Britain: The directors of a British play which depicts sexual abuse and murder in a Sikh temple reluctantly scrapped their production yesterday due to fears that violent protests against it would escalate.
The directors said that they stood by both the play and the principles of freedom of speech, but had taken the decision to avoid a repeat of riots outside the theatre on Saturday night.
"Sadly, it's clearly evident that the violent protesters have won," said Mr Stuart Rogers, executive director of the Birmingham Repertory Theatre. "We cannot operate this theatre in a state where people are throwing bricks through our windows."
However, a second Birmingham theatre stepped into the row last night by offering to stage the play. Officials at the Birmingham Stage Company said that they would be prepared to put it on in their theatre.
Last Saturday night, three police officers were injured and three men were arrested when a peaceful protest against the play turned to violence. About 400 turbaned Sikhs gathered outside the playhouse and some pelted it with stones.
The incident was the latest in a series of protests by religious groups in multi-ethnic Britain against the way their faiths are portrayed.
The play, Behzti (Dishonour), was written by a Sikh woman, Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti, and is described as a black comedy about a woman and her sick mother visiting a gurdwara, or Sikh temple, for the first time in years. Protesters say it mocks Sikhism, which has at least 500,000 adherents in Britain.
The row over the play is the latest in recent months involving Britain's religious communities.
Christians have picketed a theatre in Scotland staging a play depicting Jesus as a homosexual. Catholic and Protestant church leaders protested at a waxwork Nativity featuring England soccer captain David Beckham as Joseph and his popstar wife, Victoria, as the Virgin Mary.
Hindus recently complained of a scene in Britain's longest-running TV soap opera, Coronation Street, in which a character wielded a Hindu statue as a weapon. And Muslims strongly criticised a journalist who wrote a newspaper article asking whether the prophet Mohammed could be considered a paedophile because he had a child bride. - (Reuters)
Sikh religion: some facts
The Sikh religion was founded over 500 years ago and its basic foundations were laid down by the first of its 10 gurus, Guru Nanak, who was born on April 15th 1469 in the Western Punjab village of Talwandi and died on September 22nd 1539.
During his life, Guru Nanak made several lengthy journeys as a holy man. He navigated a religion between the two dominant faiths in India, Hinduism and Islam. He extolled the virtues of asceticism, which he defined as remaining pure amidst impurities. He rejected the notion of a God made flesh. "Worship not him who is born only to die, but Him who is eternal and is contained in the whole universe," he is reputed to have said.
According to the website www.sikhs.org, Sikhism preaches a message of devotion and remembrance of God at all times as well as truthful living and equality of mankind. "Sikhism is open to all through the teachings of its 10 Gurus, enshrined in the Sikh Holy Book, and the Living Guru, Sri Guru Granth Sahib."
There are some 20 million Sikhs in the world, almost all of them in India, and about 500,000 in Britain. Sikh men wear distinctive turbans and are bearded.