Friday, June 16, 2006
Kirpan Licence?
An email I received from Bhai Mehtab Singh.
Just yesterday on my visit to a Gurdwara in Dubai, I found out that the Government of the United Arab Emirates has made a provision for Sikhs to carry the kirpan. I am attaching a scanned version of an identity card a Singh gave me yesterday. Now I am not really sure how much authority such a card has here, but it has the authorization from the Consulate General of India in Dubai, and this ID card is given free to all who take Amrit over here. The date says October 27, 1986. The matter is written out in Arabic as well for Arab policemen to read it, in case they pull over a Singh wearing the kirpan. However, the kirpan is worn under the clothes and kept concealed. Nonetheless, there is a law that allows it. I was wondering, if Islamic countries like this one can make such provisions, why don’t western countries take such a step like issuing ID cards?
