MEMBERS of the Sikh community who stopped an inter-faith wedding say they acted peacefully to uphold clear rules relating to their religion.
Protesters occupied the Kembrey Street temple and locked the gates to halt the marriage between a Sikh woman and a Christian man.
The bride’s family reacted with shock amid suggestions the bridegroom’s ethnic background was behind the move.
But the temple’s former president, Ajit Singh Mudhar, said the temple’s rules were no different to those followed by Christians, Jews and Muslims.
The protesters also said they are not militants but peaceful protesters who want to abide by a code which applies to all UK temples.
The statement from the Akal Takhat, the supreme temporal seat of the Sikhs in Amritsar, reads: “Only Sikh couples (male/female) can engage in the Anand Karaj Ceremony.
“If the couple or either one of them is not a Sikh, then they must embrace the Sikh faith.”
The decree also says the bride and groom must adopt the name Singh or Kaur in their names.
Mr Mudhar joined other members of the community, including the temple’s vice president, at the temple on Monday to unite behind the ruling.
He said: “We are not militants, we are standing up for what was right and to uphold the law.
“The committee had accepted the booking for the wedding but the confusion could have been prevented from the beginning if the rules had been followed.
“We had a meeting about mixed-faith marriages and there were 18 in favour, three against and one neutral.
“But there should have been no discussion about it.
“I started trying four years ago to stop this happening and I told the committee members this was the wrong direction, but they didn’t listen to me. They acted out of friendship with the family.
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“I don’t think this will happen again but if it does I will call in outside help and take the same action to stop it.”
Mr Mudhar also rejected claims that inter-faith weddings had taken place at the temple before but the protesters had acted this time because of the bridegroom’s background, said to be West African.
“I spent a 10 years living and working in Africa and I have no fight with anyone of any colour,” he said.
“If the boy had turned up at the gurdwara [temple]on the day and agreed to accept Sikhism we would have opened the doors for them and allowed it to go ahead.
“Colour means nothing to us, we are going by respect for the religion.”
The protesters also rejected claims that a caterer for the wedding party was threatened and that they ate a breakfast laid out inside the temple.
Premdeep Singh Rehnsi said: “It was completely peaceful, nobody did anything wrong. We can even get the caterer to vouch for that.”
“The Akal Takhat says you should understand the religion and why you are getting married under the faith, you can’t just get married in the temple because it looks good.
“When we challenged it no one turned up to make the wedding go ahead, they all stayed at home.”
The couple had to abandon the Sikh part of the wedding but did get married at Lydiard Park.
A spokesman for the police said at the time that the protest had passed peacefully.
News Source Swindon Advertiser
