Posted on 01/25/2007 2:45:09 PM PST by DieHard the Hunter
Passenger alarm over daggers on plane NZPA | Friday, 26 January 2007
Airport security in Auckland is being questioned after a group of Sikh priests boarded an Air New Zealand plane wearing ceremonial daggers under their robes.
Passengers became concerned when they noticed the ceremonial kirpan daggers poking out from under their traditional robes at Auckland's domestic terminal while boarding a flight to Napier on Sunday.
The Sikh priests willingly handed the daggers over to the pilot once passengers notified the cabin crew and the daggers were locked in the cockpit during the flight.
Passenger David Anderson, who notified the cabin crew about the daggers, was concerned that security in a post-September 11 terrorist attack environment was so lax.
"There was no security screening whatsoever," he told the New Zealand Herald.
"I checked in electronically. No photo ID was needed. I then boarded the plane without passing through a metal detector or having my bags x-rayed.
"This is the second time I have done this flight and it was the same the previous time.
"If this had happened in America there would have been helicopters and Swat teams and megaphones and no one would have been going to Napier in a hurry. But we do things differently down under, I guess."
Ministry of Transport safety and security group manager Bruce Johnson told the Herald planes with more than 90 seats were deemed most at risk of being held hostage and policy for screening passengers applied to these flights only.
He saw no reason for this security policy to change.
New Zealand First defence and security spokesman Ron Mark said this policy should be reassessed.
Auckland NZ Sikh Society president Daljit Singh told the newspaper men commonly put their kirpan in luggage when flying internationally as they understood the international security environment.
He thought the priests, believed to be visiting from India, might have thought the lack of airport security meant they didn't need to remove the kirpans.
Great some get daggars and I get my scrotum checked after an hour in line...?....We are so soft.
Exactly! Heck if a muzzie were get up and try something, he'd get 'ceremonially' chopped up.
Dang, that sounds like a personal problem.
How about Islamic terrorists pretending to be Sikhs so they can carry their kirpans?
Ditto. I believe the history of the kirpan is that they must carry it to kill muslims with, should they ever be attacked again.
suits me.
I'd rather ~everybody~ on the plane was armed with something. Then zero planes could be hijacked, and security at the airport would be superfluous.
Note the different response between Sikhs and Muslims.
Sikhs = understood the security environment and willingly surrendered their ceremonial daggers when requested.
Muslims = wanted everybody else to accomodate their praying and suspicious behavior and got offended when they were requested to leave.
}:-)4
You have a "no knives at work" rule? For a ~data center~?
> How about Islamic terrorists pretending to be Sikhs so they can carry their kirpans?
He'd need to be a *real good* actor else he'd be spotted a mile away. Then, heaven help him if he encounters a *real* Sikh...! They don't take too kindly to blasphemers.
A lot of public schools allow the wearing of the kirpans by students.
Stabbing a mainframe is bad.
While I have no problem with Sikhs wearing their daggers, I have read that some schools have allowed Sikh students to wear their daggers to school while expelling American kids who have a pocketknife. This is pure discrimination and it entirely voids the misbegotten philosophy of "zero tolerance" that school boards hold as gospel. If you're going to allow Sikhs to carry, you have to allow the rest of us to carry. What if a religion required its members to wear a bomb? Oh yeah, I forgot...
"Shanks on a Plane"
Samuel L. Jacksson to star?
/it was funnier before I posted it...
> If you're going to allow Sikhs to carry, you have to allow the rest of us to carry.
Only in a "fair" world. And this world ain't fair.
Speaking personally, I have much greater faith in devout Sikhs being able to show restraint in never misusing their ceremonial Kirpans to perpetrate crimes than I do in the average Joe carrying a pocket-knife.
Therefore, so long as we are going to have an unfair world, I'd prefer it to be unfair in favor of a reasonably law-abiding religious minority who "arm" themselves with ceremonial kirpans.
I think the Sikhs need to hire a PR outfit and get the word out there. Maybe the could put badges on their turbans that read, "I am not a Muslim."
A Sikh's knife is a sacred object, so they can't very well just abandon them. And they have to keep their heads covered.
They definitely need to hire a PR firm to get the word out there, maybe buy a few Superbowl ads.
Heh. In my IT department, I ~bought~ everybody a knife.
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