NEW YORK—As per the Sikh Coalition, the Aero Mexico has issued a directive to its staff regarding the religious significance of the Sikh turban. The directive has come after a protest by Waris Ahluwalia following the airline’s refusal to allow him to board the plane with his turban.
Waris had earlier said in a TV interview that he will not take the flight back until the airline promised to provide training to its employees. In the interview he said, “I am not here alone for myself, or for the Sikhs. No one should have to go through this.”
As per the Sikh Coalition, Waris Ahluwalia will be heading to New York tomorrow. The Sikh Coalition plans to make a formal request to the TSA and the Mexican government to implement religious and diversity sensitivity training regarding screening of passengers with religious headwear into its airport security training curriculum.
Waris Ahluwalia received much support through social media channels. Thousands of people tweeted in his support as they condemned the airline for racial profiling.
i agree with your point…. the teachings of the Guru is a treasure for the whole humanity.. its not really a religion or division..
The continued and sustained usage of term ‘religious’ for Sikhs is historically and currently misleading and damaging to the Sikh identity and the place of Sikhi, Sikhs and the Sikh civilisation in world society. The Sikh way of life as a British Judge observed in the Mandela v Dowell Lee UK court judgement in 1983, is ” more than just a religion”. The narrow, limiting category of ‘religion’ was superimposed on us by Western imperialism, just like other distorted terns like ‘Punjab’ instead of Panjaab. In turn, in our submissive conformity and wierd and twisted wisdom, we continue to mimick this unjust and disabling and diminishing term on ourselves. Sikhi is a comprehensive, social, ethnic, national way of life, based on a body of ethics and a code of ethical practises. We have a whole expansive set of features which form and define the Sikh civilisation – an indigenous country, an Indigenous language, sacred texts, sacred music, powerful history of our own making, seminal figures in the form of our Ten Gurus, social values, dress codes and much more. Why do we want to squeeze and compress SIKH into the tight, straight-jacketing box of a ‘religion’? By so doing, we are systematically stripping ourselves of the much more expensive and wholesome rights of a full-fledged ethnic and National people. The continued absence of a Sikh state, a Sikh govt, a Sikh representation in international institutions like the UN, mean that we continue to be discounted on multiple levels. There are those who actively wish for us to remain relegated to a ‘minority religion’ status. Then there are those, like me, who wish for the Sikh people and Sikh way of life to have a full recognised, functioning place as an equal nation amongst the world’s fellow nations and states. By Sikhs reducing themselves to a religion in France, the UK, India, USA – through ignorance, ineptitude and submissive conformity; are doing an infinite injustice to our beautiful, richly formed, positively ethical, grassroot national existence. Wake up Sikhs. take pride in your authentic being! Stop the ‘religion’ paraphernalia!….jagdeesh singh, NATIONS WITHOUT STATES, UK