Oz Sikhs wounded by 'Kirpan Ban'

[GlobalSikhNews]

AUSTRALIAN Sikhs are fighting for the right to bring ceremonial daggers through airports.

Their move follows the seizure of a number of the small swords by Customs officials.

Unless Attorney-General Robert McClelland agrees to rule them as personal religious items and not illegal weapons, Australia's peak Sikh group plans to launch legal action before the dhHuman Rights Commission.

The Sikh religion requires the all ordained followers - whether male or female - must wear the short, often decorative daggers known as kirpans at all times.

Australian Sikhs agreed to put the daggers in their check-in luggage when travelling on aircraft but are now fighting to recover them after Customs officers decided they could be seized for being unlicensed imports, Sikh Council of Australia president Ajmer Singh Gill said.

Mr Gill has said the swords were ceremonial defensive pieces, worn within casings inside a sash and identifying the wearer as following the principles of the 10th guru.

Symbolically, the kirpan represents the ability to cut through untruths and the readiness to defend the innocent.

But Customs recently seized a kirpan from the check-in luggage of a Queensland Sikh, saying there was no permit to import the piece.

Mr Gill said a separate case in Perth was resolved after a former Minister stepped in and ordered the kirpan be returned to its owner.

But Mr McClelland needed to better define swords in the restricted import laws and allow Sikhs to travel with kirpans in their luggage into and out of Australia, he said.

Source: Herald Sun