Browsing Tag: Discrimination

[VIDEO] The federal transport minister says there’s no need to re-impose a rule that required passengers to remove religious headgear when going through airport security.

But for all of the accolades and success – academically, financially – he is a target for police. Numerous times, beginning when he was a teenager in Windsor, Ont., Mr. Singh has been stopped for no reason.

The Sikh Press Association have said: "We are fed up of being associated with terrorism. Sikhs are known for charity, loyalty and bravery. The media are responsible for the bullying this child is facing" - Jagraj Singh, Sikh educator.

Singh said he found a way to start to combat the bias against people of his religion when he saw a cartoon that he felt described the plight of the Sikhs in a world that believes everyone in a turban and a beard is a terrorist.

Mr Singh certainly was not an extremist and he had never identified as Muslim. Yet his experience matches that of other Australian Sikhs, who say they have shared the brunt of anti-Islamic sentiment in some parts of the community.

The “Yellow Peril” fears of the late 19th century are well known, but few remember the “Dusky Peril” that soon followed—...

As a Sikh and second-generation Briton running a public school made up mostly of Muslim students, Balwant Bains was at the center of the issues facing multicultural Britain, including the perennial question of balancing religious precepts and cultural identity against assimilation.

“Since the whole ISIS thing is happening out of Iraq, I’ve noticed an escalation of verbal abuse I’ve had incidents where young and old, kids, people from different ethnic groups calling me 'Osama' and telling me to ‘go back home’.”

Amardeep Singh, who's testimony was crucial for passing the law, after trying for 7 years is now training in Police academy. Sukhvinder Singh Hundal, who already serves in uniform decided to take Amrit and grow his hair now that he is allowed to in his job.

A British Sikh man is suing the bank where he worked for race and religious discrimination after colleagues allegedly interfered with his turban and asked whether it "flashed red in an emergency".

In good Sikh tradition, he resisted. Armed with petitions and Congressional letters, he waged a two-year campaign that in 2009 resulted in the Army granting him a special exception for his unshorn hair, the first such accommodation to a policy established in the 1980s.

Aneel Samra took up the Quebec Soccer Federation on its suggestion that he play in his own backyard. It didn't work out very well.

Gilbert Garcia,... has now been also charged with a hate crime. Garcia was initially charged with attempted murder and elderly abuse as well, for which he has pleaded not guilty.

This weekend the Quebec Soccer Federation (QSF) votes on whether to lift a ban that prevents kids from playing soccer -- specifically Sikh players who wear turbans.

As major institutions around the world work to establish equal rights and equal opportunities for all citizens, the military ought to be ahead of the curve, not behind it.

The crime would be hard to believe in any context. Fresno's Sikh say discrimination there is almost a daily reality.

The power of sadhana, ultimately, is something much more gritty; much more earthy and real. It is the power of being able to make conscious choices.

When it comes to promoting religious freedom, the government could do with a little more fairness right here at home.

According to the Fortune article by DeAnne Aguirre, one billion women (yes, that's billion with a B) will be entering the global economy for the first time in the next decade alone. Needless to say, those women will dramatically re-shape and re-structure our business world and the global economy, in general.

As a Sikh, I am mandated by my faith to wear a turban and keep a beard. As an American, born and raised in a nation where freedom of religion is a given, I generally do not think too hard about how these symbols make me look "different." But sometimes the difference has to be addressed.

Californian Muslims and Sikhs have won right to wear turbans, bears and hijabs in their work places freely without any restrictions according to a new bill signed by the state governor.

The Sikh community is thankful to Governor Brown for upholding the Civil Liberties by signing the bills.

"I told them, 'I'm sad that it took a tragedy of this magnitude for you to spotlight us in the community. But now that you're here, I want to make sure the information you're conveying to the public is accurate and meaningful. Maybe greater awareness can prevent another tragedy.'"

In California, Sikhs and other groups have joined together in a push to pass the Workplace Religious Freedom Act (AB 1964).

In a show of community power, California Sikhs packed a hearing room in the California Assembly yesterday and testified in favor of AB1964, the Workplace Religious Freedom Act.

Surrounded by members of the interfaith community, California Assemblywoman Mariko Yamada held a press conference last Tuesday at the West Sacramento Gurdwara to unveil legislation to protect Sikhs and others from job discrimination in the workplace.

American auto parts retailer AutoZone has agreed to pay $75,000 to its former Sikh employee who was barred from wearing turban at work.

For religious minorities in the United States, the promise of religious freedom remains unfulfilled. Sikh Americans, in particular, continue to face relentless challenges in the post-9/11 environment. Worse still, American law affords inadequate protection to Sikhs against religious discrimination and, in some cases, reflects deep-seated stereotypes about American identity.

Top-down approaches like reservation work but take time. Bottom-up approaches like the one done in Satara are eminently more doable and can have a greater chance of making a real impact on people. Who knows one day one of these `unwanted' girls from Satara may just become a power player, a shining star we can all be proud of.

THE president of Bondi Golf and Diggers Club has apologised to a Sikh man who was asked to remove his patka, a religious head covering, by a club bartender.