A national Sikh-American advocacy group has called for an apology and a policy change from a local popular nightclub in southern California after it refused to allow a Sikh man enter because his turban violated the bar's 'no hats' rule.
"This is blatantly discriminatory. You are trying to have fun with your friends, and you are forced to stay outside because of your religion," said Rajbir Singh Datta, executive director of Sikh American Legal Defence and Education Fund.
On January 25, Sanjum Paul Singh Samagh, a 24-year-old medical student living on campus at University of California, Irvine, arrived at the Pierce Street Annex bar with about 20 friends. The bar owner refused to let Samagh in, saying that the bar did not allow entry to anyone wearing a 'headgear,' according to Samagh and his friends.
Samagh, an American-born Sikh, said he tried to explain to the bar owner that his black turban was a centuries-old religious symbol and not a fashion statement. However, the bar owner refused entry saying that headgear was headgear, religious or not.
Samagh and his friends left Pierce Street Annex after he was denied entry, but are not letting the incident go. Instead, they have formally implemented a boycott of any medical functions being held at the bar until this issue is resolved to the satisfaction of Samagh.
Samagh, a Stanford University graduate, has now joined forces with a national civil rights organisation 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 has the tiny things in life that add up. If I do not fight the fight, then what happens the next time,' Samagh told a local newspaper.
Pierce Street Annex officials did not respond to media questions about their policy or the incident.
Meanwhile, Samagh and his parents, Pam and Paul Samagh of Rancho Bernardo, said they have joined forces with the Washington, DC-based SALDEF, formally requesting an apology.
SALDEF noted, "The turban is a religious article of faith, which has been protected by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution as well as Federal and State courts across the country."
Such acts are blatantly discriminatory by nature and seek to denigrate not only the 500,000 Sikh Americans but also our brothers and sisters in other faith communities who wear religious head-coverings as part of their beliefs, stated SALDEF Western Regional Director Kavneet Singh.
Eugene Volokh, a UCLA law professor, said that under state law, the bar will only be liable if it intentionally discriminated. The dress code 'may burden Sikhs more than it burdens others. But that is not something the bar has to worry about," Volokh said, adding that under federal law, Samagh might have a case, because rulings have varied.
Chapman University associate law professor Lawrence Rosenthal said that if Samagh made clear the turban was religiously important, the bar might need to accommodate him, reported the Orange County Register.
The Samagh family says they are pursuing the action, they say, to raise awareness of acts of discrimination against Sikhs, reported Union Tribune, a local paper.
California is home to one of the largest Sikh populations in the United States, numbering more than 150,000 people, according to the Sikh organisation.
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 September 11, 2001, terrorism attacks, he said. "People threatened to kill me more than once. I just stopped going to work after 9/11," said Paul, who owns gas stations now but ran a gourmet food store in Poway at the time.
Nationally, the Sikh American Defence 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 Defence group, who successfully fought the rule.
"You have to pursue every single one of these cases. 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," Datta told the Union Tribune.
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