Sikh's Turban Removed In Public And Scanned

[Greater-Punjab]

Turbans Removed in Public and Placed Through Airport X-Ray Scanner

San Francisco, California - Screeners at San Francisco International Airport recently forced a Sikh man to remove his turban in public, place it in a bin, and then ran it through an x-ray machine last week, providing another example of how the Transportation Security Administration’s new screening policies do not keep America safe. The Sikh Coalition, the nation's largest Sikh civil rights organization, remains concerned that the TSA’s hastily-conceived headwear search policy endangers all Americans by focusing critical security resources on non-existent threats.

“If You Don’t Do it, I’ll Have You Escorted Out”

On August 23, 2007, Charanjit Singh Ghai’s trip from San Francisco to London became a nightmare. Charanjit was accompanying his daughter, a political science student at University of California Berkeley, to London for her semester abroad.

At the airport, Charanjit was able to successfully walk through a metal detector without sounding an alarm. Once he had cleared security and was waiting for his bags, a TSA screener tapped his shoulder and told him that his turban would nevertheless need to be patted down. He was surprised by the screener’s demand, especially since his mini-turban was more akin to a simple patka (a square cloth tied tightly over the head) than a turban. He asked the screener and her supervisor that his turban instead be checked with a hand-held wand. The supervisor replied that wanding was not possible for turbans and that a turban pat down was “mandatory.”

The supervisor threatened Charanjit: “If you don’t do it, I’ll have you escorted out.”

Under pressure, confused and distressed by the idea of having his turban touched by anyone else, Charanjit offered to remove his turban quickly to show he was not hiding anything. After he removed his turban, the supervisor insisted that he also be able to pat down Charanjit’s hair. Charanjit was shamefully forced to untie his hair in public view.

“This exercise was all done to demean me. It was unbearable.”

Charanjit Singh to the Sikh Coalition’s staff attorneys.

Again the supervisor threatened him, “If you don’t do it, I’ll have you escorted out.”

Standing with his head naked, Charanjit stood and waited as the supervisor humiliated him by placing his small cloth turban in a bin and through an x-ray machine. Charanjit’s shirt or pants, which both consisted of more cloth than his turban, were spared the X-ray machine.

“This exercise was all done to demean me,” Charanjit told the Sikh Coalition’s team of staff attorneys. “It was unbearable.”

An Ineffective Policy

The disgraceful public undressing of Charanjit Singh is a disturbing example of extreme but permissible conduct under the TSA’s new headdress policy. What happened to this proud Sikh man was not only hurtful to the whole Sikh community, but also diverted America’s resources away from genuine security threats.

While the Sikh Coalition is grateful that TSA’s top leadership is willing to find a “workable solution” to Sikh concerns about the policy, the Coalition remains troubled that the new headwear screening policy still remains in effect.

The Sikh Coalition is hopeful that its engagement with the TSA, along with other Sikh and non-Sikh organizations, will lead to a solution similar to the screening procedures put in place soon after the 9/11 attacks. Shortly after the 9/11 attacks in New York and Washington, D.C. Sikh community groups worked closely with Department of Transportation officials to devise an airport screening protocol that would meet national security requirements, while safeguarding religious pluralism.

The Coalition will keep the community updated as our engagement with the TSA deepens. In the meantime, we continue to ask everyone to sign the community petition to Secretary Chertoff as a means of demonstrating grassroots concern with the new screening procedures, and to document your experience with the new screening procedures.

Sikh's Turban Removed in Public and Scanned

[Wutgwan]

Waheguru ji ka khalsa, waheguru ji ki Fateh ji

I fully sympathise with this case, and it is bad.

It seems even more strange, because the expereince i have had at usa airports is postive.

I am from uk, but travel alot. I have always tried to get through with my siri sahib (hidden) etc. I have had various expereinces.

Once on a stop over at Minniaplois last yr, the security found my siri sahib with their beeper wand. I was fearing the worst as this is a smaller airport in comparasion to san francisco, new york etc.

However, all the staff had been briefed on siri sahibs, the security guard straight away reassured me and said, ' i no this is for religion, but you can't wear it on board, but i will not touch it' her supervisor then came over and was very nice, they did not touch it and allowed me to return to check in and check it into my bags. All the way through they were very sensitive and did not give me any trouble, they said they had been briefed about dealing with sikh passengers etc.

Turbans Removed in Public and Placed Through Airport X-Ray Scanner

San Francisco, California - Screeners at San Francisco International Airport recently forced a Sikh man to remove his turban in public, place it in a bin, and then ran it through an x-ray machine last week, providing another example of how the Transportation Security Administration’s new screening policies do not keep America safe. The Sikh Coalition, the nation's largest Sikh civil rights organization, remains concerned that the TSA’s hastily-conceived headwear search policy endangers all Americans by focusing critical security resources on non-existent threats.

“If You Don’t Do it, I’ll Have You Escorted Out”

On August 23, 2007, Charanjit Singh Ghai’s trip from San Francisco to London became a nightmare. Charanjit was accompanying his daughter, a political science student at University of California Berkeley, to London for her semester abroad.

At the airport, Charanjit was able to successfully walk through a metal detector without sounding an alarm. Once he had cleared security and was waiting for his bags, a TSA screener tapped his shoulder and told him that his turban would nevertheless need to be patted down. He was surprised by the screener’s demand, especially since his mini-turban was more akin to a simple patka (a square cloth tied tightly over the head) than a turban. He asked the screener and her supervisor that his turban instead be checked with a hand-held wand. The supervisor replied that wanding was not possible for turbans and that a turban pat down was “mandatory.”

The supervisor threatened Charanjit: “If you don’t do it, I’ll have you escorted out.”

Under pressure, confused and distressed by the idea of having his turban touched by anyone else, Charanjit offered to remove his turban quickly to show he was not hiding anything. After he removed his turban, the supervisor insisted that he also be able to pat down Charanjit’s hair. Charanjit was shamefully forced to untie his hair in public view.

“This exercise was all done to demean me. It was unbearable.”

Charanjit Singh to the Sikh Coalition’s staff attorneys.

Again the supervisor threatened him, “If you don’t do it, I’ll have you escorted out.”

Standing with his head naked, Charanjit stood and waited as the supervisor humiliated him by placing his small cloth turban in a bin and through an x-ray machine. Charanjit’s shirt or pants, which both consisted of more cloth than his turban, were spared the X-ray machine.

“This exercise was all done to demean me,” Charanjit told the Sikh Coalition’s team of staff attorneys. “It was unbearable.”

An Ineffective Policy

The disgraceful public undressing of Charanjit Singh is a disturbing example of extreme but permissible conduct under the TSA’s new headdress policy. What happened to this proud Sikh man was not only hurtful to the whole Sikh community, but also diverted America’s resources away from genuine security threats.

While the Sikh Coalition is grateful that TSA’s top leadership is willing to find a “workable solution” to Sikh concerns about the policy, the Coalition remains troubled that the new headwear screening policy still remains in effect.

The Sikh Coalition is hopeful that its engagement with the TSA, along with other Sikh and non-Sikh organizations, will lead to a solution similar to the screening procedures put in place soon after the 9/11 attacks. Shortly after the 9/11 attacks in New York and Washington, D.C. Sikh community groups worked closely with Department of Transportation officials to devise an airport screening protocol that would meet national security requirements, while safeguarding religious pluralism.

The Coalition will keep the community updated as our engagement with the TSA deepens. In the meantime, we continue to ask everyone to sign the community petition to Secretary Chertoff as a means of demonstrating grassroots concern with the new screening procedures, and to document your experience with the new screening procedures.

Sikh's Turban Removed in Public and Scanned

[Mehtab Singh]

Once on a stop over at Minniaplois last yr, the security found my siri sahib with their beeper wand. I was fearing the worst as this is a smaller airport in comparasion to san francisco, new york etc.

However, all the staff had been briefed on siri sahibs, the security guard straight away reassured me and said, ' i no this is for religion, but you can't wear it on board, but i will not touch it' her supervisor then came over and was very nice, they did not touch it and allowed me to return to check in and check it into my bags. All the way through they were very sensitive and did not give me any trouble, they said they had been briefed about dealing with sikh passengers etc.

While San Francisco airport is the one that has become notorious, I had absolutely no problems there. Maybe because the people I was dealing with were nice. They were 2 Chinese guys and were very polite. At Oklahoma City airport I again had to go through checking and came across very nice officers. It all depends on what airport you are at, and what kind of officers you're dealing with.

[Carpe Diem]

Why is it they need to remove a turban to scan it? I dont get it? i thought they had handheld scanners for all sorts nowdays?

If not, they shud create a head scanner where people can just pop their head in it and the machine scans it for wotever they want..

[Bored]

Why is it they need to remove a turban to scan it? I dont get it? i thought they had handheld scanners for all sorts nowdays?

If not, they shud create a head scanner where people can just pop their head in it and the machine scans it for wotever they want..

u don need to man

when u walk through the detectors, it should detect if anythings hidden