This Sunday, Radio Sher-E-Punjab is organizing the sixth annual turban tying competition at the Bombay Banquet Hall in Surrey to mark International Sikh Turban Day.

The competition is free and men and boys of all ages are welcome to join the event.

The day was picked a few years ago by different Sikh groups to coincide with the harvest festival of Vaisakhi, which is celebrated every April 13.

Since the tenth master of the Sikhs, Guru Gobind Singh, had founded the Khalsa - a militant Sikh force to resist the oppression of the Mughal Empire - on Vaisakhi day, the Sikh bodies picked the date to celebrate the International Sikh Turban Day. The establishment of the Kalsa also gave the group a distinct identity.

A turban is must for a devout Sikh, who has long unshorn hair. While a number of Sikhs in the Lower Mainland can be seen without turbans, Sikh groups are trying to encourage youth to give up the practice of cutting hair in favour of sporting a turban and this day was launched mainly to promote the tenets of Sikhism.

However, the co-ordinator of the Sunday event, Gurvinder Singh Dhaliwal, who is also a talk show host with Radio Sher-E-Punjab, gives a number of other reasons for holding such an event.

He says that the organizers also want to educate people about challenges facing turbaned Sikhs across the world. These include discrimination against turbaned Sikhs and hate attacks on them in U.S. after 9/11.

"We also wish to remove low-self esteem among the turbaned Sikhs, who are subjected to racial taunts, and make them feel proud of what they are." [Link]

To understand what it feels like to wear clothes of a different faith, non-Sikhs - including the Jewish mayor of Fremont and a Catholic state assemblyman - plan to wrap their heads in brightly colored cloth this weekend as part of "Sikh Turban Day," an international movement launched five years ago.

"I said, 'Sure, I'll do it,' " said Fremont Mayor Bob Wasserman, who plans to show up early to the Fremont Sikh temple on Sunday to get help winding the long piece of turban cloth around his head. Wearing a turban is a first for Wasserman, who is Jewish.

"It's just a way of showing unity and understanding for each other's culture," he said....

"Sikh Turban Day" was first launched in 2003 by a group called Sikh Children Forum.

Founder Hardeep Singh Aulakh, a Union City computer engineer, said a group of Sikhs got together after Sept. 11, 2001, to try to address the mistaken perception that Sikhs had something to do with the terrorist attacks.

Traditionally, Sikh men wear turbans and have been misidentified as Muslims because al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden wears a head wrap, although a different style than the Sikhs.

"We thought, if all the Sikhs wear a turban one day, we can pass the message out and tell others about us," Aulakh said. They likened their approach to Irish wearing green on St. Patrick's Day, or Chinese wearing red on New Year's.

The idea grew from having just Sikhs wear turbans on a designated day, Aulakh said, to inviting non-Sikhs to experience wearing a turban. From one or two Sikh temples participating a few years ago, Aulakh said at least 70 locations in the United States, Canada, England, France, India, Malaysia are participating this year.

"It's been very successful," Aulakh said.[Link]

More than 10,000 people celebrated the Sikh religious holiday of Baisakhi Sunday and denounced a series of hate crimes against the sect following the 9-11 terrorist attacks....

Sikh leaders say there have been hundreds of documented hate crimes against their followers since the 9-11 attacks, including the murder of an Arizona Sikh who was gunned down within days of the 2001 attacks. Police say assailants have mistaken Sikhs, who wear turbans, for Muslims.

Congressman Brad Sherman, D-Sherman Oaks, who joined the festivities, decried the violence against Sikhs.

"It's bigotry wrapped in ignorance," said Sherman, who is advocating new federal legislation to increase penalties for hate crimes.

Further highlighting the need for more understanding, two non-Sikh men attending another event near the Convention Center on Sunday quipped that the Sikh gathering looked like "an al-Qaida convention." [Link]

After the attacks in the US on September 11, 2001, ethnic minorities did become targets of violence as a result of a few Americans retaliating in anger. The Sikh community in the United States was one of the targets.

Now the Community has decided to fight prejudice with an exhibition explaining their culture at the Queens Museum of New York. A Brookyln based photographer portrays Sikhs in their public and private lives, to create this unique and intimate look into one of the least well known and understood communities.

On the five year anniversary of 9/11, five Sikhs were chosen and actively helped by Grassroots Initiative and the Sikh Coalition, to run for office, and all five were elected becoming the first-ever Sikh elected officials in New York.

Prerana Reddy, Director of public events says, "Well the Queens Museum is located in one of the most diverse part of the world, And definitely there is a large Sikh Community here and we did not have the opportunity to show case their culture and their public life so this was a great opportunity for us".

Marritt, a visitor to the exhibition says, "By picking the Sikh Community that is one of the most visible and heavily discriminated groups and making it clear that they can succeed, really sets an example." [Link]

Expressing beliefs through personal reflections and performances, representatives of different faiths from across Massachusetts gathered at the George Sherman Union's Metcalf Hall last night to debunk religious stereotypes and misconceptions.

"Breaking Barriers: Destroying Misconceptions About Our World's Faiths," hosted by different on-campus religious groups, was an opportunity for about 20 students to talk about their personal struggles with how others perceive their religions, said Dean of Students Kenneth Elmore during his opening speech.

The event, which included speakers from an array of faith backgrounds, examined social misunderstandings between different faith-based people.

"When I get into an elevator, it is up to me to break the tension because my turban draws attention," said Sham Rang Singh Khalsa, minister of Gurudwara, a Sikh temple. "When I bring up the Red Sox, I know they are relieved." [Link]

Dhol drums and chimtas set the beat as about 140 people thrust their shoulders, pumped their knees and twisted their hands on Friday night.

They were dancing the Punjabi bhangra at NYU Nach, an event held by NYU's United Sikh Association chapter at the Kimmel Center. The event raised $1,000 for the Sikh Research Institute, an organization that aids widows of the 1984 Sikh riots.

"Everyone enjoyed themselves, and people learned about Punjabi culture at the same time," said Nimeeta Sachdev, president of the Sikh Association at NYU.

Attendees learned about the 1984 conflict, during which India's government unofficially sanctioned a four-day slaughter of more than 3,000 Sikhs after Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated by her two Sikh bodyguards.

Widows of the victims now face a cultural stigma that has forced them to form colonies so that they can support themselves and their children financially. But even with the small tailoring jobs that many of these women have, they still have difficulty financing their children's education, said Sandeep Singh, vice president of the Sikh Association. [Link]