In the wake of a deadly attack at a Wisconsin Gurdwara, the New York city Mayor Michael Bloomberg has been asked to allow Sikhs to wear turban and sport a beard in the New York Police Department (NYPD).
“In the wake of the Wisconsin killings, which have shocked the national conscience, our City can enact meaningful inclusion of this community by changing the NYPD rules to allow Sikhs to serve without having to forsake their turbans and beards,” the New York City Comptroller John C Liu said in a letter to Bloomberg on Sunday. “The attack [on a Gurdwara] in Wisconsin reminds us that intolerance still rears its ugly head today. Sikhs have felt alienation and distress over the past decade since September 11,” Mr. Liu said according to the copy of the letter dated August 10, released to the press by United Sikhs, a Sikh advocacy group.
Keywords: Wisconsin shooting, US gurudwara shooting, Sikh turbans
Arirta Gupta, you don't know anything about Sikhism. AG writes "Sikhs
may be allowed to keep a small beard,". Who are you to tell Sikhs what
we should and should not do? Get a life and better start educating
yourself about the modern world we live in. AG obviously does not
understand that in life everything revolves around one's identity.
Identity is a part of one's character and pride. If one has to keep
one's identity secret, one might as well live in a police state like
Nazi Germany. For Pete's sake we are living in the 21st century and
not medieval times. AG understand that Americans are too ignorant, too
Euro-centric and too christian-centric to know anything about the rest
of the world. Most are racist too. And AG don't believe they think
differently about you. You are brown and with a funny name after all.
It is the prime duty of state to allow all its citizens to follow religion of their choice to the fullest.Turban is a religious symbol of Sikhism and preventing Sikhs from wearing it may bring religious differences but allowing them to wear turbans in NYPD is in fact a strong symbolization of the religious equality among the citizens of the country.
@arirta gupta - thts because u dont know the value of a turban to a sikh.And your point that it brings in religious differences is not so.Allowing a person to follow the religion of his or her choice to the fullest is the prime responsibility of the state.Turban doesn't makes a sikh look different,a sikh is a sikh because it wears turban,don't cut his hairs and follow the path of the guru.
I do not agree with this. I know that there are many who will exalt
this decision, but for me this is a step backwards in the struggle to
stamp out religious differences in offices of the state. Members of
the police force should be seen as members of the police force, all of
them, not as Sikh officers and Muslim officers. Sikhs may be allowed
to keep a small beard, as also Muslims, but nothing that seems totally
separate physically from other officers. Wearing a turban or sporting
a beard like the Sikhs usually keep is a clear point of departure from
other NYPD officers that is visible to the naked eye.
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