Comments on: Interesting cartoons

Interesting cartoons

lowgfr — Sun, 19 Feb 2006 09:52:44 -0800

Vishavjit Singh is a cartoonist who focuses on cartoons describing the aspirations and frustrations of Sikhs. Sikhism, of course, is the world's 5th biggest religion, but somehow still seems to be unknown to the vast majority of the world. Amazingly enough, they are quite often mistaken for muslims (it's like mistaking a jew for a muslim) !!!

By: Mr_Zero

Mr_Zero — Sun, 19 Feb 2006 10:31:16 -0800

Sikhism preaches a message of devotion and remembrance of God at all times, truthful living, equality of mankind and denounces superstitions and blind rituals. Priceless

By: Mr_Zero

Mr_Zero — Sun, 19 Feb 2006 10:35:27 -0800

Balbir Singh seemed to be a really nice man. I live about a mile from the store he ran. I spoke with him on many occasions.

By: Falconetti

Falconetti — Sun, 19 Feb 2006 10:46:01 -0800

Nice idea, but they are atrociously unfunny and really boring.

By: sonofsamiam

sonofsamiam — Sun, 19 Feb 2006 10:47:34 -0800

Mr_Zero, you don't understand what "remembrance" (compare dhikr in Sufism) means in this context. As a practical matter, it is an attempt to keep one's humility and know one's place, to act towards what one knows is right and true (since Goodness and Truth are not merely descriptions of God, but in their fullest sense are supposed to be synonymous with God or ultimate reality.) Of course, these kind of lofty ideals are very hard for us humans to live up to, and will get rhetoricized to mean just the opposite, but "remembrance" is an active, all-encompassing devotion to honesty and goodness and is indeed opposed to empty ritual. Ritual and dogma are only worthy insofar as they facilitate true remembrance. I think this is comparable also to "you have forgotten your first love" in Christianity.

By: sour cream

sour cream — Sun, 19 Feb 2006 10:49:20 -0800

Amazingly enough, they are quite often mistaken for muslims I think it might have something to do with the turbans.

By: wah

wah — Sun, 19 Feb 2006 10:56:36 -0800

Interesting. Just went on a ski trip with a FOB sikh. Very interesting guy. Loved to talk politics and religion. Very well informed and a devoted capitalist. He's loved India since 1992, when the revolution happened. Ragheads, one and all. /j/k on that last bit...it's the Coulter virus.

By: amberglow

amberglow — Sun, 19 Feb 2006 11:01:10 -0800

I think it might have something to do with the turbans. It has much more to do with all the undifferentiated expressions of hate spread around all the time--see Coulter's "ragheads" thing just last week, wildly cheered--and many others, and with our own ignorance. It's not them, but us. Sikhs were killed here after 9/11 because hateful idiots thought they were Muslims.

By: fixedgear

fixedgear — Sun, 19 Feb 2006 11:07:41 -0800

Are they still required to carry daggers?

By: delmoi

delmoi — Sun, 19 Feb 2006 11:13:22 -0800

What do they have against rss?

By: Drexen

Drexen — Sun, 19 Feb 2006 11:15:20 -0800

These cartoons would benefit form being funny/well-written/subtle/well-drawn.

By: atrazine

atrazine — Sun, 19 Feb 2006 11:21:34 -0800

Amazingly enough, they are quite often mistaken for muslims Unfortunately it doesn't amaze me at all. Most Americans (like most people in any country) are uncultured rubes. Here's a useful spotter's guide for different kinds of turbans

By: docgonzo

docgonzo — Sun, 19 Feb 2006 11:29:36 -0800

Are they still required to carry daggers? Sikhism mandates "the five Ks" which includes carrying a Kirpan. It's not -- or, at least, the ones that I have seen -- are not as much a dagger as a ceremonial dull butter knife.* *IANASBMIASF (I am not a sikh but married into a sikh family.)

By: Doorstop

Doorstop — Sun, 19 Feb 2006 11:35:18 -0800

stupid occidental mindset of the west. i can't STAND it when people mistake anyone who wears a turban, or even has brown skin for that matter, as a muslim. first off, Islam is a RELIGION. The people are ARAB, or middle eastern, or Black, hell I even know a WHITE muslim. none of them wear turbans (unless its a toolish fashion statement)!!! yet, a month after 9/11, my cousin (a catholic indian) gets knocked off her bike by a buncha ingnorant white kids. i wish i could say that things have settled down since then, but as you all know, they haven't. RAGE(sorry, none of this is directed at any of you). and, Mr_Zero, what the hell is so wrong with rememberances of God while denouncing superstition? obviously christians didn't get it right! all the Sikh's i know are very laid back and even minded and nowhere NEAR fundamental. Learn about a religion before trouncing it just because it IS a religion. ok, now that my ranting is over, i like the comics. i highly recccomend Badmash. It's all sortsa Desi goodness.

By: Matt Oneiros

Matt Oneiros — Sun, 19 Feb 2006 11:43:22 -0800

It's like not differentiating between any other two cultural groups you're unfamiliar with, incosiderate.

By: odinsdream

odinsdream — Sun, 19 Feb 2006 11:43:23 -0800

Doorstop; I think what Mr_Zero is getting at is that rememberance of or belief in God is a superstition, yet those who practice this particular superstition often fail to acknowledge it, and even go so far as to denounce "other" superstitions, as seen here.

By: Artw

Artw — Sun, 19 Feb 2006 11:45:01 -0800

Amazingly enough, they are quite often mistaken for muslims Only by really, really stupid Americans.

By: luftmensch

luftmensch — Sun, 19 Feb 2006 11:52:33 -0800

atrazine, thanks for the informative turban link. I like to learn something every day; now I can go back to bed.

By: b1tr0t

b1tr0t — Sun, 19 Feb 2006 11:56:57 -0800

delmoi: the other RSS

By: Doorstop

Doorstop — Sun, 19 Feb 2006 12:00:41 -0800

any belief is a superstition, even the denial of God. I go by the Jay and Silent Bob Dogma quote... things go wrong when you take a good IDEA and start to make it a belief.

By: srboisvert

srboisvert — Sun, 19 Feb 2006 12:26:49 -0800

Nature clearly doesn't abhor vacuums because it has created so many of them.

By: delmoi

delmoi — Sun, 19 Feb 2006 12:35:29 -0800

any belief is a superstition, even the denial of God. Even the statement you just made is a superstition by your standards, so I guess we can just ignore it.

By: Doorstop

Doorstop — Sun, 19 Feb 2006 12:51:22 -0800

delmoi, you must have worked really hard to come up with that didn't you. good for you. you get a cookie. ...its an idea, not a belief. get it straight.

By: plep

plep — Sun, 19 Feb 2006 13:10:10 -0800

Sikhism, of course, is the world's 5th biggest religion Not to nitpick, but I'm not convinced by this - it may be the seventh biggest religion (after Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, and Shinto). To some extent it depends on how 'religion' is defined, as it's possible to be both a Buddhist and a Shintoist (like most Japanese), for instance.

By: odinsdream

odinsdream — Sun, 19 Feb 2006 13:21:34 -0800

... any belief is a superstition, even the denial of God. You obviously have a problem with basic english, cognitive logic, or both, so I'm not going to even bother explaining where you went wrong.

By: mr_roboto

mr_roboto — Sun, 19 Feb 2006 13:48:49 -0800

Doorstop writes "...its an idea, not a belief. get it straight." That's just your beleif. I know different. So there.

By: phliar

phliar — Sun, 19 Feb 2006 14:06:30 -0800

What do they have against rss?

Don't they know Web 2.0 is dead? RSS is the Rashtriya Swayam-Sevak Sangh, which loosely translated means National Self-Helper Association (or thereabouts). It's the Hindu nationalist gang that go around blowing things up and killing people they think might not be Hindus.

By: sour cream

sour cream — Sun, 19 Feb 2006 14:14:03 -0800

plep: To some extent it depends on how 'religion' is defined, as it's possible to be both a Buddhist and a Shintoist (like most Japanese), for instance. Of course there are people who argue that Shintoism is not really a religion. Someone (I forgot who) said that if religions were cars, then Shintoism is a wheel barrow. Spot on, if you ask me.

By: grimcity

grimcity — Sun, 19 Feb 2006 15:08:02 -0800

any belief is a superstition, even the denial of God. I don't deny any gods, I lack a belief in them... therefore I lack superstitious beliefs as they pertain to religion. Bald isn't a hair color, it's a lack of hair.

By: kozad

kozad — Sun, 19 Feb 2006 17:21:30 -0800

yeah, plep, you're right. Although Shintoism has so insinuated itself into Japanese culture, it's hardly a religion anymore. (Y'know....Shinto weddings, Buddhist funerals.) But there have to be more than 20 million Taoists, given the population of China, so I'd give it a 6. I kinda like the religion myself, at least compared with the other monotheistic religions. But I've been burnt by the guru thing, so I'm not gonna don a turban or stop going to GreatCuts now and then.

By: Mr_Zero

Mr_Zero — Sun, 19 Feb 2006 19:21:14 -0800

You are correct odinsdream. That was my point.

By: plep

plep — Mon, 20 Feb 2006 03:23:34 -0800

About turbans and the five K's etc. :- Initiated adult Sikhs are known as Khalsa Sikhs. Not all Sikhs are Khalsa - some do choose not to go through the initiation. About numbers :- According to this Wikipedia article (so for what it's worth), the figures for religious belief or non-belief are :- Christianity 2.1 billion Islam 1.3 billion Secular/Irreligious/Agnostic/Atheist 1.1 billion Hinduism 900 million Chinese folk religion 394 million Buddhism 376 million (see also Buddhism by country) Primal indigenous 300 million African traditional and diasporic 100 million Sikhism 23 million Juche 19 million Spiritism 15 million Judaism 14 million Mormonism 12 million Bahá'í Faith 7 million Jehovah's Witnesses 6.7 million Jainism 4.2 million Shinto 4 million (see below) Cao Dai 4 million Zoroastrianism 2.6 million Tenrikyo 2 million Neopaganism 1 million Unitarian Universalism 800,000 Rastafari movement 600,000 ... which puts Sikhism eighth among the world's religions, counting 'primal indigenous' and 'African traditional and diasporic' as single religions.

By: maryh

maryh — Mon, 20 Feb 2006 05:58:13 -0800

From Wikipedia's Juche (religion #10) entry: According to North Korea's leader Kim Jong-il, the application of Juche to policy produces the following principles: The people must have independence (Chajusong) in thought and politics... The Juche outlook requires loyalty to the revolutionary party and revolutionary leader. Nice. /derail

By: Smedleyman

Smedleyman — Mon, 20 Feb 2006 07:19:03 -0800

I like Sikhs. Met/know quite a few. They tend toward the 'no shit' end of the religious spectrum. Bit too serious about some things though.

By: ibanda

ibanda — Mon, 20 Feb 2006 08:51:40 -0800

Their religion is off the radar screen for many Americans, even as the broad turbans that Sikh men use to wrap the hair they never cut become a more common sight here. Translated in the post to: unknown to the vast majority of the world. I think that says something...