Bill O’Reilly has been railing against the so-called “War on Christmas” for years. Now he’s lambasting a Massachusetts town for shutting off their Christmas lights at 10 p.m. to conserve energy. The horror. What did Baby Jesus ever do before the former WFAA-Channel 8 reporter got booted out of Dallas?
Now, the Sikhs, they're on to something a little bigger than that Charlie Brown Christmas display in your front yard. For three years they've been protesting France’s 2004 law that bans people from wearing articles of faith, including everything from turbans to yarmulkes to big ol' crosses, to the point of taking their case to the United Nations and the European Court of Human Rights. And this weekend, the international director of United Sikhs brings the issue to the Dallas-Fort Worth, where an estimated 10,000 Sikhs live. Just in time for the holidays.
So if you’re looking for something to do in between harried trips to the mall, join Mejindarpal Kaur at the Gurdwara Singh Sabha on Abrams Road in Richardson. For more information, call (972) 235-3388.
“It might be France, but it’s fundamental rights of worship that are under attack,” Gurvinder Singh, a DFW resident and United Sikhs’ aid director, tells Unfair Park. “In Belgium they’ve already started discussing a law, [and] in Germany two provinces have begun congressional hearings. We feel that if we just sit idly by, there’s going to be a domino effect.”
Beside, he adds, what better time to ponder religious freedom than this Very Special Weekend? “Sikhs are the most obvious because we wouldn’t be able to wear the turban, but it effects Jews, Christians, Muslims, everyone.” Except, probably, Bill O'Reilly. --Megan Feldman
