Bloody Fight Erupts at Brampton Sikh Temple

source: http://www.thestar.com/printarticle/797333
Bloody fight erupts at Brampton Sikh temple

April 18, 2010
Raveena Aulakh - The Star, Toronto, ON

Paramedics wheel away one of five victims injured in a brawl Sunday at Brampton's Guru Nanak Sikh Centre on Glidden Rd. According to witnesses several of the participants fought with hammers, machetes and construction knives.
SUPPLIED PHOTO

Five people are in hospital after two opposing groups clashed inside a Brampton Sikh temple Sunday afternoon.

The fight broke out at the Guru Nanak Sikh Centre at Glidden Rd. near Hwy 410 and Steeles Ave. when one group tried to break up the other group’s meeting. It started as a fistfight but witnesses say turbans soon flew and hammers, machetes and construction knives were brandished as a group of about 100 people clashed at about 3:45 p.m.
Reference:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/hard-talk/30057-bloody-fight-erupts-brampton-sikh-temple.html

The fight spilled outside as Peel Regional Police scrambled to take control, said witnesses.

“It was quite chaotic,” said Jagdish Grewal, editor of Punjabi Post, a newspaper published in Brampton, who arrived minutes after the fight broke out and saw two men lying outside with a bloodied hammer between them. Others were being given first-aid and taken to hospital.

Inside the hall, where the scuffle happened, Grewal said knives and machetes were still lying on the floor along with torn blood-soaked clothes. “There was blood too on the tiles,” Grewal told the Star.

At heart is the control of the temple but no one will say that openly.

The management was not available to comment on Sunday’s violence but members of the temple said trouble had started brewing a couple of days earlier when the group opposing the management announced that it would hold a meeting inside the temple.

“All we wanted was to have a meeting to discuss matters of the temple,” said Rampal Dhillon, who was inside the hall when the fight broke out. “We started the meeting at 3 p.m. and it was going smoothly when about two dozen people stormed inside.”

They were wielding hammers, machetes and construction knives, said Dhillon, who lives in Dundas, near Hamilton. There was screaming and yelling as people shoved and pushed to get outside, he added.

“It’s an ongoing dispute among the board members,” said Const. George Tudos of Peel Regional Police, adding that police had been called in earlier. “There was indication that there might be some trouble here.”
Reference:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/showthread.php?t=30057

This fight comes two weeks after Manjit Mangat, a prominent Brampton lawyer, was stabbed outside the Sikh Lehar Centre, a Sikh temple located barely a kilometre away from the temple at Glidden Rd. Witnesses had said at least two men brandished unsheathed kirpans, the ceremonial dagger worn by baptized Sikhs, triggering a fresh controversy about Sikhs’ right to wear it.

 
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Control of management of the temple...a hammer, construction knives, machetes, blood soaked clothes?

Narayanjot Ji

Eek!!! You guys better start getting things under control, expel the hot heads or do something, or Sikhi will begin to look to people all over the world like Islam

Sorry but its got to be said

"Pray without ceasing"
Curious

You are absolutely correct, CS ji.

This is embarrassing, humiliating, disgusting, horifyinf, etc., etc., not to mention bad PR. It's really sad that Guru Nanak's name is in the middle of all this.

Did everyone forget that 18 April is a double Gurupurab.

I feel sick.

FIXING things ???

KDS, you wanted to see the difference between religion and spirituality...
Reference:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/showthread.php?t=30057

Here is one...

Curious Seeker ji,

Guru Fateh.

Thanks for your curiosity but it seems as also shown by your earlier posts in a different thread that you do not understand Sikhi or in this case about the religious affairs of the Muslims either.

What is this thing about," You guys"? Why belittle others rather than offering sympathy and some inputs on new ideas?

I have no idea why this blatant statement from your part,"or Sikhi will begin to look to people all over the world like Islam".

One wonders what thought process went into it and how shallow it was.

Let's try to dissect things just for the sake of fact finding which is important for any seeker especially for the curious kind.

Sunni Mosques all over the world are built,controlled by the religiousos, from Saudi Arabia funded by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.One does not see any fights in the Mosques among the Muslims because of the heavy handed control. Most of the Prison Imams in the US are Wahhabi- the radical side of Islam ala Osama Bin Laden.

The Shia mosques out side the Muslim countries are mainly controlled by the Ismaili Muslims also called the Aga Khanis , thus controlled by the Aga Khan honchos and one does not see any fights there either.

Please share with us if you have news about the in fightings in the mosques and post the URL.

Now, coming back the Sikh Gurdwaras. What happened in the other Gurdwara where Manjit Singh Mangat was stabbed has nothing to do with the fighting that took place in Brampton last weekend. These two happened for totally different reasons and both are awfully bad things to happen especially in a religious place.

On the off set, I want to make it clear that I am not defending either of these horrendous acts but offering a reasoning for you.

All the Gurdwaras outside India are independently owned by the trusts of the local communities unlike the most Gurdwaras in India which are either managed by the SGPC or in Delhi managed by the DGPC. There is no centralised management in the Gurdwaras outside India as with the Mosques where the Muslims worship whom you compared to the Sikhs. The infightings are common because of different parties wanting to take control over the Gurdwara but rarely they get violent.

Yes, unfortunately, lots of money is wasted in the court battles for the take over. It also happened in a city like Henderson, NV which hardly has 100 to 150 Sikh families.

One of the famous Gurdwaras in Los Angeles called the Lankershim Gurdwara which had a committee changed in the beginning of this year had the similar situation. The previous committee had a Punjabi and Gurmat School for 500 students which also included adults. The next door building was bought for the retired and old people for their recreation and was used for playing cards, board games etc etc and as usual Langar was served.

The new committee refused to continue the school and the other home for the old if the members of the old committee did not pay for all that.

This resulted in the old committee buying a closed church and open a new Gurdwara called the Khalsa Care Society. This same Gurdwara sponsors the "Singh Sensations" Basketball team which arranged the first basketball camp whose videos can be seen on SPN.

The Gurmat school continues in the new Gurdwara. Most of the people from the other Gurdwara visit this one now. The Vaisakhi Nagar Keertan was also arranged by them for the first time.

In Democracy, certain things are not resolved in this manner as it was in the case of the Khalsa Care Society but it is a good example that other Gurdwaras should follow rather than practicing violence which shows nothing but that we are still controlled by the five thieves in us. Gurbani teaches us how to control them rather than being controlled by them.

Hopefully, these two different incidents happened for two different reasons will bring out some good Phoenixes from their ashes,so that things can be resolved in an amicable manner. Anger, rage, disdain, ego, false pride and lust are human traits. Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji, our only Guru gives us the tools to handcuff them. Only if we understood and practiced what is said in Gurbani would help. Not praying to some deity or to something else.

Common sense and wisdom given to us by our Gurus would suffice if practiced upon in a diligent manner.

Tejwant Singh

I think that this one is more of a political issue, free of religious justification. At least I hope so...

Why in Canada all of a sudden... in quick succession? Manmohan asking harper out of context or any urgency.
Someone wants to prove something?
Kamal Nath teaching another lesson to sikhs? Lesson #2 after November 1984?
How dare you file a case against me?