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TSA Turban Searching Rules – Video & Story

admin — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 21:02:47 +0000

For all Sikhs, please read the below story to find out how new TSA rules affect your rights:

Video & Story Link on KDKA Website: http://kdka.com/national/topstories_story_242090521.html

Local Sikhs React to New Turban Search Rule

(AP) WASHINGTON A new airport screening policy for turbans and other headwear has the country’s Sikhs concerned they are being unfairly targeted.

The policy now subjects travelers to secondary screening at security checkpoints if they are wearing head coverings. The screenings could include a pat-down search of the head covering if the screener finds it necessary.

The New York-based Sikh Coalition believes the new policy singles out those who wear religious head coverings. More than 25 ethnic and religious organizations have signed the coalition’s petition against the policy change.

Since 2001, federal policy has required screeners to search turbans only if they do not clear a metal detector.

The Transportation Security Administration denies any use of racial or religious profiling in its security screening practices.

http://www.cbs13.com/video/?id=24391@kovr.dayport.com

Charges against Gurpal Singh Gill Dropped by DA of Roseburg Oregon – PAHS Press Release

admin — Sat, 02 Oct 2004 20:52:32 +0000

Released by Punjabi American Heritage Society, Yuba City, California
Release by Kulwant Singh Johl

Many individuals and Sikh organizations have been working tirelessly to have charges dropped against Gurpal Singh Gill, an Amritdhari Sikh Truck Driver from Yuba City who was treated brutally by Oregon Police trooper. This was the 17th incident in the last three years that Amritdhari Sikh trucker has faced similar situation. The incident of alleged police brutality involving a Sikh truck driver has shocked and outraged the Yuba-Sutter Sikh community. On September 1, Gurpal Singh Gill (44) left Yuba City for Tacoma (Washington) at about 8:30 am. Driving his Peterbilt truck, Gill was towing a refrigerated trailer loaded with produce. Gill has been driving for two years and this was his first to the Pacific Northwest. At about 4:45pm, about 10 miles short of Roseburg, he was stopped by a trooper of the Oregon State Police- Oregon’s equivalent of the California Highway Patrol. "Near Exit 106, about 10-12 miles south of Roseburg, I observed a police car in my rear view mirrors. The car came alongside, then fell back and signaled me to stop, which I promptly did," says Gill. The car was driven by Oregon State Police Trooper Kevin Bennett. Gill said that Bennett came to the driver’s side door and ordered him to open. Bennett then allegedly took out his pistol and ordered Gill to disembark from his truck. He told Gill he was under arrest for carrying a ‘concealed weapon’- Gill’s personal kirpan, a symbolic item which Gill carries as one of the 5 K’s, ordained by the Sikh religion.

To handle this situation many other Amritdhari Sikhs, carry a letter from the Stockton City council. This letter explains the concept of the 5 K’s. Gill showed the police officer the letter which Bennett dismissed saying it had no relevance in Oregon. Gill said that Bennett then ordered him to lie on the ground face down. "He then pushed his knee into my back, handcuffed me pressing my face into the ground," said Gill. Gill’s injuries on his face and shoulder are a testimony to the brute force inflicted upon him. Gill also complains of back pain.

Gill was then made to sit in the police car while Bennett searched his truck. Meanwhile two other officers showed up. Gill was told he had been pulled over for a missing registration plate and pouring a liquid out of his truck. The two officers reviewed the video recording and subsequently released Gill. They took his mini-kirpan and gave him a citation.

Mr. Gill contacted Punjabi American Heritage Society on September 3rd, 2004. Dr. Jasbir Singh Kang immediately contacted Sikh Coalition which has handled similar cases nation wide. He also contacted local and national media to highlight this case. The local American news paper Appeal Democrat carried a front page story highlighting this case. This story was carried by many national and ethnic news paper and web sites. Many Sikh organizations came to rescue of Mr. Gill. The Sikhs Coalition contacted DA office in Roseburg. Dr. J.P. Singh of Sikh Center of Bay Area pleaded this case to US
Department of Justice (Diane Schneider) and United Sikhs contacted the ACLU in Roseburg. The case of a concealed weapon was dropped but Mr. Gill continues to suffer from both physical and emotional trauma.

The Sikh community needs to look for permanent solution to this type of problem. We need to seek for legislative solution to honor articles of the Sikh faith including the Kirpan so we do not waste our recourses on similar situations in future. We need to send copy of the documentary Mistaken Identity to all police departments in USA and make efforts to train different state and federal law enforcement agencies about Sikh identity and articles of Sikh faith. Also efforts need to be made to have Sikhism added to curriculum of schools districts, colleges, and universities as part of world religions and history courses.

Mr. Gurpal Singh Gill would like to thank every one who helped him, including Sikh Coalition, Punjabi American Heritage Society, United Sikhs, Sikh Center of Bay Area, US Department of Justice, ACLU Roseburg, and the American and South Asian Media.
Mr. Gill would also like to thank Sikh leaders, local community members, Sikh Gurdwaras and local Christian Church members for their emotional support.

Here is a link for story from local paper
http://www.appeal-democrat.com/articles/2004/10/02/news/local_news/news2.txt

Released by
Kulwant Singh Johl
Punjabi American Heritage Society

Sikhs March in Paris Against Religious Signs Law Banning Muslim Hijab and Sikh Turban

admin — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:53:29 +0000

Article courtesy of AFP- website

PARIS – Around 2,000 Sikhs from across Europe marched through central Paris to demand exemption from a proposed French law that would ban religious signs and clothing — including the turban worn by Sikh males — from schools.

Organised by leaders of France’s small community of around 6,000 Sikhs, the demonstration from the Place de la Republique was joined by contingents from Britain, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands all concerned at the threat to what they see as an essential part of Sikh identity.

"The turban is our religious symbol and we cannot take it off for any kind of law. We understand about secularity — but the government must see our situation. In a democracy it should not be a question of deciding between religion and going to school," said accountant Girsev Singh.

The "secularity" law which goes before the French National Assembly next week will ban the wearing of "conspicuous" religious insignia in schools, and is aimed primarily at the Islamic headscarf — seen by many in France as a symbol of radicalism among the country’s five million Muslims.

But the turban became an unintended target because during the law’s drafting, the Sikhs were never even consulted. "What? — there are Sikhs in France?" an education ministry official was quoted as saying by the New York Times newspaper.

"We have to take to the streets because we have to show the French that we live here too," laughed Chain Singh, who heads a Sikh temple in the Paris suburb of Bobigny. "They forgot we were here!"

Unaccustomed to the French art of the street protest, the Sikhs were offered the classic route through eastern Paris that is used scores of times every year by trade union and left-wing marchers. Waving tricolour flags or ribbons, they proceeded gingerly, a loud-speaker periodically uttering "Vive la France."

Banners read, "Turban – sign of respect;" "Turban is a symbol of Sikh sovereignty, liberty and nationhood. It is not a religious symbol;" and "Racism under pretext of secularism in the land of Jean-Paul Sartre."

Some marchers carried blurred black-and-white pictures showing ancestors who fought for the allied forces in World War I. Some 80,000 Sikhs are estimated to have died in France during the war, and are buried in military cemeteries in the north.

"The turban is an integral part of our dress — just as a westerner would wear his tie. We would feel undressed if we did not wear it," said Sardar Simranjit Singh, a member of the Indian parliament who flew to Paris to express solidirty.

"We are a separate nationality but we have no state and no government. The corollary is that it is by the effort of individual Sikhs from all over the world that we can exert pressure," he said.

"The turban does not signify orthodoxy or fundamentalism. It is simply our way of life," said Gurcharan Singh who is mayor of the London suburb of Ealing in Britain.

"In Britain they have granted exemptions for Sikhs to wear motorcycles with a turban and also at schools. I like it in Britain as a Sikh. I am part of the British way of life. I am sure the French Sikhs are the same here. I do not see why there should be this problem," he said.

Talks are underway between the Sikh community and the French government to find a way out of the impasse, though a suggestion last week from Education Minister Luc Ferry that schoolboys should wear a transparent hair-net was not seen as serious by Sikhs on the march.

The community argues that the turban is not a religious symbol but a cultural one, because the injunction contained in Sikh scriptures is for men not to cut their hair and the turban is merely a way of containing it.

"If the law is passed we will be obliged to take off our turbans. But we won’t," said 14 year-old Jasvir Singh who attends school in Bobigny. "We will either go to private schools, or study abroad — or leave France for good."

Sikh Sues NYPD for Religious Discrimination

admin — Mon, 03 Mar 2003 17:11:36 +0000

From: IANS

NEW YORK: A Sikh-American has sued the New York Police Department for alleged religious discrimination, saying it fired him for refusing to remove his turban and trim his beard.

Amric Singh Rathour, along with the Sikh Coalition, have filed a federal lawsuit charging the NYPD with religious discrimination and challenging its "no turban policy".

Filed in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York in Manhattan, the complaint names NYPD commissioner Raymond W Kelly, the NYPD and the City of New York as defendants.

It charges the three of them with religious discrimination, negligence, harassment/intimidation, false imprisonment/retaliation and emotional distress.

The complaint filed in the court details the manner in which Rathour was "repeatedly pressured" to remove his turban. Among other things, he was told that he should "make a change" so that his turban and beard "come off".

"I felt I was being punished because I am a Sikh," Rathour said at a press conference.

Present at the press conference were members of the Sikh Coalition, Sikh police officers from Britain and Canada, and representatives from the Muslim, Hispanic and Buddhist communities, all of whom spoke briefly and backed Rathour.

As per the complaint, copies of which were made available to the media, Rathour applied for the position of a level II traffic enforcement agent (TEA) officer of the NYPD in and around late 2000.

The employment duties of Level II TEA officers are limited to preparing and filing of parking summons and directing street and vehicular traffic.

Rathour’s counsel Ravinder Singh Bhalla said as part of the application process, his client had cleared the physical examination, psychological examination, civil service written examination, as well as a background check.

In 2001, Rathour was sworn in as officer of the NYPD, Bhalla said. At the ceremony, in accordance with his religious beliefs, he wore his turban and maintained his uncut beard.

According to Bhalla, at no time prior to or during the course of the swearing in ceremony, did anyone from the NYPD advise Rathour that wearing a turban and maintaining a beard were prohibited by the department in the course of his training and employment.

However, when Rathour arrived for his first day of training, he was told by an NYPD official that TEA officers are required to wear a hat over their head as a mandatory part of their uniform.

When Rathour objected, he was told that he may keep his uncut facial hair, but would have to forego the turban, Bhalla said.

Rathour then submitted a religious accommodation request form to the NYPD’s Equal Employment Office, which was disapproved. He was also held captive in an empty room and told he would not be permitted to attend training classes as "he was not in uniform", the counsel said.

Rathour said he was born and brought up in New York, and that it was his childhood dream to become a policeman.