Encouraged by Recent Success, SMART Encourages Sikhs to Report Incidents, Exercise Their Rights Washington, DC – The owner of a nightclub in Austin, TX recently apologized to a Sikh man who was denied admission, and an offensive cartoon depicting a “Sikh Heated Missile” was removed by a U.K.-based web site. The Sikh Mediawatch and Resource Task Force (SMART), a national civil rights organization, announced these developments today, while encouraging Sikh Americans to report such incidents and exercise their rights. “The successful resolution of these issues demonstrates that we can leverage our years of experience within civil rights and media to achieve our desired outcome,” said SMART’s National Director, Preetmohan Singh. “There continues to be a problem of under-reporting of civil rights violations, and we encourage Sikh Americans to inform law enforcement and SMART about all of these incidents.” The first incident involved a 26-year-old Sikh man named Ishmeet Singh Anand who was denied admission into the Element Nightclub in Austin. Anand, who had successfully entered the club previously, was barred from entering on this occasion based on a “no hats” policy. Anand immediately contacted SMART’s Legal Department, which wrote to the club management asking them to clarify their “no-hats” policy. Last week SMART was contacted by the President of the company that owns the night club, and apologized for the incident. Furthermore, he informed SMART that explicit instructions have been given to all their staff not to bar anyone with a turban or other religiously-mandated head dress. The second incident involved an offensive cartoon on a U.K.-based web site which was brought to SMART’s attention by a community member. The cartoon depicted a Sikh man apparently creating or tampering with a missile, implying malicious intent. The caption under the drawing read “Sikh heating missile,” creating a pun by conflating terms “Sikh” and “seek” incorrectly. SMART communicated with the site owner, expressing concern about the perpetuation of damaging stereotypes about Sikhs as terrorists, and the cartoon was recently removed from the site. The site owner also informed SMART that the cartoon had not been purchased for publication.
