UK's top diplomat Simon McDonald apologizes after he calls Amritsar's 'Golden Temple' as 'Golden Mosque'
CHANDIGARH: Sir Simon McDonald, Permanent Under-Secretary at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and Head of the Diplomatic Service of United Kingdom had to apologise for calling the Sikhs’ holiest shrine Golden temple also known as Harmandir Sahib as a mosque during his visit to Punjab, after criticism on social media.
Yesterday he tweeted referring to the Golden Temple as the Golden Mosque, "At QBP in Chandigarh @SinghLions presented @DHCAndrewAyre with picture of HM The Queen at Golden Mosque in Amritsar in 1997, a permanent memento for Deputy High Commission’s wall @UKinIndia."
He was widely criticised for his unbelievable comment on social media. Someone in such a senior position and while visiting the Sikh homeland should not be making such a fundamental mistake.
McDonald apologised, tweeting: "I was wrong: I am sorry. I should of course have said the Golden Temple or, better, Sri Harmandir Sahib."
Bhai Amrik Singh, the Chair of the Sikh Federation (UK) said, "This was a major gaffe by a top civil servant and totally unacceptable. It demonstrates a remarkable level of ignorance from someone in his position. What hope is there for the average person to distinguish between Sikhs and Muslims if someone holding his position can make such a massive blunder while visiting the Sikh homeland?"
"Unfortunately, it is this sort of ignorance or ‘mistaken identity’ that breeds hate and has resulted in Sikhs being abused, attacked and in some cases killed across the globe since 9/11. In our view a public apology and admitting the mistake is not enough. What we need is a commitment from the UK Government and senior civil servants to root out such ignorance and discrimination or we will continue to face hate, abuse and threats of violence," he said.
Singh said, "The Prime Minister and Home Secretary will have an opportunity next week to address this head on. The Prime Minister will be celebrating Baisakhi with Sikhs at 10 Downing Street next Monday and the Home Secretary the next day will be meeting Preet Kaur Gill MP, the first Sikh woman MP and the Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group for British Sikhs to discuss ignorance, ending discrimination and hate crimes targeting Sikhs."