Sikhs Call Airport Screening for Turbans 'Security Theater'

By Adelle M. Banks
Religion News Service

WASHINGTON (RNS) Leaders of three Sikh organizations say they've been told by federal transportation officials that turbans will always be searched at U.S. airports, a move that Sikh officials called unnecessary and unfair.

Representatives of the Sikh Coalition, United Sikhs and the Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund (SALDEF) said the Transportation Security Administration told them that Sikhs can expect a hand wand of their turbans when they go through airport security "100 percent of the time."

The new action would be in addition to procedures where Sikhs enter body imaging scanners or pat down their own turbans and have their hands checked for traces of chemicals.

"Blindly singling out turbans when any other piece of clothing is as capable of hiding explosives is unsafe and un-American," said Amardeep Singh, program director of the New York-based Sikh Coalition in a statement.

"While forcing turbaned Sikhs to go through an extra pat down may make people feel safer it doesn't actually make anyone safer. This is security theater at its worst."

TSA spokeswoman Sterling Payne told The New York Times she would not comment on the Sikh's claims.

"Removal of all headwear is recommended, but the rules accommodate those with religious, medical or other reasons for which the passenger wishes not to remove the item," she said. "If the officer cannot reasonably determine that the clothing or head covering is free of a threat item, individuals will be referred for additional screening."

Comments

[nobody youknow]

07:16 PM on 11/15/2010

Thoughts from someone who does security and therefore has a fair excuse to think about such things:
-Sikhs are not currently known for suicide bombing. In fact, Sikhs are mostly harmless.
-Anyone who is in identifyable religious garb is not the person I have to worry about. A terrorist will try to look as nondescript as possible.
-A 24-7 explosives-detection dog program at passenger check-in, while not assuring 100% protection from the smuggling aboard of explosive devices, is still quite an accurate and cost-effective way of preventing explosives from getting on a plane. Also doesn't require people being handled in ways I hope I never have to handle them.
-If I get on with the TSA, I neither want to look at or touch your junk, not even with gloves on. That's just creepy

[IWantAJob]

03:40 PM on 11/15/2010

While forcing turbaned Sikhs to go through an extra pat down may make people feel safer it doesn't actually make anyone safer. This is security theater at its worst."
http://www.cnn.com/2010/TRAVEL/11/08/airport.turban.screening/

Sikhs can keep their hat on, but we all have to take our shoes off? Makes no sense.

[sevumar]

10:41 PM on 11/10/2010

Just how intrusive will travelers allow security scans to get before they realize that they don't do much for safety. Sure, some poorly-paid official might get his jollies manning the expensive new millimeter-wave machines they're installing all over the place, but all it does is cause embarrassment, humiliation, and frustration for those of us who just want to get where we're going. When will all this useless idiocy stop?

[GinnyW]

08:47 PM on 11/10/2010

Thank goodness nuns don't wear habits any more, so they won't be strip searched or have full body scans!  The shoes thing is a joke to the best security screeners in the world, the Israelis.  We have in place the TSA, who have an average education level of 11th grade GED, and we're surprised at this offense to Sikhs?  I was a security guard with Pinkerton and Allied Security for many years and the screening at most corporations is meant to be theater, with NO security clearance for vendors!  Even at military bases, I was able to go past checkpoints to the credit union with just my driver's license many times, and I have never been in the military, nor did I have a pass.  Act I:  Shoes and other foot fetishes; Act II:  Sikhs and singling out other minorities; Act III:  ????

[raker]

07:27 PM on 11/10/2010

Airport searches are merely security theater, AND Sikhs must be searched to the same extent the rest of us are. No exceptions for religious modesty or for any other religious reason.

[Ron Broxted]

07:17 AM on 11/10/2010

The Sirdarjis should not have to put up with this sort of ignorance. The turban is part of the 5 Ks. What next? Take my poor, dear old Mothers rosary beads? (She could choke a pilot to death and fly the plane into Lourdes or Knock;)

[Titanshanks]

02:18 AM on 11/10/2010

Going through security I always wonder how Stephen Seagal feels, "Yeah, you can take my nail clippers... (I could drop these clowns so fast....)"

[Adrian Rodriguez21]

12:13 AM on 11/10/2010

I have a very long beard and a medium skin tone. I always get randomly selected, it is racism. I served 5 years in the Marines so i can be stopped and not get the rights i fought to preserve. Freedom isn't free, whatever the hell that means.

[MohammedAbbasi]

10:00 PM on 11/09/2010

A turban to a Sikh is his honour - think!

[separatingwheatfromchaff]

05:53 AM on 11/10/2010

Honor doesn't come from the clothing we wear.

[MohammedAbbasi]

08:29 AM on 11/10/2010

Agreed. But one should treat people with respect - I am sure if the roles were reversed Sikhs would respect a persons faith/beliefs unlike the jokers at these Airports

[Chaotician101]

04:23 PM on 11/09/2010

Hey, TSA is all theater and any increased safety is just an accidental by product of this political CYA BS! Sealing the cockpit doors essentially ended any possibility to using planes as missiles. Having suicide bombers blowing up an flight is probably very remote and the procedures we had before 911 were more than adequate to address this issue. The direct and indirect costs are outrageous; the political effects using the TSA as a scare tactic to make FEAR an overriding element of political demagoguery is close to traitorous, and inane bureaucratic rules are certainly designed to make the citizenry sheep like.

[newtom]

04:23 PM on 11/09/2010

This is no different than everything else the TSA does. It's all security theater.

[Schweik]

02:36 PM on 11/09/2010

Remove ALL headgear, especially the bulky kind and have it examined.

Sounds like a rational policy to me.

[petegrif]

01:11 PM on 11/09/2010

I love the phrase 'security theater' - and it's not just turbans, practically all of it is such theater, you would have to be a truly dumb terrorist to not be able to get something really bad on a plane

[ThinkCreeps]

03:28 PM on 11/09/2010

It's not even theater - it's pantomime.

But, the shoe dance is necessary to appease the turbine fairies. You saw what happened last week to qantas' A380 out of singapore - I'll bet you any money that someone didn't do the shoe dance correctly.

[OneFish]

12:31 PM on 11/09/2010

Ya gotta love America: here's a page of comments about the goofy Sikhs and their sensitive hairknots and the even goofier useless Homeland security weenies and there's a Google ad at the bottom hawking a "Homeland Security Degree". WTF? It looks like a made-up economy to me. We can't build anything in America anymore so what do we do? Security theater. America rocks!

[LintLass]

09:51 AM on 11/09/2010

There's some case to be made that they're making pat-downs more invasive if one doesn't want to go through the controversial new body-scanners, that show more than most are comfortable with, the idea being to make those scanners seem better than getting felt up in public: a lot of people have been raising voices of protest about this.

I don't think Sikh men should be singled out, but smuggling things in hair or headgear is hardly a new concept, I don't think there's much to resent about the wand, at least. Those never bothered me, some of these new procedures are getting there, though, especially when they're meant to pressure people into said visual scanners by being extra-humiliating.

Wands shouldn't be a big issue, though, they usually go up and over the head with them, anyway. (Ever have one of those times when you're in line and between you and the TSA people, you can't figure out what's setting off the metal detector? )