LETTER
Right to Protest
Manjit Singh (MD)

March 29, 2003

I found the letter "For War" quite disturbing. And I will tell you exactly why... What I found most disturbing was the following statement in the letter: "Any Sikh seen in the demostration will have to explain their actions to the Sikh Panth. Hope good common sense will prevail in the next few weeks."

I, as an individual, respect another person's right of free thinking and expression. What I find dangerous in the above statement is the inference that as an individual Sikh, you have no rights to protest since that will be viewed as representative of the entire Sikh community. This is inherently wrong!

Just like any other individual, a Sikh has the right to follow his/her conscience and exercise his/her First Amendment rights. Being a Sikh does not make these mutually exclusive.

I hope this view point is isolated in the community, otherwise we will be stifling the basic individual rights granted to us as humans, Sikhs and Americans.

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