming “paranoid” that he might fall prey to them.

In fact, the Australian study, which will be published in an upcoming issue of the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, confirmed that people don’t even realize they hold these biased views. When the true intention of the experiment was revealed, Mr. Unkelbach says participants insisted they were not prejudiced and must have reacted differently from everyone else.

“The most common response was, ‘I’m sure I didn’t show that effect,’” he says.”They’re uncomfortable and I believe them — people are not doing this willingly. If they could, they would control that. Here, people are almost the victims of what they are fed by their environment.”

A quick sampling of news items related to Muslims and the Middle East confirmed this, he says, with a focus on violence and terrorism almost obliterating more balanced stories about the culture and people.

“If everything about Middle Easterners is associated with terrorism, people tend to form stereotypes in their head,” confirms Rima Wilkes, a sociology professor studying media at the University of British Columbia.

Even fictional media feed these biases, she says. One study showed that movies tend to feature “socially acceptable” villain stereotypes that have evolved over time, from evil Germans in the post-war years to vaguely Muslim bad guys more recently. Even swarthy, pixelated video game adversaries send the message that “ethnic others are bad,” Ms. Wilkes says.

Seeing as how a good number of Sikhs have felt the brunt of this turbanized islam-o-phobia it would be nice if they added ‘non’ muslim turbans to this study.

I came to know about the recent dera riots only the other day. I havn’t really been paying attention to any panthic news for the last little while, but usually when something big happens the news just finds its own way of travelling. Which made the news of the current riots that much more surprising since even fewer people knew about them, and when I did go to ask around, I found I wasn’t the only one in the dark about what was happening.

The underlying story is about the same, Ram Rahim was in Bombay, and a group of Sikhs showed up to protest. Someone in the babas entourage opened fire, prefixing Bhai Balkar Singh, with the honary title of Shaheed. This off course led to even more riots and more protests, and for the most part that’s where things have been since Friday it would seem.

I really got nothing to add to the story, and like most others in the dark, I’m just trying to piece together what’s what. All the same, as is customary when crisis like this happens the news is often slow to trickle out, especially from reliable sources.

Here are some vids I pulled off of youtube that highlight just some of the agitation that’s going on and check out Panthic.org for updates. Also while the blogsphere is pretty dead on the whole thing there is one blog in particular - http://gururamdass.blogspot.com/, which seems ahead of the curb on the happenings.

Anywyas here are some of the vids I scoured from youtube, and I noticed there are even a few others on facebook in addition to groups that seem to be filling up quick with updates, pics and other tid bits so if you’re on that check those out.

While realizing that there are way more important things going on in the world right now that deserve proper mention, thought and even acknowledgment, I couldn’t help but feel a little indulged when I found out that lil ol me was being quoted on a p2p news site for a snip I scratched out at lunch on a tech forum regarding Bells recent monopolization of DSL Internet in Canada. I wonder if this counts as being ‘published’?