Background Information
Sikh arrested for carrying ceremonial 6-inch knife
CLEVELAND PLAIN DEALER
Friday, September 17, 1999
By DAVID BRIGGS
PLAIN DEALER RELIGION REPORTER
http://www.cleveland.com/news/pdnews/metro/subsikh.ssf

When he was baptized a Sikh in the holy city of Hazur Sahib, near Bombay, India, Gurbachan Singh Bhatia made holy vows. Among them, he said he would not cut his hair or take off a steel bracelet acknowledging he was bound to God. And he would always wear a small knife known as a kirpan, symbolizing his willingness to defend the faith.

For 20 years, including 19 as the first Sikh priest in Northeast Ohio, Bhatia kept those promises to God.

However, in a jarring clash of cultures where one man's religious symbol can be another man's dangerous weapon, the kirpan was taken away from Bhatia earlier this month, when Mentor police officers investigating a minor traffic accident in which he had been involved found the 6-inch knife.

Despite Bhatia's protests that he wore it out of religious duty, police handcuffed the 69-year-old priest, took him to the station and charged him with carrying a concealed weapon. He is scheduled to appear in Mentor Municipal Court Oct. 4. If convicted, the Cleveland man could face up to six months in jail and up to a $1,000 fine.

Mentor Police Chief Richard Amiott said his officers acted properly in enforcing the law banning concealed weapons. "How can you describe for me the difference between a ceremonial knife and any knife?" he asked.

But local Sikh leaders say that whether Bhatia can wear the kirpan is an issue of religious freedom.

For his part, the small, unprepossessing priest says tears now mix with prayer in his three hours of daily reading of Sikh scripture. He hopes God will forgive him for breaking his baptismal promise to always wear the kirpan.

"When I have it, I feel happy," Bhatia said yesterday through an interpreter. "Now, when I say my prayers to God, I ask, "Why did you do this to me?' "

Shortly after midnight Sept. 3, Bhatia was returning from a religious ceremony blessing the new home of a Sikh family in Mentor when he stopped at a light at Bellflower Rd. and Center St. Thinking he had gone too far into the intersection, he backed up, and his car bumped the car behind him.

No one was hurt, but as Bhatia apologized to the occupants of the other car, a passenger noticed that he seemed to have a bulge under his shirt and pointed it out to officers who were nearby when the cars collided. Officers discovered the knife and arrested Bhatia.

"I said, "That is a kirpan, and in my religion I am allowed to wear this.' He said, "No, that is a concealed weapon,' " Bhatia recalled.

Amiott said that, legally, the knife was considered a weapon capable of causing death, and the arrest was justified.

"As far as the Mentor Police Department and our officers, we're not familiar with any religious defense as it relates to carrying a concealed weapon, and that will be decided by the court," he said.

In a similar case in Cincinnati in December 1996, the 1st District Ohio Court of Appeals overturned a Municipal Court conviction of a Sikh man for carrying a concealed weapon.

Paramjit Singh, a local Sikh spokesman, said the community here might appeal to the governor or legislature for a law allowing Sikhs to have a permit to wear a kirpan. Singh said he understands that one would not want criminals carrying concealed knives, but priests like Bhatia should be allowed to practice their faith.

"They should give the individual the right to express who they are, where they come from, what their beliefs are," he said. "One needs to use common sense."

Singh also noted that few contemporary Sikhs wear the kirpan. He said only orthodox followers are likely today to wear the blades, mandated 300 years ago by Guru Gobind Singh at a time when the religious leader before him had just been martyred and his body discarded in the streets of Delhi.

Today, more moderate Sikhs might wear a small symbol of a knife in their hair or around their neck. But even orthodox Sikhs consider the kirpan only in symbolic terms, he said.

"No, no, no," Bhatia said when he was asked whether he ever thought of the kirpan as a weapon. He said that when the case is settled, he will ask for God's forgiveness for not carrying out his duty.

"I cried yesterday because it was taken away," Bhatia said two weeks after his arrest. "I feel that I am betraying my promise."