Turban-blocked blogger feels ‘warm temperature of Sikh network’ after temple visit

A Singaporean blogger who apologized for feedback deemed offensive to Sikhs met this weekend with individuals of their community to analyze greater approximately the religion and way of life.

Lifestyle blogger Sheena Phua and pals well-known an invite to the Central Sikh Temple on Saturday to excursion the Towner Road worship center, browse holy scriptures, and banquet on traditional meals, days after she apologized for posting a clip of two turbaned men obstructing her view at an event.

Phua, who’s ethnically Chinese, told the affiliation that she “didn’t realize a good deal about the Sikh community” nor, for that depend, any Sikhs. That caused the Youth Sikh Association, which invited her for the tour, to impeach whether people have judged Phua fairly over the now-deleted Instagram tale she published while looking at the Singapore Grand Prix.

“Now that we realize her better, would it be truthful to say that she has to have known better when she placed up her post that some observed offensive? We all have our very own reports that tell what we know about others in our community,” the affiliation wrote on Facebook.

Phua on Saturday mentioned receiving many indignant messages following the incident in which she captioned a clip of turbaned men, “Dang! 2 massive obstructions decided to pop out of nowhere.”

“This visit to the Gurdwara with the YSA changed into sobering and taught me so much approximately the Sikh tradition that I did not understand earlier. It becomes a healthful, actual revel in and allows me to sense the warm temperature of the Sikh network,” she wrote in the publication.

“I found out that once going through a hard patch, hitting back is not constantly the manner to move and that empathy will shine in the end. One needs to live strong and tremendously, which the Sikhs term Charndikala,” she introduced, regarding Charhdi Kala, the Punjabi term for the Sikh principle of optimism and joy.

Misinterpreted?

While Phua at no factor referenced the religious’ religion authentic IG tale, she quickly became inundated with an angry response as the “obstructions” in query have been the spiritually mandated turbans worn by the way occupants of a marginalized community. People were brief about the assault, with screenshots from the clip popping everywhere, including the famous Wake-Up, Singapore.

Reeling from the backlash that saw Phua accused of the whole thing from being racist to unfeeling, she issued an apology on Sept. 22 however said the publication had been “misinterpreted.”

“I apologize for the misery it has caused. The obstruction referenced in my video became physical as the 2 Sikh men were taller than me, blocking my view of the display in front. This would have been the equal were they (of) every other race or gender,” she stated, adding that the video had been “taken out of context” and that she had not supposed it as “racist or derogatory.”

That statement didn’t win over many of her critics, several of whom called it “faux.”

Others, together with a few Sikhs, saw no malicious motive for Phua’s publication and believed she was genuinely highlighting the men’s top in preference to their race or religion.