Hello All! My name is GlorpZorp, but my friends call me Glorpy!
I recently made my first friend here on Earth! I was sitting in a Starbucks Coffee shop and a man in a turban came and asked me what time it was. I checked the time on my laptop and told him; he then said that he had a lot of time left over before work and decided to sit down with me. After talking for about 45 minutes with my new friend Baljeet, we exchanged email addresses and he left for his job. We talked about things like his work, family and hobbies, but what interested me most was our discussion about his turban. He told me he was a Sikh man. Sikhism is a monotheistic religion, believing in only one God, but following the teachings of ten different Gurus, all of whom took the form of humans on Earth. Sikhism was founded in 1469, by the first of the ten Gurus, Guru Nanak Dev Ji, in the Indian region of Punjab. Today there are upwards of 30 million Sikhs worldwide. In addition, there are over 700,000 Sikhs in the United States. Similar to how Christianity has Jesus and the Bible, Sikhs believes in the Almighty creator Waheguru, who has blessed the world with the Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji, their Holy Scripture. Despite being one of the most recently developed religions within the last 500 years, Sikhism has grown to be well-known. While earning a place in the top five largest religions at one point, the practice of Sikhism’s ideals have not been accepted by the masses. After the 2001 terrorist attacks on the Twin Towers, many people have begun to confuse people with turbans as Muslims, completely ignoring the religious difference between a dastar (Sikh turban) and a turban-style headdress worn in Islamic cultures, even though 99% of those in a turban are Sikhs. Although no such discrimination should be taking place towards any culture, misdirected racism and slurs have completely transformed the way that Sikhs identify themselves in public, from young boys cutting their hair to fit in and youth of all ages being called “terrorists” simply because of their appearance. Baljeet and I briefly discussed this phenomenon, as his young twelve year old son had just asked his parents, who never cut their hair, if he could get a haircut to stop the other boys at school from bullying him. What is a parent supposed to do in this situation? Forsake their religion for their child or teach their child to be proud of their faith? Apparently, there are countless instances of situations like this and just as many kids leaving their beliefs behind in fear of others. On Kawakatawk, we are all inclusive of each other’s beliefs, whether we believe in it or not. We make sure to teach kids from the start not to make fun of one another and we teach teachers specifically to make sure they can see signs of bullying from the very beginning. Baljeet is on a mission to educate all people about Sikhism and its roots of kindness, free help and sharing, so Sikh children in the future will never have to hide or worry about their faith. Hopefully, this article helps spread his message.
Baljeet is following his goal, just like me! I think I will see a lot more of him, since I already sent him an email earlier today. I am excited to have someone to discuss my writing with!
written by: GlorpZorp Katawk January 31, 2020 (1:20 pm)
Glorpy's Blog! 