A Tale of Tolerance

November 20, 2006

Author: Douglass Dowty

Source: Syracuse Post-Standard

http://www.syracuse.com/news/poststandard/regional/index.ssf?/base/news-4/114759738446440.xml&coll=1&thispage=1

When their leader in India gave them cryptic instructions to find a new spiritual home, a community of Central New York Sikhs followed their faith to a farmhouse.

There, on the back roads of Palermo, they found the simple wooden dwelling they would make into a temple called Gobind Sadan -- “God’s house without walls.”

They worshipped there for 15 years until, in an act of ignorance and intolerance, four teens burned the temple, mistakenly linking it to Muslim terrorists.

From fire came forgiveness.

The Sikh religion calls on its followers to practice tolerance and devote themselves to the will of God. So, after the tragedy, they asked God to have mercy on the arsonists. And then, from the ashes, hands and hearts extended from Palermo and beyond to create a new temple.