Sikh Sangat Upset as Angry Mob Stop Questionable Preacher

Posted: 17 May 2017

FRANKFURT, Germany—In a sad day for the peaceful reputation of the Sikh community, riot police had to enter a Gurdwara Sahib in Frankfurt last Sunday after angry groups caused disruption over the attendance of a preacher from Punjab who is known as repeatedly touching on controversial subjects.
Panthpreet Singh, a preacher from India, was invited to speak at the Sikh Centre Gurdwara but much noise and raucous by angry proponents of the Damdami Taksal group rose in protest. This provocative stance resulted in a violent stand-off, to which the police had to respond in force.
The preacher, whilst knowledgeable and engaging, has more recently been vocal concerning hot topics of contention, which many have seen as inflaming tensions between groups with varying schools of thought. Sadly, opposition groups have not responded in a befitting manner and resorted to challenging the preacher through disruption rather than dialogue.
Panthpreet has sat and openly debated with many in the past, but he recently refused a discussion with members of Damdami Taksal, possibly due to the fact that the leader of this faction in India has been complicit in supporting the killing of a preaching assistant of Bhai Ranjit Singh Dhadriawale, after members of the Damdami Taksal opened fire upon Ranjit Singh’s entourage after they disagreed with aspects of his preaching.
A committee member of the Frankfurt Gurdwara, Amarjit Singh confirmed with Sikh24 that they were willing to organize a meeting between their guest and his opponents.  “We asked them to nominate 5 members from their group who could have a constructive debate with Bhai Panthpreet Singh, however, they were not willing to sit down either,” he said.  He added that the committee’s main request was to provide proof on allegations, including audio and video recordings.
Meanwhile, Bhai Gurpreet Singh “California” who was in Frankfurt at the time of the attack praised the efforts by protesters.  He challenged Bhai Panthpreet Singh for an open debate, however, due to unknown reasons, the debate did not take place.  “We were successful in our mission.  Police could not stop us.  They were wearing riot gear, however, we were still successful in our mission of thrashing Panthpreet,” he said in a video recording.
Gurus of the Sikhs have always encouraged peaceful and tolerant responses to even violent threats, before responding physically. In recent events however, this faction of Sikhs have been responding with threats and physical attacks to their own kin.
This intolerable behaviour has done much to tarnish the image of Sikhs once again, in a world where Sikhs are already mis-identified extremist Muslims, due to the presence of a beard and turban in their appearance. Sikhs at large have being doing much to correct this with proactive community projects such as langar on the street, to help swing around public perception to appreciate the loving nature of Sikhs and their way of life.