Sikh Coalition Co-Founder Says No American is Safe From Profiling

April 29, 2006

Source: SikhSangat.org

[sikhsangat.org/publish/printer_1003.shtml]

On April 29, 2006 SikhSangat.org reported, "A national dialogue on the civil rights of minorities is necessary in post-9-11 America, a Sikh civil rights activist declared. Amardeep Singh, co-founder and legal director of the New York-based Sikh Coalition, a civil rights organization, spoke in a symposium on civil rights abuses against Sikhs, Arabs and Muslims.

About 100 people attended the two-hour program, which included brief introductory talks on Sikhism and Islam... Sikhs, Muslims and Arabs have been profiled at airports, and some forced to remove their turbans or hijabs religious head coverings before being allowed to board airplanes.

New York's Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) for years had allowed Muslim and Sikh employees to wear such religious head coverings on the job, but Singh said Sept. 11 ended that.

Yet, he said, MTA employees wear Yankees hats, Mets hats, fashion headwear, cowboy hats, yarmulkes and Rastafarian headwraps, all in violation of rules and all without consequence."