Source: Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund/Plain Dealer Reporter

http://www.saldef.org/default.aspx?zone=article.view&a=1304&z=4

On January 2, 2006 the Plain Dealer Reporter reported, "The new year at the Sikh temple on Tarbell Avenue began with an old feud over voting rights and tradition. A group saying they were the newly elected leaders of the Guru Gobind Singh Sikh Temple grabbed the microphone at the midnight prayer service, then returned to the temple later Sunday to continue their takeover. For two hours, men from both sides traded angry words and snapped photographs of each other, as women and children milled about and police appealed for calm. In the past, fights have broken out, and people have been injured... The dispute is between longtime members of the temple, who view themselves as modern Sikhs not bound by rules regarding dress, and more numerous newcomers, who favor a return to tradition, including beards and turbans. The longtime leadership also restricts who can be a voting member... The feud, which is working its way through the courts, came to a head this weekend because the temple's constitution calls for new leaders to take office Jan. 1."