Police recruits welcomed at Crawley Gurdwara

This is the third time the Gurdwara in Ifield Green has participated in an event organised by the Sussex Police namely ‘Communities We Serve.’

All the new recruits are given information and an opportunity to interact with various faith-based communities in Crawley and surrounding areas.

This initiative is proving to be an invaluable step towards increasing knowledge and understanding for the new police recruits about the various communities their cultures and faiths that they will be dealing with in their role as police officers.

Mrs Divinder Kaur delivered a short presentation on the Sikh Faith and explained the key tenets of Sikh faith. She highlighted on the importance of 5 Ks in Sikhism.

She explained that baptised Sikhs have long hair, wear a turban, have a comb, a sword and bracelet and special underpants.

These are all knows as the 5 “K” because the Punjabi name of each one begins with the letter K. She went onto explain the importance of the Turban to all the Sikhs and explained why it is very important to ask for permission before touching / searching an individual with a Turban. Mrs Kaur, in answer to a question about ‘Kirpan’ (small sword), explained that only baptised Sikhs wear it and that its use was very limited.

After the presentation, all the recruits participated in a small prayer led by the priest and accepted blessed ‘Parshad’ (semolina pudding) before moving into Langar hall where they were given ‘Langar,’ a vegetarian meal before leaving the Gurdwara to go onto the Langley Green Mosque.