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Sikh woman says no respect lost in
taking off turban,
triggers boycott call
WSN Network
 FRESNO: Even as
the new federal rules enabling and empowering airport screeners with
discretion to inspect turbans worn by Sikh men have enraged the
Sikhs who feel unfairly targeted by security measures following the
9/11 terrorist attacks, a comment by a Sikh woman working at a
Fresno store reported in The Fresno Bee has angered the community
members further. In fact, such is the rage that many Sikh bodies
have given a call for boycott of the store till the woman concerned
issues an apology.
In a dispatch,
the Bee quoted one Satinder Kaur, a cashier at India Sweets and
Spices in northwest Fresno, as
saying that “she doesn't believe someone loses respect by taking off
the turban.” Helpfully, the newspaper reported that her own husband
doesn't wear a turban.
"I think it's
better. There's a lot of people on the airplane. ... If he gets
checked, it's for safety," Kaur was quoted as saying by the
newspaper. Several local radio stations also gave a call for boycott
of the store till Kaur issues a public apology for hurting Sikh
sentiments.
Surprisingly,
the comments from such a fringe of the community at a time when the
Valley Sikhs are gathering signatures to urge local members of
Congress to get the new security rules changed, a fact reported by
the Bee itself as also by a host of other newspapers.
Sikhs think and
maintain that the turban is an integral part of their existence and
religious belief system and that taking off or touching the turban
“is like a slap on the face."
Now, the TSA has
clarified that the travelers who don't want their turban patted down
and want to remove the turban can request to use a private screening
area.
Fresno County
has about 35,000 Sikhs. Comments like the one made by the woman at
the India Sweets and Spices in northwest Fresno are likely to
encourage the local media that somehow the opinion within the Sikh
community itself was divided on the issue, a fear many local Sikhs
have expressed to the WSN representatives.
Sikhs have
repeatedly and frequently become the targets of hate crimes in the
post 9/11 and the community has been leading a widespread and
dedicated effort to educate the public about the Sikh religion.
The turban and
the kirpan have been two external symbols apart from the unshorn
hair which have elicited varying response from the wider community
in the US and across Europe and even Australia. Sikhs have been
willing to compromise in the past on kirpan, and normally place it
in the checked baggage. In Denmark,
a case involving a scholar Ripudaman Singh had made news after he
was convicted by a court for being in possession of an unlawful
object, his kirpan worn underneath the shirt. Ripudaman Singh has
made it one of his life’s missions to educate the community around
him about the Sikhs and Sikhism. But the Sikhs have much to achieve
on this front and the effort to learn, many think, must be mutual
obligation.
26
September, 2007
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