UK Counter-Extremism Commission retract report on ‘Sikh activism’ amid complaints

Update: On October 22nd the Counter Extremism Commission republished the report with the name of Kuldeep Singh (Deepa Singh) removed. Deepa Singh, a sevadaar (selfless servant), currently has a criminal trial going on based on his work with Sikh community group Sikh Youth UK, a group that feature in the report.

Read the report here.

The UK Commission for Counter-Extremism were forced to retract a report on ‘Sikh activism’ this week from the official government website.

The report on Sikhs was released along with an overall report on extremism in the UK, published by the Counter-Extremism group. The retraction of ‘The changing nature of activism among Sikhs in the UK today’ report came after a series of complaints from the Sikh community, although the official reason for the removal has not been made clear.

The Sikh Federation UK, a Sikh political and legal advocacy body, stated the removal came after they made a complaint about the report, whilst Sunny Hundal, a journalist and co-author of the report, claimed it was because of ‘a small legal issue’. The Commission themselves, headed up by ‘British humans rights activist’ Sara Khan, claimed the report was being taken down whilst they take ‘legal advice…while we amend it’, without explaining the exact reason it was removed.

The Sikh Press Association can reveal that the report was commissioned without dialogue with the Sikh Council UK, Sikh Federation UK, British Organisation of Sikh Students, National Sikh Youth Federation or the Sikh Educational Council. Some of the biggest and busiest Gurdwaras in the UK were also not consulted, such as Singh Sabha Southall, Singh Sabha East London, Guru Nanak Gurdwara Smethwick and Guru Maneyo Granth Slough. It has not actually been revealed which – if any – Sikh organisations were consulted in the process of investigating alleged Sikh extremism or for input on the report.

.@SikhFedUK Thank you for raising this issue with the paper on Sikh activism. We have sought legal advice and have taken the independent academic paper down while we amend it. We are very happy to meet to discuss our report.

— Commission for Countering Extremism (@CommissionCE) October 8, 2019

The Sikh Federation UK said in a press release that their complaints were based on ‘serious concerns including that the report and authors are biased, the report lacks credibility and most disturbingly the authors make judgements about Sikh organisations and named individuals without the organisations and individuals being consulted or given the right to reply.’

Read the Sikh Federation Press Release on this here.

The reports authors are Sunny Hundal and Dr Jagbir Jhutti-Johal.

Hundal is a journalist known for being vocal on ‘Sikh extremism’, a topic which many feel he has sensationalised and made himself a self-proclaimed expert on. This view is especially strong in many Sikh panthic (Sikh community/path focused/driven) circles due to the fact the label of extremism is also used for radical groups and ideologies which have seen people murdered, such as Islamists and the far-right.

Dr Jagbir Jhutti-Johal is a senior lecturer of Sikh studies at University of Birmingham. She is also known for her work with the India Institute. Weeks before the release of the report, Jhutti-Johal met up with Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder, who has been criticised for hyperbole around Sikh extremism, which includes allegations made against Canada’s Defence Minister Harjit Singh Sajjan and unfounded claims about links between Pakistan’s ISI (Inter Services Intelligence) and alleged Sikh extremists in the UK, Italy and Canada.

Some Sikh student organisations have complained about a belief that Indian state led organisations are attempting to dilute and distort the Sikh education being taught in academia, leading to calls for further transparency in relations between Sikhs in education and Indian state affiliated organisations.

Sara Khan herself is viewed as a controversial figure regarding her role as Head of Counter-Extremism, with 100 Muslim organisations presenting the Home Office with a petition of complaint due to the lack of her ‘grassroots credibility’, whilst Muslim political figures Naz Shah and Baroness Warsi also criticised her appointment.

Another point of contention about the report was the fact it used a sample of only 12 Sikhs selected directly by Hundal and Jhutti-Johal, leading to allegations of a biased and even irrelevant sample size when presenting findings about an entire community of over 400,000.

The award winning but controversial group Sikh Youth UK, known for their work against grooming gangs, were mentioned frequently in the report, often in a disparaging way. With two of their members involved in a high-profile charities commission investigation right now, it is believed the report – which had the potential to be viewed by millions – had legal issues due to the depiction of SYUK, which could possibly impact any upcoming trial involving the organisation’s activities.

It has also been suggested the fact the Sikh community was reported on this way in the first place is strange, given the fact a 2017 research paper on ‘Sikh extremism’ funded by the Centre for Research and Evidence of Security Threats by Dr Jasjit Singh found no evidence for general public concern about Sikh extremism, whilst data from a survey from the Commission of Counter-Extremism themselves found the same (see image below). Dr Jasjit Singh’s methodology involved a series of meetings with Sikh groups and individuals across the country, including one organised by the Sikh Press Association attended and participated in by over 50 Sikhs of all backgrounds and statuses.

The Sikh Press Association approached the Commission in January of this year to request a meeting to help them connect to Sikhs to help an authentic grassroots understanding of an issues pertaining to so-called ‘Sikh extremism’, an offer which was ignored. The Sikh Federation also reached out in July of this year, and have only been offered a meeting following the complaints upon the release of this report.

Jasveer Singh, Sikh PA Senior Press Officer, also highlighted inconsistencies on his personal Twitter account, of what the Comission’s report claimed was evidence of extremism in the Sikh community, with similar issues from other communities not being highlighted, something which was echoed by non-Sikhs too.

There has been no statement about when the report will be back online, although strangely posts about the report from all involved remain up online.

Sikh PA will continue to provide updates on this story as they come in.