Source: The Plain Dealer
On December 6, 1999, The Plain Dealer published an
article on the upcoming court hearing for Gurbachan Singh Bhatia in
Mentor, Ohio. Bhatia, who serves as a cleric for the Guru Gobind
Singh Society of Cleveland, was arrested in September on a concealed
weapons charge for carrying a kirpan. When members of his temple
heard of the arrest, they launched an international campaign,
informing the Sikh community via the Internet about Bhatia's case.
The city of Mentor was flooded with phone calls and letters,
including one from U.S. Ambassador to India Richard F. Celeste, a
former governor of Ohio. One of those phone calls also came from
Cynthia Mahmood, associate professor of anthropology at the
University of Maine, who expressed sympathy for Bhatia. Mahmood
stated: "Here was some type of misunderstanding...Are they really
weapons or symbols? Those kirpans are kept in a sheath. They're not
in a holster, so you couldn't whip them out at any moment." The case
has struck a chord in the Sikh community worldwide, since they have
suffered religious persecution and view the United States as a place
of freedom. The case is to be heard in Mentor Municipal Court on
December 6th and lawyers from both sides are confident that the case
will be resolved quickly, with the charges possibly being dropped
against Bhatia.
Sikh Mediawatch and Resource Task Force has published an action alert about this case.