It's tough to be an observant Sikh these days. If your turban isn't butting against the law, your kirpan
(ceremonial dagger) is. You can't take it into the courthouse, you can't take it onto the plane with you, and you certainly can't take it within nine yards of the Pope.
WASHINGTON — Sikh representatives will not participate in an interfaith meeting with Pope Benedict XVI during his U.S. visit next month because the Secret Service won't allow them to wear a ceremonial dagger that members of the Eastern religion must carry.
Sikhs had been invited to join other religious leaders for a 45-minute meeting with Benedict on April 17 in Washington to express a shared commitment to peace. But the Secret Service would not allow the Sikhs to carry a kirpaan, which resembles a small sword or dagger.
The kirpaan "represents the Sikh commitment to resist oppression and injustice" and is to be carried "only in a defensive posture and never to initiate confrontation," according to the World Sikh Council-America Region.
"We have to respect the sanctity of the kirpaan, especially in such interreligious gatherings," Anahat Kaur, secretary general of the Sikh Council, said in a statement. "We cannot undermine the rights and freedoms of religion in the name of security." [Link]
It's a shame that they're being kept from the Pope over an object that, according to Stephen Jenuth, president of the Alberta Civil Liberties Association, "really has no
utility as a weapon." Sikhs usually keep the kirpan in a sheath under their clothes, so all the Secret Service needs to do is send the Sikh representatives a note: "We understand your concerns and we've decided to allow you to wear your kirpans into the meeting with the Pope, as long as you agree to keep your hands in the namaste position at all times."
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