since when were concerned Sikhs extremists?

The Daily Express has been one of the many outlets to speculate that an IED found on a car impounded because it had no insurance may have been destined for the English Defence League Demo at Dewsbury on June 30.

However, my eye hit a passage in the Express coverage that wasn’t immediately related to the incident:

[The police] are also concerned about reports suggesting the EDL has forged links with Sikh extremists following the rape of a Sikh woman by a Muslim.

Although I think I’d feel pretty extreme if somebody from my community was raped, the Express appears to see no need to justify why the Sikhs who protested in Luton were, in their opinion, extremists.

Possibly, its strategy might be to invite its readers to consider that "extremists", like birds of a feather, stick together: if the Sikhs are extremists, then so must their EDL friends be.

Alternatively, I wonder if there is a default assumption that anybody who makes an allegation against a Muslim is an "extremist". For example, portrait photographer Cinnamon Heathcote-Drury (right) found herself being charged with racially-aggravated assault upon a Muslim couple after she complained to police that she had been assaulted. (The jury found her not-guilty in 15 minutes).

Richard Littlejohn suggests that media fetishisation of Islam is fuelling record levels of anti-Semitism in Great Britain. We are now seeing another consequence of unthinking tolerance, whereby Sikhs are targeted for refusal to be quiescent towards the sort of Islam that awards with kudos men who are prepared to be abusive towards non-Muslim communities.

What we are seeing, with Sikhs and EDL members (which are not mutually-exclusive groups) demonstrating together is that the victims of institutionalised abuse will not lie under it; we are not extremists, we are only making common cause with each other.

Gerry Dorrian
300 words

Resources

Click to read the Express.co.uk article with the remark about Sikh "extremists"

300 Sikhs and English Defence League confront Muslim rape - British Freedom

Richard Littlejohn attacks anti-Semitism - TotallyJewish.com

Click for Daily Mail interview with Cinnamon Heathcote-Drury after her acquittal from charges of "racially aggravated assault"