The much-touted “Sikh-Muslim unity” seems to be in jeopardy after author and Sikh activist Amaan Bali today took to Twitter to announce that the community will not allow women to marry Muslims.
Bali’s tweet was in response to a tweet by a user who asked him to stop taking decisions on behalf of girls. The user further added that it is up to girls to make the decision as to with whom they want to stay or marry. To this, Bali retorted: “No, Girls will not marry Muslims. Live with it. Deal with it. This is the fine line we have drawn at the community level.”
No. Girls will not marry Muslims. Live with it. Deal with it. This is the line we have drawn at community level.
— Amaan (@amaanbali) June 29, 2021
Soon after Bali declared on Twitter that a decision at a community level has been taken to prevent Sikh women from marrying Muslims, he was heavily criticised by woke individuals and left-leaning liberals criticising him alike for declaring that Sikh women would no longer marry Muslims.
Left-leaning liberals ‘cancel’ Amaan Bali for proclaiming that no Sikh women will marry Muslims
Gurmehar Kaur, who shot to fame through a video claiming how Pakistan didn’t kill her martyred father who died in the line of duty due to cross-border terrorism, but the war did, took to Twitter to slam Bali for telling women what they can and cannot do.
Another man telling women what they can and cannot do.
— Gurmehar Kaur (@mehartweets) June 29, 2021
Congress loyalist and an ardent fan of Rahul Gandhi, Sanjukta Basu, also called for the cancellation of author Amaan Bali, whom she claimed to be a “pathetic Sanghi”.
Even I just realized I was following Amaan Bali. Must have thought him to be liberal intellectual, reads and writes books and shit like that. Turns out, he is a pathetic Sanghi. Lol. Trying to communalize things for #PunjabElections2022. This is so predictable that it is funny.
— Sanjukta Basu (@sanjukta) June 29, 2021
Another left-leaning liberal, who goes by the handle @deepsealioness raised her objection to Bali’s tweet where he proclaimed that Sikh women would no longer be marrying Muslim men.
Who is we? Only person to decide that is the Sikh woman who is going to get married.
— 🇵🇸 پربھا 🚜 🏳️🌈 (@deepsealioness) June 29, 2021
Another Twitter user who seemed profoundly hurt by Amaan Bali’s declaration was Abhishek Baxi, who tweeted: “Girls aren’t a community asset. She is an individual with her own agency. You are robbing her off that agency. There is nothing right and nothing noble in your act. Sit down.”
Girls aren’t a community asset. She is an individual with her own agency.
— Abhishek Baxi (@baxiabhishek) June 29, 2021
You are robbing her off that agency. There is nothing right and nothing noble in your act. Sit down. https://t.co/xWZGecQXy9
Navdeep Singh also chimed in, saying he is totally against forced conversions and marriages, but Bali has no authority to say anything on behalf of any community.
Sorry Amaan, I’m totally against forced conversions and marriages, but you are nobody to say anything on behalf of any “community”. Further, no “community” has any right over the will of any woman or man. How can she just be married off after this ordeal?https://t.co/jPRBrZxPEQ
— Navdeep Singh (@SinghNavdeep) June 29, 2021
Farce of “Sikh-Muslim unity” falls apart as Sikhs call for protecting their women from Islamic proselytisation
While the liberals went into overdrive to cancel Amaan Bali for his proclamation that women from Sikh Community will not marry Muslims, it is notable that he was one amongst many who were initially concerned about the failure of the ‘Sikh-Muslim unity’ project.
As outrage over the incident swept the internet and spilt over onto the streets, Bali posted a series of tweets urging Sikh youths to not ‘cross over to the saffron side’. He also appeared equally concerned about the ‘Sanghi ecosystem’ taking advantage of the incident as he was for the fate of the girls themselves.
However, with the abduction and forced religious conversion of the two Sikh girls, the ‘Sikh-Muslim’ unity project finally seems to have run its course and is about to fall apart. The tweet by Bali that the community has decided that no woman will marry Muslims hereafter serves as the final nail in the coffin, highlighting the latent fissures that existed between Muslims and Sikhs.
And these fissures were out in public as Sikh and Muslim social media users engaged in war of words in the aftermath of the forced religious conversion issue. Sikhs and Muslims have pledged that they would no longer support each other’s cause. One of the Sikh supporters tweeted that Muslims had used them to rally support against NRC, CAA and Article 370. He also added that Sikhs in Punjab are fairly accommodative of Gujjar and Kashmiri Muslim settlers.
To this, a Muslim Twitter user questioned if this is how Sikhs would pay back to the Muslims who had stood by them in the farmers’ protest against the Modi government. He also expressed his disappointment with Sikhs for taking a ‘Muslim girl’ back who had left Sikhism for Allah and Prophet Muhammad.
The rescue of the two Sikh girls from the clutches of Islamists appears to have profoundly hurt the apologists of Islamists on Twitter. In another tweet, Amaan said Manjinder Singh Sirsa and all Sikh activists have assured the community that they will get all the sisters back and punish the perpetrators for the crime.
Naturally, the pledge that all Sikh girls who have been lured or forcibly converted to Islam would be brought back to the fold of Sikhism did not sit well with the Islamists online, who accused the Sikhs activists and Sikh religious body of continuing their propaganda. On the other hand, Sikhs are hurt by the betrayal of the Muslim community.
Following the incident, Sikh religious bodies and prominent leaders from the community, including Sikh activists, have demanded strict anti-conversion laws on the lines of those implemented in Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, to be implemented in Jammu and Kashmir. But for the passage of such laws in order to ensure that such incidents do not repeat in future, they will have to rely on the support from Hindutva voters and the BJP. This would further cast a dent in the rapidly deteriorating “Sikh-Muslim unity”.
Oho. But for legal implementation, they will have to rely on Hindutva voters and BJP. What will happen to Muslim-Sikh bhaichara now? What will happen to “Assi Hinduon nu bachaya si”?? @AshokSGarcha This guy seems to be Hindutvi! https://t.co/6KykPGcPLE
— Sensei Kraken Zero (@YearOfTheKraken) June 29, 2021
It appears that the short-lived farce of “Sikh-Muslim unity” that was meticulously constructed to feign some kind of solidarity between the Sikhs and Muslims is finally falling apart. For a while now, Sikhs had swept under the rug the atrocities committed by Islamic rulers against their fellow brethren, and even their religious gurus, and forged an unholy alliance with the Islamists. However, the case of abduction and forced conversion of two Sikh girls seems to have brought home the realisation of perils that exist in having an alliance with the proselytising Islamists.
