Brampton Focus | Jagmeet Singh | Rally Video | – –
Jagmeet Singh, who grew up in Windsor, Canada, is a member of the Ontario legislature. His family is originally from India and belongs to the Sikh religious tradition, which mandates that men wear a turban. Sikhs, essentially a monotheistic reform of Hinduism, are often mistaken for Muslims by ignorant Westerners. I’m not sure why, since I’m unaware of any contemporary Muslims who wear a turban, but I guess they saw some Disney film.
Singh is running for head of the New Democrat Party in Canada, and on Wednesday his rally was interrupted by a heckler who pressed him as to why he supports sharia law. First of all, Sikhs aren’t Muslims and don’t support sharia law. Second of all, sharia is the living legal system of Muslims, analogous to Jewish halakha or Catholic canon law, and it isn’t clear why you would attack the one but not the others.
Singh replied in a classy way to the harassment, and his response has gone viral
Woman assumes Sikh politician is Muslim, angrily attacks him for supporting sharia.
He responds with grace and love.pic.twitter.com/SC72wc0OI6— Simran Jeet Singh (@SikhProf) September 9, 2017
Singh issued a statement explaining why he did not tell the heckler that he is not a Muslim:
With #LoveAndCourage pic.twitter.com/eRbuvOWNJX
— Jagmeet Singh (@theJagmeetSingh) September 10, 2017
Happy to see you’re covering Canadian politics. However, Mr. Singh is not a member of the Canadian Parliament, but rather a member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario, representing the riding of Bramalea-Gore-Malton. In his capacity as an M.L.A. with in the party, NDP, he is the Deputy Leader of the NDP in Ontario. Each Canadian province has a Legislative Assembly.
Mr. Singh has singed up thousands of new members for the NDP in his quest to become leader of the NDP (New Democratic Party of Canada) The NDP is the most left of the 3 major national parties.
Should the NDP elect him as leader, he will have to find a vacant seat in Parliament and run in that to actually sit as a member of Parliament. If one is not currently vacant, it is not unheard of for a sitting member to resign his seat so the new leader can run in a “safe” seat.
Our country’s Minister of Defense is also Sikh.
The guy who started the tirade obviously must be some sort of nut bar because certainly in British Columbia we know the difference between a Muslim and a Sikh.
Mr. Singh is also well known for riding his bicycle, no cars.
Bigots are not restricted to the U.S.A. Its usually though Canadians are a tad more polite about their racism.
Since Trump has been elected we in Canada have also seen a rise in racism. its been there all along, but the adherents to racism feel a bit bolder about it these days. Some like to disguise it as a matter of “free speech”.
Thanks for the post.
thanks & fixed
It is pathetic to watch people like this woman display their ignorance. First and foremost, I doubt she even knows the meaning of “sharia”, she is just spewing the hateful anti Muslim rhetoric that comes from anti Muslim groups. Not knowing the difference between a Sikh and a Muslim is another mistake these ignorant people make. Lastly the way she acts and speaks clearly shows a bad upbringing, and obviously she has many issues that make her act this way.
Sikh, Muslim. Shari’a, Halakha. What’s the difference? If hate is in you, it has to get out.
Her uncivil style negates any claim of a wish for questions asked….her you tube scree is a bit hard to take while at least 10% less virulent. What are the polices she is flexed about? I do not know enough about Ontario politics to get it; …great to see someone attacked keep their cool.