TelBoy

Stones being thrown through the windows of a theatre for starters...

andrewdelvard

Exactly how bad an insult is it? What is the nature of the insult? Anyone know?

Jap2Scrap

A neighbouring borough in B'ham are saying it's an outrage that the violence led to it being pulled and they're going to stage the play there. I'm glad to see they're not allowing the violent few to dictate what we can and can't see.

ajm

The play portrays sexual abuse and murder and it ocurrs within a sikh temple. Their objection is that the temple is sacred therefore this cannot be portrayed.

ajm

Yeah, because of course there is riots every time a someone gets bumped off in a church in Midsommer Murders, and the manufacturers of Cluedo get their premises stoned on a regular basis for daring to suggest the Reverend Green could have dispatched someone in the library with a candlestick!!!

dsmith

You often find that people who are blinkered by religion fail to accept that many other people can use their own brain - and therefore would be capable of actually differentiating between "a play" and "real life". I would no more think that was "typical" than I would believe "all 30 somethings in New York live in very nice large flats" because I saw an episode of friends.

CoobyS

And that such acts have never been publicly known to occur in Sikh temples.

austen_wrx

What ever the subject, what ever the reason, i'm sick of a violent minority getting their way again. What sort of message does this send out?? If you don't agree with something, then violence will be tolerated and ultimately result in you getting your way??

TelBoy

^^^ Exactly. Or as Rob said in post #61.

suprabeast

yep totally agree too with the 2 above posts

good that its been moved to another venue, hopefully they can cope with the protestors a bit easier

suprabeast

"We are concerned that people out there who don't know anything about Sikhs will see this and what sort of a picture will they have in their mind?

"They will paint all Sikhs with the same brush."

(Well by that token, the whole country now thinks that sikhs are violent.. so that worked well)

CoobyS

As with nearly all peaceful protests, there's usually a small violent minory that ruins it for the rest. Recall the pro-fox-hunting protest; all English football fans are not hooligans et al.

Also, I wonder if the REP theatre would have staged such a play if the crimes were shown to have been comitted in a Mosque?!

Leslie

I doubt very much that the Sikhs would have bothered to protest as they did unless they honestly felt that it was an insult to their beliefs that such behaviour as depicted in the play happened in a temple.

I imagine that most people who have posted are deeply against religious beliefs. It is down to us what we believe of course. If you are irreligious however, then you would not understand how important certains things are to members of a religious faith and how easy it is to generate a very real insult in that respect.

In all fairness I think that we should all respect each other's beliefs and accept that in this case the Sikhs have got a genuine grievance aginst this play. Dont bother to accuse me of PC views, it has absolutely nothing to do with that.

Les

popeye

Just in case anyone's interested....

http://enjoyment.independent.co.uk/t...p?story=595098

Probably should be banned on the grounds of being total rubbish.

austen_wrx

Then surely we should respect each others rights to decide what we personally do or don't want to see??? If you believe that censorship should control everything you will every witness, then maybe you should live under a dictatorship??

ajm

Doesn't look like my cup of tea either to be honest, but at least I have the choice of seeing it or not!

suprabeast

blueone

Does anyone know if the Sikh protesters in Birmingham were all members of a sub group called IIRC Khalistan?

SinghSuperStud

iTrader: (2)

Blueone - nope - I'm Sikh myself and don't really echo the views of the members of the Khalistan group !

The protest was peaceful with the small number of people who are violent. I don't think we should let these few ruin it for the other law abiding Sikhs.

I fully agree with Leslie's post. As a persecuted minority in history we've often put up with cr@p but I think nobody would deny it that if they can change something then they at least try. It seems a fair few of you may not be very religious so with all due respect I fail to see how you could consider this such a big deal. For Sikhs, religion is a complete way of life, in the same was Islam is to a Muslim. I would be interested to know that if this was set in a Mosque if it'd have the same effect, something which I beleive to be true.

In response to those who think that it's stupid to complain as people have been insulting/taking jibes at the CofE or Catholics so why should it be any different in this case - Maybe they don't feel strongly enough about what they believe in so they can't see the point of protesting.

Jai

Jai

TelBoy

Or maybe we hold religion in a more realistic sense of perspective in our lives, and are therefore able to laugh at ourselves occasionally rather than taking every slur so personally...??


That, i would argue, is how we have traditionally seen it in the UK.

SinghSuperStud

iTrader: (2)

I'm all for a laugh but if you insult something so close to the hearts of many then where do you draw the line ? We are realistic, to the point that Sikhism is one of the most scientific religions known, its only 500 years old.

I can see what you're saying mate but I find it hard to sit back and watch as a writer sets scenes of rape etc. in a place I go to worship. The sanctity of the temple will not be the same.

Jai

popeye

Well given that Mr Rushdie's crime of writing a book earned him a death sentence, I would also believe that to be true.

TelBoy

Jai, many people would say that therefore, if the religious intolerance of the UK, as you preceive it, doesn't suit you, there might be more suitable countries in which to seek residence, seeing as this is such a fundamental element of your life...

Jap2Scrap

This underlines how a large percentage of the UK feels right now. And the feeling is brought about by liberal loonies who worry about offending anyone.

TelBoy

I'm trying to be diplomatic. Heaven forbid (lol) i tread on any PC toes!

Jap2Scrap

Well I agree with you TelBoy and I consider myself to be one of the most tolerant people I know.

Come and live in my country by all means. Make yourself at home, but start bitching about it once your feet are under the table and you can f**k right off as far as I'm concerned.

Wurzel

iTrader: (1)

I don't know what this play is about but has anyone stopped to think that what this woman is saying or writing about could be true nd could be going on in this particular temple.

BTW I am with ajm on this and agree completely.

Cheers
Steve, Roman Catholic

Jap2Scrap

Wake up RC dude. It's the 21st century! Get some condoms and stop over-populating this tiny isle!

There I can say that without fear of my windows getting put through!

SinghSuperStud

iTrader: (2)

Telboy,

I didn't say there was religious intolerance, far from it. I'm a British Sikh,proud to be British and proud to be Sikh. You suggest that I seek residence in another country? That's a nice way of saying p!ss off isn't it ?

I just think that as a religious minority it may be difficult for those who are perhaps not of the same persuasion to understand where Sikhs are coming from.

Jap2Scrap - I'm sure a large number of people inthe UK do not feel that. As a Sikh I'd say that w've done extremely well to become assimilated into the fabric of the UK, whilst bringing new skills, new investment etc. It comes down to this - before this happened on how many occassions have you heard of the 'religious fanatical Sikhs' causing problems ? You'r tarring everybody,those who have a legitimate grievence and those who are taking the **** (Abu Hamza etc.), with the same brush

Jai

Jap2Scrap

No, no, no... You get me wrong. I'm not specifically aiming this at you or anyone else. If you can't see my point in my second post then you are blind. Any person who loves their country should be offended when someone migrates there and then begins to complain about the way of life there.

I have no problems with anybody living here, born here or not. What I hate is the example I've made above.