Andy Street won’t be the last to confuse Sikhs with Muslims

Social media isn’t forgiving of politicians who suffer a slip of the tongue, especially when it comes to confusing a Sikh place of worship, a gurdwara, with a mosque. Only this week former John Lewis honcho turned Mayor of the West Midlands, Andy Street, has faced the ire of angry Sikhs and wider public criticism for confusing the two.

While campaigning in Birmingham over the weekend, he inadvertently referred to a Sikh temple as ‘Guru Nanak Mosque’ on live television. I’ve not met Street, but see him as a friendly fellow who genuinely jumbled up his words in a lapsed moment – something that can happen to the best of us. Perhaps I’m just a big Sikh softy after all. One less forgiving tweeter wrote, ‘ignorance is bliss Andy Street. I’m sure the Sikh’s [sic] will be pleased to vote for you on this basis’. Another ‘I’m absolutely gutted to see this. After all the work the organisers do to make Vasakhi [sic] inclusive…you get this’.