Racist Attack

I found myself running from my usual Sunday morning service to the local Sikh Gurdwara this week. There was to be a vigil following a terrible and heinous crime against a young Sikh in Edinburgh last week where four racist thugs not only beat him up but cut his hair http://edinburghnews.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=1692782006 To cut a Sikhs hair is to attack his very soul, one speaker at the event suggested it was like "murder". Edinburgh is proud of its tradition as a diverse and welcoming city and this attack is an attack on us all. I attended to express the solidarity of all of Edinburgh's citizens with our Sikh community in their time of pain and suffering. I was honoured to be asked to say a few words amongst many speakers. I spoke of our commitment to bringing these hooligans to justice but I called for peace amongst the Sikh community, urging them and all of us to rise above the pain of the attack and instead to use our anger to further the cause of peace. Otherwise, the racists win again.