www.indianexpress.com/full_story.php?content_id=75385
Print this story Posted online: Sunday, July 31, 2005 at 0000 hours IST 7/7: Talking through the turban As the pressure mounts on Islamic terror cells operating in the city, the more mundane result is that Asian men with rucksacks are now avoided li ke the plague. But the collateral damage seems to be the Sikh community. Even after decades of a Sikh presence in this country, the turbans seem to cause a mistaken identity crisis among those looking for revenge. At least, thats the explanation after the 7/7 crisis for the attack on a g urdwara in south London. A group of British Si khs, holidaying in New York last week, found themselves ordered off the bus and confronted by police at gunpoint telling them to lie on the grou nd, hands behind their back. Advertisement In our local pub, a Sikh friend of mine looked into his pint of beer and philosophised: Maybe I just need to stick a sign on my turban which says Nah, mate, wrong kind.
PM Tony Blair, who is still intent on pursuing this nebulous concept of winning Muslim hearts and minds, recently invited key persona lities within the the British Muslim community to Downing Street for cri sis talks. But apart from the likes of Sir Gulam Noon (the ready meals t ycoon) and Pakistani Labour MP Shahid Malik was someone that the Prime M inister hadnt met before yet who has more insight into the minds of inne r-London Muslim youth: the first female Muslim head-teacher of a compreh ensive. The PM should have asked his missus Cherie had presented the Professional of the Year award to Bushra Nazir a few months ago. The headmistress of a secondary school, where 90 per cent of the children are of Pakistani, Bangladeshi and Indian origin and two-thirds are Musl im, calls a spade a spade. If the polls are saying that 32 per cent of B ritish Muslims think that Western society is immoral and should be broug ht to an end, then I ask myself: if they hate it so much, why do they li ve here? When she got the invite to 10 Downin g, she put on her smartest salwar-kameez when she suddenly thought: Down ing Street? I was at a party recently at Aura, a central London nightclub, with an ul tra chi-chi guestlist, despite the dress code being a James Bond theme. As one of the partys hostesses was a minor European royal Princess Tamar a Czartoryski-Borbon is a second cousin to King Juan Carlos of Spain, wo rk that one out it was no surprise to find a minor Brit royal there too. Surprisingly, though Lady Gabriella Windsor was happy to be there in publ ic with her Indian boyfriend, Aatish Taseer, when one of the photographe rs asked her permission to take a picture of the happy couple instead of doing a paparazzi grab, Lady Ella refused. magazine there is page after page after page of pictures of... usually pays its royal stars to appear, it also did a plug for Ellas parents, Prince and Princess Michael of Kent who a re trying to sell their home for several million.
Tony Robinson, the comedian and television presenter, who bec ame known for his role of Baldrick in the comic BBC Blackadder series, i s promoting the 11-day trek across Himachal Pradesh to Dharamsala in May next year to raise funds for Help the Aged. But now, would-be trekkers would have to raise 2,000 sponsorship. Robinson said: Trek India is a fa ntastic opportunity to raise money for Help the Aged whilst seeing some of the worlds most extraordinary sights. The final day of the trek is a visit to Delhis Mobile Medicare Unit to se e where the charitys funds go.
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