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> Peaceful Sikhs, noble warriors
>
 Miami Herald
 Published Thursday, October 11, 2001

 ROB BOYTE

 In her Sept. 29 article about Sikhs being mistaken for Muslims and
 bearing misguided reprisals due to the horrific actions of Muslim
 terrorists, Herald staff writer Donna Gehrke-White points out the
 honorable and peaceful nature of this 500-year-old religion. I met
 many
 Sikhs while traveling overland to India in the 1970s and can attest
 to
 their honorable and tolerant nature.

 On many occasions, my partner, Jim, and
 I were assisted by Sikhs who were fellow travelers on the bus
 journey
through Turkey and Iran. They were traveling from work in Europe
 back to
 their homes in India and took us under wing in these foreign lands.
 We
 found that they indeed lived according to their creed, which
 enjoins
 them to succor the helpless. We always felt safer in our travels
 when we
 saw men in the familiar turban and beard.

 The Sikhs are a warrior culture that, under the leadership of their
 last
 living guru, Gobind Singh, waged a resistance warfare with the
 ruling
 Muslim Moguls in Northern India in the late 17th and early 18th
 centuries. It was not a sectarian movement against Muslims, as
 Singh
 also fought oppressive Hindu rulers, and he had devoted Muslim
 followers
 in his own ranks.

 Singh initiated his first khalsa (Sikh community) with five men who
 proved that they would give up their lives for him. Henceforth they
 were
 all surnamed Singh, meaning ``lion.´´

 One of the five symbols of the khalsa is the kirpan (sword).
 However,
unlike the fanaticism of the Muslims who had conquered much of the
 world
 by the sword, the Sikhs were not to use theirs for aggression or
 self-aggrandizement but for self-defense -- and as a last resort.
 As
 Singh wrote, ``When all other means have failed, it is but lawful
 to
 take to the sword.´´

I know it sounds romanticized and Arthurian to think that there
 really
 are noble warrior cultures, but that is the history of the Sikhs
 who
inherited a code of conduct from Singh. Sikh men are called to help
 the
 helpless, fight the oppressor, have faith in one God and consider
 all
 human beings equal, irrespective of caste and creed. They also are
not
 to have sexual relations outside the marital bond.

The sad irony is that a Sikh, an ally in the battle against
 religious
oppression, was senselessly killed by an ignorant American fanatic.

 Rob Boyte is a resident of Miami Beach.

http://www.miami.com/herald/content/opinion/opcol/digdocs/079483.htm

Last updated on : November 11, 2001