| Tie-A-Turban Day |
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Published on Apr 14, 2015
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Wed Apr 15, 2015: MavsGoGreen and the Sikh community at UTA held a Tie-a-Turban event to create awareness about the Sikh religion and the significance of the turban on the Central Library mall April 14.
The turban signifies sovereignty, dedication, self-respect, courage and piety for Sikh followers, as stated by the Sikh Coalition.
Gurkamal Deep Singh, computer science graduate student, said the Sikh community at UTA spent the afternoon tying turbans on students and talking to students about the Sikh religion to help create awareness about their culture.
Nearly 25 million people worldwide, and approximately 500,000 people in America, practice the Sikh religion, making Sikh the fifth largest religion in the world, according to the Sikh Coalition.
Ravneet Singh, computer science graduate student, said about 99 percent of people who wear turbans in America follow the Sikh religion. He said the Sikh community on campus wants to help the UTA community learn more about the religion and not confuse it with extremist groups.
“There have been attacks on Sikhs. They have been thought about as Taliban, so we wanted to spread more awareness,” Singh said. “This is our culture and this is our values. How are we different?”
Sukmbir Singh, computer science graduate student, said it’s becoming more of a choice for followers to choose to wear a turban, and not all followers wear one. He said men have the surname Singh, meaning lion, which derives from the ancestors being warriors, and women carry the surname Kaur, meaning princess.
Singh said the Sikh religion was formed out of Hinduism to protect the innocent. With corruption within the Hindu caste hierarchy, Sikhs turned to the teachings of Guru Nanak rejecting religious formalism in favor of hard work necessary to maintain a community’s needs.