Sikhs Raise Concerns Over New Film

March 14, 2003

Source: India-West

http://news.ncmonline.com/news/view_article.html?article_id=0cbf2dcd719ca5c28d201fce22f41f11

On March 14, 2003 India-West reported that "a new film starring standup comedian Eddie Griffin has angered Sikhs over a joke that they say is unfunny at best and offensive at worst... The Miramax film DysFunKtional Family, due for release April 4, follows the comedian through some of his live performances... In one bit, which is in trailers now running in theaters, Griffin says, 'I can't figure out why they can't find Osama bin Laden - six feet six, with a nappy beard and a towel on his head...' Later in the trailer, Griffin, now standing on a street corner, gestures at an elderly Sikh man walking past. 'Bin Laden, I knew you was around here!' he says... Manjit Singh of the Sikh Mediawatch and Resource Task Force said that the organization had started receiving complaints about the film from people who had seen the trailer in theaters. 'It's one thing if you're just making fun,' he told India-West last week from Washington, D.C. 'But if you call someone Osama bin Laden when there have already been so many attacks against Sikhs, that is a different matter.'"