Sikh Wants Apology From Bar Owner

[jayd]

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/northco...1mi9turban.html

A turban-wearing Rancho Bernardo medical school student claims he was discriminated against when he was turned away from a popular college hangout.

The bar in Orange County has a “no hat” rule.

But Sanjum Paul Singh Samagh, an American-born Sikh, said he tried to explain to the bar owner that his black turban was a centuries-old religious symbol, not a fashion statement.

Samagh, a Stanford University graduate, has now joined forces with a national civil rights organization demanding a public apology and a policy change from the Pierce Street Annex bar in Costa Mesa.

“It may be a small thing, just getting into a bar to have a beer with my classmates, but it's the tiny things in life that add up,” Samagh said. “If I don't fight the fight, then what happens the next time?”

His classmates at the University of California Irvine Medical School have declared a boycott against the bar.

Pierce Street Annex officials did not respond to media questions about their policy or the incident.

It began Jan. 25, a Thursday, generally a popular night of cut-rate drinks at the bar. Samagh, 24, said he and about 20 classmates headed to the Annex to celebrate a birthday and the end of exams for the first-year medical students.

Samagh said he reacted with shock when the bar owner barred his entry, telling him that headgear was headgear, religious or not.

“He kept saying he was a lawyer and he knew his rights, and I tried to talk to him, one professional to another, but he was adamant,” Samagh said.

He and his parents, Pam and Paul Samagh of Rancho Bernardo, said they have joined forces with the Washington, D.C.-based Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund, formally requesting an apology.

They are pursuing the action, they say, to raise awareness of acts of discrimination against Sikhs. California is home to one of the largest Sikh populations in the United States, numbering more than 150,000 people, according to the Sikh organization.

The Samagh family has been active in Poway's Sikh temple, where an official there said that blatant acts of discrimination against local Sikhs have been rare.

Paul Samagh said the biggest problem he experienced living in San Diego County was people mistaking him for a Muslim, because of the turban and beard that he and most Sikhs wear. It became dangerous for Sikhs for a brief period after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorism attacks, he said.

“People . . . threatened to kill me more than once,” said Paul Samagh, who owns gas stations now but ran a gourmet food store in Poway at the time. “I just stopped going to work after 9/11.”

The Samagh family said they never experienced outright discrimination while they raised their children in San Diego's North County. Their son was class president, played basketball and was on Rancho Bernardo High School's varsity tennis team – always wearing the turban. He also was senior class valedictorian.

Nationally, the Sikh American Defense group said they encounter anti-Sikh bias incidents at least a few times a month, although generally the problems can be resolved quickly. Recently, a Sikh youth was turned down as a volunteer for a local police department in Northern California because of a no-beard policy, said Rajbir Singh Datta of the Sikh American Defense group, who successfully fought the rule.

“You have to pursue every single one of these cases,” Datta said. “What we want to do is have a society where Sikhs are not looked upon as foreigners. They are part of the fabric of the diversity of the United States.”

I would hate to leave a brother hanging, but common on. I would be offended to if I was in his shoes....But something about this bothers me.

Its not like he was being barred from a library, a community hall, or a social gathering. The guy was being barred from a pub where he was going to have a beer with friends. I understand when he says that wearing a turban is his religious compulsion, but what about the religious rule that he should not drink. I am confused....

[Brahm Vidiya]

Sometimes we think we know better than The Guru. Amongst Sikhs more and more people have started to pick things out which suit them and abandon the others which they feel are not modernized enough or are to hard to do.

[KH4L1$T4N1]

he shouldnt be going to the bar in the irst place, so in a way you can say the bar owner did a good thing

[BABBAR KHALISTANI]

Wud be nice if all turban wearin "sikhs" are turned away frm bars nd pubs

[buddasingh]

The most interesting aspect of this is that SALDEF who have done amazing work in the past are assisting this guy.

Now it is true that they simply are dealing with a confined legal/rights issue with respect to denial because of his dastar. It is also true that individuals practice faith in variations and that alone should not invalidate the significance of the practice. However, there are lines that once crossed do not constitute religious practice.

If a trimmed guy wants to get drinks, then he is not wearing a Sikh dastar. He is in fact wearing a cloth hat which does not hold religious significance and he can be asked to remove. In fact, I would say the someone wearing a cowboy hat would have a stronger argument for themselves to get entry to a bar for a drink because at least s/he would not be acting contrary to the purported belief.

Would SALDEF step in if someone was denied entry to a barber shop to get a hair cut because of their dastar? That is what they are doing here. This guy is taking his "wanting to get a drink while protecting his religious sikh turban" story to the media. He is making a mockery of sikhi via his stunning ignorance.

Would someone here please forward this to a SALDEF contact. And go easy on them, they deserve our full support for their amazing seva to date they've done more good than I will ever be able to do in a lifetime. I am not sure what they are thinking on this one.

[UKGupt Kaur]

he shouldnt be going to the bar in the irst place, so in a way you can say the bar owner did a good thing

I agree.

Just look at his picture and at what he is saying "beer with friends". A big time <banned word filter activated>.

If he had said a "soft drink" then that is a different matter.

[Bored]

first that weird child molestor and now this dude

[sunny_love_kirtan]

hes actually wearing a hat.

turbun with cut beared= hat

from which angle u can call him a sikh.

sikh dnt go to bar by the way

[Carpe Diem]

Maybe he should this is a sign - Maharaj saved Joga Singh too when he was about to enter a brothel by being the night watchman at the door...

[harwinder84]

but this wants an apology for not beiing allowed to enter a bar......so he hasnt realised anything....so i really dun care whether he gets an apology or not.....he got slap on his face but still refuse to learn

wat else shall i say?