麻豆社

I鈥檓 very proud to be a Londoner born and bred. My uncle and aunt are true Cockneys, born within the sound of the Bow Bell. The capital has always been my home, with its raw liveliness and pageantry providing the constant backdrop to my life. And yet last Saturday, with crowds descending on the capital for the Unite the Kingdom march, it felt a very different place to me.

I鈥檓 not the only one to feel like that. A Sikh MP told me how he鈥檚 been inundated with emails and Direct Messages from constituents over the last week, worried for themselves and their families because of the divisive rhetoric that鈥檚 around. Last week british sikhs came out in protest after a young Sikh woman was sexually assaulted in the Midlands and allegedly told 鈥榞o back to your own country鈥�

It's clear that some people are concerned about where they live, the perceived erosion of pride, the pace of change, limited life chances and they want to express how they feel to the powers that be.

Such concerns are not new, but for me, the danger is that this sort of frustration can tip over into people pitting themselves against others who look or sound different to them. I also worry when I see people using their religion in ways that sow the seeds of division.

When Guru Nanak founded the Sikh faith, his first words were 鈥淭here is but Oneness, Truth is its Name, Creator Being, Without Fear, Without Hate鈥�. These became the opening words in the Sikh scriptures, the Guru Granth Sahib. The world we should be striving for is one where we aren鈥檛 afraid or anxious of the unknown, but also one where we don鈥檛 have hatred for the other either. We should be able to understand each other鈥檚 viewpoints, even if we don鈥檛 agree with them, but do so from a place of oneness.

Sikhs also believe in the concept of Sarbat Da Bhalla, the idea that all that we do should be for the betterment of society as a whole, regardless of differences.

Over the coming weeks and months, difficult conversations need to happen on issues that we find hard as a nation. In my view, we can鈥檛 afford to ignore those or kick them into the long grass anymore. But when we talk about identity, national pride, and what our flag means to various people, we need to be able to do so meaningfully and with respect for others.

鈥淲ithout fear. Without hate.鈥� - It鈥檚 a description of the Almighty, but for me it鈥檚 also a manifesto for humanity.

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