VOICE OF SIKH YOUTH IS MOVED

dear carol,



I have not read that book either, but please do not make your judgements about Sikhs or the sikh religion based on one book, as the Sikh personality IS accepting of all people.



There is a divided belief about eating meat, but most Sikhs don't eat it, as most believe they are not supposed to. I also believe that Sikhs are not supposed to eat meat. The perspective of those that believe meat is ok is based on not eating "halaal" meat, or meat where the animal suffered. Some people Sikhs believe that, but MOST Sikhs disagree with eating meat at all.



please feel free to ask any other questions



god bless



-rk

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Replying to:

it is stated clearly in nearly all rehitnamas, as well as bhai gurdas, many historians at the time (eg mosin fani), many hukamnamas (eg guru hargobind and guru gobind singhs which i have seen myself and many others). the guru granth also condemes meat eating, and the supposed "pro meat" quotes are taken out of context always.



it has always been clear that sikhs are not allowed to eat "kutha" and many say it means jhatka meat, but by merely reading the guru granth sahib we can see the verb "kutthey" etc used to describe death, slaughter or killing. hence kuttha means dead carcass, or meat, or anything similar.



to a sikh, regardless of whether killed with one stroke or twenty, a animal is an animal, death is death, and meat is meat.

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It is Jews who are not permitted to eat meat that was killed by more than one stroke. Sunnis permit two strokes. This is indeed to minimize suffering. I am not sure where you read these codes of conduct, but it looks to me as though some wires got crossed somewhere...

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Replying to:

"1)One of the Codes of Conduct is that Sikhs are not to eat meat of an animal that was killed by more than one stroke... WHY? (is it a "sufferage" thing)."



urm........sikhs arent really meant to eat meat at all....basically when the official code of conduct was written in the 1940s the people who compiled it were tryna attract more people to sikhism (!) so laxed the rules a bit......sikhs are NOT meant to eat meat at all. quote i can think of from the guru granth sahib offhand:



"You say there is life in all things, why do you slaughter the chicken"



so in reality sikhs arent meant to eat meat. when one is baptised from either the damdami taksaal, akhand keertanee jatha (two seperate groups one can be baptised from with slight differences in rules) one is told NOT to eat eggs, fish or meat.



"2) We are reading "Guru's Gift", and the women in the book seemed hard to communicate with, yet, the Sikh personality seems to be people who are accepting of all, equal treatment between men and women, etc -- why would the women of this ethnography have a "guard" up? THANK YOU !!!!"



i havent read that book, but there is still in sikhism a difference between men and women, mostly because punjabi culture (which is inherantly dodgy) has crept into sikhism. u will find strict sikhs who dont really pay attention to punjabi culture (which is rather sexist and casteist to be honest) have complete equality but the "traditional indian" families who tend to end up less religious are not always treated the same as the boy.



hope that helps.....

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Replying to:

Looking for a little help....... Trying to touch-upon Sikhism in a class and students have asked 2 questions that I could not answer. 1)One of the Codes of Conduct is that Sikhs are not to eat meat of an animal that was killed by more than one stroke... WHY? (is it a "sufferage" thing). 2) We are reading "Guru's Gift", and the women in the book seemed hard to communicate with, yet, the Sikh personality seems to be people who are accepting of all, equal treatment between men and women, etc -- why would the women of this ethnography have a "guard" up? THANK YOU !!!!