Top UK diplomat calls Golden Temple a mosque, apologises
FACES BACKLASH Gaffe comes amid increasing Islamophobia that has Sikhs vulnerable
LONDON: Simon Mcdonald, the head of Britain’s diplomatic service in the Foreign & Commonwealth Office, apologised on Tuesday for calling Golden Temple a mosque during a visit to Amritsar.
On Monday, Mcdonald had tweeted, “At Queen’s Birthday party, presented with picture of The Queen at Golden Mosque in Amritsar in 1997, a permanent memento for Deputy High Commission’s wall.”
The gaffe came amid increasing Islamophobia that has made Sikhs vulnerable as they are often mistaken in the West as Muslims owing to their beards and headgear. He was widely criticised on social media, and campaign group Sikh Federation (UK) gave him 24 hours to apologise to the community.
Mcdonald then tweeted: “I was wrong: I am sorry. I should of course have said the Golden Temple or, better, Sri Harmandir Sahib.”
Bhai Amrik Singh, chair of the federation, said: “This was a major gaffe by a top civil servant and totally unacceptable. It demonstrates a remarkable level of ignorance from someone in his position.”
“What hope is there for the average person to distinguish between Sikhs and Muslims, if someone holding his position can make such a massive blunder while visiting the Sikh homeland?” he added.
It must be mentioned here that in Canada, where too Sikhs are in a significant number for decades, Jagmeet Singh, who belongs to the community and became the first visible minority leader to head a political party, had refused to clarify that he is not a Muslim when a woman heckled him after mistaking him for one at a campaign event last year.
However, Amrik Singh said, “Unfortunately, it is this sort of ignorance or ‘mistaken identity’ that breeds hate and has resulted in Sikhs being abused, attacked and in some cases killed across the globe since 9/11.”
He added, “A public apology and admitting the mistake is not enough. What we need is a commitment from the UK government and senior civil servants to root out such ignorance and discrimination or we will continue to face hate, abuse and threats of violence.”