A group of more than 20 men described as “thugs”, had disrupted an inter-faith wedding between a Sikh bride and a non-Sikh white groom from taking place, at the Sri Guru Singh Sabha Gurdwara in Southall, south-west London.
Scotland Yard officers were called to the gurdwara to remove the disruptive men. It is said that the gurdwara are now considering hiring private security.
It is also alleged that the men had threatened to prevent the Anand Karaj, the Sikh wedding ceremony from taking place and had made a phone call to the bride's family a night before the wedding. However, the family decided to go on with the wedding, only to be disrupted and forced to cancel the wedding.
The vice-president of the gurdwara, Sohan Singh spoke to The Independent newspaper. He said, “They were all thugs. None of them were recognised by any of the Sikh groups here. It was because it was a mixed marriage... they just came here to spoil it and intimidate us.”
He further said, “I've been in this temple since 1994 and I've never seen this sort of thing. We will always listen to people's suggestions but there was no reasoning with them. It was a sad day... We are living in this country and we work with couples- if they are happy we're fine with it- Sikhism is a liberal religion.”
Many such incidents have occurred in the past where families have been intimidated and weddings halted. In 2012, the windows of a family's house in Coventry were smashed, hours before a mixed faith wedding was to take place at a nearby gurdwara. Protestors had targeted this family as the Sikh daughter was marrying a Hindu groom at a Sikh temple.
Again in 2012, a Sikh bride and her Christian groom were locked out of their own wedding in Swindon by more than 40 protestors. They had obstructed the gates of the gurdwara, denying entry to the couple.
