An Irish-American Sikh who fought discrimination at work is joining the debate in Ireland over a Sikh garda's right to wear a turban, writes Sean O'Driscollin New York
When Kevin Harrington was a young boy, he played hurling and Gaelic football across the road from the GAA grounds in the Bronx, where thousands of Irish immigrants would come every Sunday to see New York teams play.
"I played more Gaelic football than hurling," he remembers. "Hurling was a game of great skill. I was tall and everyone says that I am more of a Kerry man than a Cork man because the men of Kerry are better at football." An Irish citizen, he learnt the Irish language from his father, Cornelius Harrington, an immigrant from Dunmore, Co Cork and his maternal grandparents, from Ballyduff, Co Kerry.
In school, he remembers using a word in Irish to describe a nun in school as a "barren old woman", happy that she didn't know what he was saying. His grandparents were wary of him speaking Irish, however, as "people who spoke Gaelic never did anything except carry shovels".
After high school, he went to St Francis College in Brooklyn to study religion (his family strongly objected to his plan to attend university in Hawaii, fearing he would turn into a surfing bum). While at St Francis, he craved an escape from Catholic orthodoxy and wanted "a do-it-yourself religion". "I was tired of Catholicism with all of its rigid rules. It seemed like the priests were the only ones having fun," he says.
He read about Sikhism and became enthralled by its "generic god", its lack of hierarchy, its democracy and the self-motivation of its members. After attending meditation and prayer sessions, he converted and began wearing the beard and turban of his religion while working for two decades as a subway train driver for New York's Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA), which controls the city's subways and buses. He received an award from the MTA for courage on September 11th, 2001, when he reversed his train away from the World Trade Center and led passengers to safety outside.
THE POLITICAL IMPACT of 9/11 was very different. After the attacks, says Amardeep Singh, executive director the Sikh Coalition, everything changed for New York's Sikhs. Television footage of turban-wearing Taliban members led some Americans to confuse Sikhs with fundamentalist Muslims. In Arizona, Frank Roque murdered Balbir Singh Sodhi, a Sikh, as "revenge" for 9/11.
In New York, the MTA sought to calm public fears by insisting that employees adhere to the MTA blue uniform and cap. Sikhs and Muslims were no longer allowed to wear turbans. Since June 2004, managers have been warning Harrington to take off his turban or face transfer to a job where he would not be seen in public.
Harrington, also known by the Sikh name Sat Hari Singh, had furious rows with supervisors, pointing to a Jewish MTA employee who was wearing his skull cap or yarmulke. As a very active union member, he won the support of his Local 100 and whipped up a media storm, with CNN, Fox and newspapers across the US covering and commenting on Harrington's turban. "He's Irish and he's a Sikh. How did anyone think he was going to be quiet?" says Singh.
Harsimran Kaur, an attorney for the Sikh Coalition, says that the anti-turban policy was blatant discrimination because many subway drivers were known to wear baseball caps.
The publicity worsened for the MTA when it tried to reach a compromise by insisting that employees wear MTA logos on their turbans, a sacrilegious act for many Sikhs. The two sides squared off in court, arguing over interpretation of New York's 2000 employment law, which allows religious attire at work as long as it does not cause the employer "undue hardship", which is defined as a "significant difficulty or expense".
This is a much more employee-friendly interpretation of undue hardship than that used by the US Supreme Court. In a 1977 case exploring the right not to work on a religious sabbath, the court ruled that the employer only had to show anything above a "minimum cost or burden" to claim that religious observance by employees was causing the employer undue hardship. "That could be almost anything," says Singh.
However, the US Justice Department has weighed in, claiming that the MTA is in serious violation of current understanding of federal law in its dispute with Harrington and four Muslim employees.
The Department claimed in a strongly worded legal brief on Harrington's behalf that the MTA "had selectively enforced uniform policies to target Muslim and Sikh employees" since March, 2002. Civil rights lawyers in the Justice Department said they believed the MTA condoned the use of non- uniform hats for other employees and was in violation of Lyndon Johnson's 1964 Civil Rights Act.
Although the Harrington case has yet to be officially decided, an ad hoc compromise has been reached on the subway platform: Sikh employees wear blue turbans to match their uniforms. At uniform inspections, Sikhs are asked by their managers to hold an MTA logo in front of, but not touching, their turbans, as a brief act of gesture politics. However, the MTA has been much stricter with Harrington than it has with other Sikhs, according to the Sikh Coalition. He is the only one expected to wear the MTA logo on his turban, which he does under bitter protest.
NEVERTHELESS, HIS CASE has improved working conditions for other city employees. Amric Singh, who was fired from his job as a traffic police officer after 9/11 for refusing to remove his turban, was reinstated in 2004.
Harrington admits he is "really tired" of the MTA dispute, but he has a new struggle to take on in Ireland. He has sent his children to school in India, which gives him more time to concentrate on the case of the Sikh Garda reservist who has been denied the right to wear his turban at work. Harrington is seeking about half a dozen Sikhs to picket New York's Irish consulate in the coming weeks, fully aware of how the New York media glare will look for Ireland's modern, cosmopolitan image. He has already written a pamphlet in which he castigates the Minister of State for Integration, Conor Lenihan, for claiming that the issue is one of adherence to Irish "ways of doing things".
Harrington has challenged the Minister to tell him what is so distinctly Irish about the Garda uniform, "apart from the buttons. Most Irish people and even the police themselves don't even know how to say the full version of the Garda name," he says, adding that the Garda uniform "looks just like any English-style police uniform; there is nothing distinctly Irish about it. Gardaí are not wearing green kilts."
Harrington also draws on the disproportionately high number of Sikh army officers in the British and later, the Indian army, and their unbiased treatment of Irish soldiers, despite their unfamiliar looking western headdress.
"Some Irish, like the fusiliers, had their own headquarters back in Ireland, but some Irish regiments only existed in India," he said. "The Irish relied on Sikhs. Now the Sikhs are just looking for something in return."
Sikhs in uniform: turbans in New York
Are turbans banned for city employees in New York?
Officially, it's not condoned but most employees are allowed to wear them after some bitter post-9/11 legal battles
What is the legal situation?
US state law is more generous to employee religious expression than federal law. However, the courts must use whichever works best for the employee. In New York, the courts use a 2000 state law in which employers must show "undue hardship", such as financial loss, to justify stopping religious attire at work.
Are there special rules for police?
After a three-year battle, a Sikh traffic policeman has been allowed to wear his turban. However, the regular police have yet to be tested. Sikhs who have joined the police have not yet taken cases to court.
Are crucifix necklaces allowed?
Yes, as are Star of David pendants, as long as they don't interfere with the overall appearance of the uniform.