Dear Celivia,

If you look up "Five Ks - Wikipedia," on the web it tells you that:

"The Kirpan (Strapped Sword) is worn to defend one's faith and protect the weak, reminding one of his or her duty as a Khalsa."

It also states that "All baptised Sikhs should wear a short form of Kirpan (approx. 6" to 9" long) on their body. The blade should be made of iron. A Sikh should never use the Kirpan in anger or for a malicious attack. However, a Sikh may use it in self-defence or to protect a person in need."

It goes on to say that "Some Sikhs choose to learn the art of Gatka.
This is a martial art devised by the Sikh Gurus that uses circular movements to effectively swing a sword."

I don't have a problem with any of this taking place in religious schools, where everyone is dressed in the same way. And it is in the religious school of your choice.

I do have a problem with this being worn in public schools - where some of the children will be carrying these strapped swords. Scouts don't bring their knifes to school every day, as far as I know. And you can hurt someone with a blunt object, especially one made of iron.

Beautifully put, Celivia.

Time to silence the dog whistles, I think.

Shockadelic..
Yes there are couple of 100% whites around with all 32 of their ancestors 5 generations ago born in Aus... who still look and act almost no different, to illustrate, english counterparts.
But that gives them the right to boss non-Europeans around simply becuse the white Aus policy prevented coloreds in till 40 odd years ago?
Anyway darkies and yellows acting exactly like a white man makes whites loathe them even more for being frauds.

Touche Frank, now I'm outa here. Thanks

Bugsy... here is your rattle :) clearly you need it in your playpen there...

KEY WORDS.....

<<However, a Sikh may use it in self-defence or to protect a person in need.">>

So... following this through, a sikh who sees another kid (lets say his sikh little brother) being bashed at school by 3 other boys..... and he happens to have his kirpan handy... is it not reasonable, given the actual traditions and purpose of this DEFENSIVE weapon... that he may try to use it ?

A lot would depend on his frame of mind.. Did he have a bad day? did some 'white' teacher treat him unkindly?... does he currently feel 'religious persecution' ? Has he been socially ostracized for being 'different' ?

hey... he might be churning with resentment...and his brother is being beaten..and...he has... a KNIFE...... go figure...

Look at the picture of a Kirpan here.
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.mef.qc.ca/images/kirpan.gif&imgrefurl=http://www.mef.qc.ca/appel-kirpan.htm&h=234&w=350&sz=37&tbnid=26KWnmbeT6llSM:&tbnh=80&tbnw=120&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dkirpan%26um%3D1&start=2&sa=X&oi=images&ct=image&cd=2

THE REAL PROBLEM... "religous freedom or public safety"

Its one thing to say "ok...baptized sikhs can wear a kirpan to school"

TO BE consistent. we must also say "Baptized Sikhs can wear their kirpans ON PLANES".. it is the same issue.

NOW THE FUN BEGINS..... Terrorists, posing as sikhs, could easily board a plane and hijack it.

QUESTION.. "Why is 'public safety' more important on a plane than a school yard?"

Sorry..this is purely a political issue and an issue of Australian law.
Notwithstanding the alleged exemptions for Sikhs at the political level, (and the votes such an exemption is intended to buy) I CALL for an absolute ban on concealed weapons in any place OTHER than the place where such weapons are supervised such as scouts and dojo's.

Religious requirements about weapons MUST repeat MUST be subject to Australian law.

'Dogwhistle' ? utter rot..rubbish.

Frank,

We are beholding to you for your blunt (& non-partisan) summation of the case to date:

There's no 'real issue' since, sports aficionados do it, masons do it, even scouts & Scottish dancers do...so, lets all do it, and lets let school children doing it too.

The priciple you've distilled seems to run like this:
If something is already present in some form- (& there's been no recent unsavoury incidents -leastways those the Sunday papers have deemed it profitable to publicize) then there's no danger in expanding its presence further.

But now that you've enlighten us, shouldn't we apply this principle more widely? Golly , think of the money saved & layers of bureaucracy we could slash:
-A lot of customs controls are motivated by 'ill-informed' fears of what-ifs and could-bes -about things that usually never happen, &
- A lot of our medical precautionary measures' are equally as fanciful…

No doubt many sharp people will side with you Frank on this, unreal issue,though I'll wager most of those that do will not have school age children.