Please Sign This Petition To Florida Governor Jeb

[JagtarSinghKhalsa]

Number of signatures on the petition are increasing each day:

29 March - First 46

30 March - Another 229

31 March - Another 238

1 April - Another 270+ (day not yet complete)

Let's see if we can keep this increasing each day until 9 April.

158487[/snapback]

We need more signatures from the UK

158488[/snapback]

1 April was in the end a massive 418 signatures

Can we top 500 on 2 April?

Please pass the word around to friends and relatives

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2 April 2006 - UK time: 17:45 - Already have 482 signatures, therefore should go through the 500 barrier easily.

Can we make it 600?

And even more in the days to follow!

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In 30 minutes the number has risen to 550 signatures - great effort!

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19:00 UK time We have exceeded 600 signatures on 2 April

At this rate likely to top 700 signatures.

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1692 signatures!

2 April - 761 signatures and the day is not over

800+ should be possible

[SSM]

It's fine to count the signatures but does anyone know if this will have any impact ? What's the chances?

Why must he be sent to Florida?

[JagtarSinghKhalsa]

Number of signatures on the petition are increasing rapidly each day:

29 March - First 46

30 March - Another 229

31 March - Another 238

1 April - Another 418

2 April - Another 1,569 - a massive effort

3 April - Another 1,287 (day not yet complete)

3,787 signatures so far . . .

Let's see if we can keep this increasing each day until 9 April.

[JagtarSinghKhalsa]

Number of signatures on the petition are increasing rapidly each day:

29 March - First 46

30 March - Another 229

31 March - Another 238

1 April - Another 418

2 April - Another 1,569 - a massive effort

3 April - Another 1,287 (day not yet complete)

3,787 signatures so far . . .

Let's see if we can keep this increasing each day until 9 April.

158767[/snapback]

3 April - 1, 438 signatures, hopefully will exceed yesterday's 1, 569

[JagtarSinghKhalsa]

Number of signatures on the petition are increasing rapidly each day:

29 March - First 46

30 March - Another 229

31 March - Another 238

1 April - Another 418

2 April - Another 1,569 - a massive effort

3 April - Another 1,287 (day not yet complete)

3,787 signatures so far . . .

Let's see if we can keep this increasing each day until 9 April.

158767[/snapback]

3 April - 1, 438 signatures, hopefully will exceed yesterday's 1, 569

158790[/snapback]

3 April - Achieved 2,115 signatures

Sustaining this will be a challenge

4 April - It would be good to get between 1,500-2,000 signatures

[Golee Maro]

Do any of you guys know what this guy has been convicted of??

[ParwinderSingh]

hes being convicted of some sort of identity fraud according to some website. but i dont really know..................... and i dont really know if anyone deserves to have their kesh cut and where to draw the line.

but one thing i know is that this is gonna be a really bad blow on sikhs if they go ahead with it,

but sikhs in america have alot of support from ppl in the gov so hopefuly it will b ok

[JagtarSinghKhalsa]

Prisoner cites faith to fight Florida rule on cutting hair

By Lona O'Connor

Palm Beach Post Religion Writer

Wednesday, April 05, 2006

For Satnam Singh, a devout Sikh, to cut his hair would be a profane act, severing him from God.

But Singh, a forger, is scheduled to enter a Florida prison next week, and the state penal code is unrelenting on the point that incoming male prisoners must receive short haircuts and close shaves, no matter what their religious beliefs.

So grave a matter is a haircut that Singh's 84-year-old father said, "Please cut off my son's head instead of cutting his hair!"

So far, Singh has been unable to get Gov. Jeb Bush or state corrections officials to allow him to keep his hair. But a Department of Corrections spokesman said Tuesday that the DOC is monitoring the case and communicating with all parties in an effort to resolve the problem before Singh arrives in Florida.

Singh began writing to the governor and the corrections department in 2003, according to his lawyer.

But with time running out, he is now being joined by an ecumenical band of Muslims, Jews, native Americans, Rastafarians and, of course, Sikhs, all of whom have religious rules regarding hair. They claim to have sent hundreds of letters and petitions with several thousand signatures to the governor.

Singh, 45, was convicted in 2003 in Fort Pierce of forgery and criminal use of personal identification information. He was sentenced to three years in federal prison. His federal imprisonment ends Sunday, and he is to be transferred to a minimum-security Florida prison within days after his release.

Arvind Singh, an attorney representing Singh but not related to him, said that, regardless of the crime, a prisoner should not be subjected to treatment that debases his religious beliefs. In other state prison systems, prisoners' hair is not universally shorn. And in Florida, female prisoners' hair is not cut.

In federal prison, his hair was not touched, but Florida prison rules require that male prisoners have their hair and beards trimmed — by force if necessary. There are no exceptions for religious reasons and so far there have been no successful court challenges of the rules.

Sikh men never cut their hair, instead winding it around the crown of the head, considered the font of communication with God. They cover their head with a turban, six or more feet of fabric carefully wrapped around their heads. Their uncut hair, their beards and their turbans are the outward symbol of their faith. In past conflicts, their enemies cut their hair to humiliate them. Unwilling to live after losing their hair, Sikh prisoners begged their captors to cut off limbs or even their heads instead.

Sikhism was founded 500 years ago in India, when that country was the scene of religious infighting. Its message is "We are all one, created by the One Creator."

Singh's first name means truth, but the theme of his criminal history is quite the opposite.

An illegal immigrant, he was accused in 2003 of using another man's name to buy an $80,000 townhouse in Port St. Lucie in 2000. He also acted as an agent from an organization called the Catholic Helping Hands Trust, which was not in fact affiliated with the Catholic Church and whose trustee was a tattoo artist from Rosslyn, Va.

When Stuart police stopped Singh in 2001, he carried a black shaving bag with 100 pieces of identification that were not his own, including birth certificates, death certificates, passports, driver licenses, military IDs and one ID belonging to a congressional staffer.

Singh had been visiting a Stuart nightclub called Silhouettes, drinking and spending heavily. Though this was behavior similar to that of terrorists living in South Florida before the Sept. 11 attacks, no link was ever made between Singh and terrorism.

Though his 84-year-old father lives in Singapore, Singh's origins remained a mystery to police. He entered the U.S. on a student visa in 1982 but never pursued an education here. Court records show Singh was convicted in 1988 of passport fraud and deported. He was sent to Canada, but came to the U.S. three days later using a different identity.

He just completed a three-year federal prison sentence for passport fraud.

Arvind Singh, his attorney, hopes to get the American Civil Liberties Union to take up Singh's cause. He also is trying to persuade Gov. Bush to review the case.

When Satnam Singh returns to Florida from the Ohio federal prison, he is expected to go first to the St. Lucie County jail, where the sheriff promised not to cut his hair, the attorney said.

But within two days, he would enter a state prison, where no such promises have been made.

Attorney Singh also hopes to persuade the ACLU and a prominent law firm to assist with the legal efforts.

"This is what we were taught since we were young, this is what we say in our prayers every day, please remember those who saved their hair until their death," said attorney Singh.

There are about 25 million Sikhs worldwide, most of them in the Indian subcontinent; others in Britain, Canada and other parts of the world. About 1,000 Sikhs are in South Florida.

"It's the equivalent of giving him the death penalty," said attorney Singh. "People have been writing, saying that they have nightmares about this. We're trying to save our identity as a people."

Singh's possible haircut looms within days of the Sikh holiday commemorating the religious prohibition against cutting hair.

About 300 supporters of Singh are planning a rally on his behalf at 2 p.m. Saturday in Tallahassee.

[JagtarSinghKhalsa]

Father Says Cut Off Son's Head vs His Hair

April 5, 2006 1:18 p.m. EST

Patricia Shehan-Autenrieb - All Headline News Contributor

St. Lucie, FL (AHN) - Satnam Singh is an illegal immigrant who is currently serving time in an Ohio federal prison on a passport crime, but he is about to be sent to Florida to serve additional charges where he will receive a haircut against his religious beliefs.

The Florida state penal code requires any incoming male prisoners to receive short haircuts and a close shave.

This is totally against Singh's religious beliefs. As a devout Sikh, cutting his hair would separate him from God. His father stated that he'd rather have the authorities cut off his head than to to cut off his hair.

Singh is sheduled to be moved to the St. Lucie County, Florida jail for other charges that include identity fraud. The county sheriff promised not to cut his hair.

However, when he gets incarcerated into the Florida state prison shortly thereafter, he will most likely be given a haircut by force if necesary, contrary to all his efforts to fight the system.

[JagtarSinghKhalsa]

Where freedom is a cut above

By Jac Wilder VerSteeg

Palm Beach Post Columnist

Thursday, April 06, 2006

Satnam Singh says his religious beliefs - he's a Sikh - should prevent Florida prison officials from cutting his hair and shaving his beard when he enters the system next week. Post reporter Lona O'Connor wrote about the case Wednesday.

Singh just finished a three-year stint for passport fraud in federal prison, where the feds let him keep his hair. Next, he'll serve a state term handed down in 2003 after the illegal immigrant used someone else's identity to buy a St. Lucie County condo.

The quick and satisfying answer is that if Singh's religious beliefs did not prevent him from committing fraud and forgery, then his beliefs hardly could be substantial enough to bar a haircut. However good it feels to blurt that response, the problem of how religious beliefs and the civil authorities' judicial systems interact is much more complicated.

Florida, of all states, should be sympathetic to religious accommodation of its inmates. No less an authority figure than Jeb Bush has declared that religious faith is a powerful tool for rehabilitation.

Under Gov. Bush's guidance, Florida has opened three faith-based prisons. The most recent one, a prison for men, opened just last November in Crawfordville. It joins another men's prison in Lawtey and one for women in Tampa.

Gov. Bush has said, "My expectation is we'll have a lower recidivism rate" in faith-based prisons. But, appropriately, we'll just have to take that on faith, since there is as yet no data to support it.

Gov. Bush favors Christian programs. But most religions, including Sikhism, have prohibitions against stealing, drug use, murder and other crimes. If devout people, of whatever faith, are more likely to reform their lives, then Florida should be eager for Singh to keep the unshorn hair and turban that are fundamental expressions of his devotion to Sikhism.

If religion can help rehabilitation, it also can cause problems. There are the fakers who pretend to be religious. Inmates can use religion to harass officials with lawsuits over special diets, access to services or permission to perform rituals. The issues can become very involved. But a federal law, the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, gives inmates some clout.

The Supreme Court, in upholding the law, said corrections officials can't impose unnecessary burdens on inmates trying to practice their religion. The court also ruled, however, that the law does not "elevate accommodation of religious observances over an institution's need to maintain order and safety."

So, is it safe to let Singh and other inmates wear turbans in which they might conceal weapons or contraband?

There are so many religions (and inmates) that it's impossible to articulate one rule to cover all circumstances. But, again adopting Florida's philosophy, it would seem wise for prisons to be as tolerant of religious practices as is practical.

Whether it was wise for Florida to move beyond tolerance to actively setting up faith-based prisons is another matter. To me, it crosses the church-state line. That line, however, necessarily is blurry, at least in America, which is dedicated to both religious and secular freedom.

Other countries have tried to solve the conflicts inherent in such a system by attempting to obliterate one half of the church-state balancing act. Totalitarian communist states were (the Soviet Union) and are (Cuba, China) hostile to organized religion.

Afghanistan presents the other face, with the eye-opening attempt by religious leaders to use the country's courts to execute a man whose alleged crime was converting to Christianity. That incident, in a country with a U.S.-backed government, shows the difficulty the Bush administration's nation-builders face in trying to create a Middle East and Persian Gulf region based on secular democracy rather than strictly on Islamic law.

Against such global matters, a haircut might seem insignificant. But the crux of all these conflicts is an individual's religious freedom, which, in America, we value.

Jac Wilder VerSteeg is deputy editorial page editor of The Palm Beach Post. His e-mail address is jac_versteeg@pbpost.com