Sacrilegious attack against Sikhs in Sindh
The holy book Guru Granth Sahib was desecrated, and money was stolen.
By Massimo Introvigne
Bitter Winter (02.12.2021) – https://bit.ly/3Ekyipv – An attack against a Sikh place of worship took place on November 27 at Gurdwara Shri Guru Harkrishen Sahib situated at Village Kot Meer Badan Khan Bajarani in Kashmore district’s Karampur tehsil.
Attackers targeted the holy book Guru Granth Sahib, tore its pages, and threw them on the ground. For Sikhs, the Guru Granth Sahib is more than sacred scripture. When their last guru, Gobind Singh Ji, passed away in 1708, he told his followers that their next and perpetual guru will not be a human being but the Guru Granth Sahib. The book is approached by Sikhs with great reverence, and desecrating it has the same sacrilegious meaning of attacking the Quran for Muslims.
Money was also stolen from the golak, which is the collection book placed in front of the Guru Granth Sahib.
Local Sikhs complained that the police did not seem to take an interest in the attack, and did not even register a FIR (first information report) as it should be usual in these cases.
The incident confirms the precarious situation of Sikhs in Pakistan who, not less than Christians and Hindus, are exposed to sectarian violence.
Photo : The attack on the holy book. From Twitter.
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Massimo Introvigne (born June 14, 1955 in Rome) is an Italian sociologist of religions. He is the founder and managing director of the Center for Studies on New Religions (CESNUR), an international network of scholars who study new religious movements. Introvigne is the author of some 70 books and more than 100 articles in the field of sociology of religion. He was the main author of the Enciclopedia delle religioni in Italia (Encyclopedia of Religions in Italy). He is a member of the editorial board for the Interdisciplinary Journal of Research on Religion and of the executive board of University of California Press’ Nova Religio. From January 5 to December 31, 2011, he has served as the “Representative on combating racism, xenophobia and discrimination, with a special focus on discrimination against Christians and members of other religions” of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). From 2012 to 2015 he served as chairperson of the Observatory of Religious Liberty, instituted by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in order to monitor problems of religious liberty on a worldwide scale.