A 22-year-old Sikh law student said he felt “victimized” after he was dragged out of a bar in Nottinghamshire, United Kingdom, because he was wearing a turban on March 9, the BBC reported.
The management of the bar has apologized, calling the incident “absolutely unacceptable.”
Amrik Singh was told by the bouncer, who approached him half an hour after he entered the Rush Late Bar at Mansfield, that the place had a “no headgear” policy. Singh tried to explain that the headgear was part of his religion and was meant as a protection for his hair.
Singh took to Facebook to air his grievance, and said in his post, which was later removed by him: “I explained that a turban isn’t just headgear, but part of my religion and that it protected my hair – and that I was allowed to wear a turban in public. The bouncer ignored this and said I needed to take it off. I refused.”
As a result, he was “dragged away” from his friends and removed from the venue, Singh said, adding that he was also told that they didn’t think he was “allowed to come in a pub and drink anyway.”
Singh, a final year law student at Nottingham Trent University, said in his post: “I’m heartbroken. The reason why I was removed was because I refused to remove my turban. The fact that I was being removed because of my religious views really upset me. My ancestors have fought for the British army previously.”
He added: “Furthermore, my parents and I were born in Britain and all uphold British values… The worst part of it was the fact he compared my turban to wearing a pair of trainers.”
Singh also recorded the incident from the time he started questioning why he was being asked to leave. “I knew that if I recorded it I could prove it happened and seeing how other recent stories have become high profile though social media I knew that I couldn’t just let this discrimination go ahead,” he was quoted as saying by the Metro.co.uk.
Singh has taken down the original post, along with the recording of the incident, so that it doesn’t affect any “future proceedings.”
The management of the bar said that the staff involved in the incident are being investigated and that the security person has been suspended. Sonya Ward, Labour Councillor for Mansfield, said that she wrote to the bar as soon as she heard about the incident and received a response that said it was not their policy.
“Good morning, this is absolutely NOT our policy. We are investigating this incident and the security member in question has been suspended,” Ward shared the statement on Twitter.
This is appalling. I wrote to Rush Late Bar as soon as I heard about it, they have responded:
“Good morning, this is absolutely NOT our policy. We are investigating this incident & the security member in question has been suspended” https://t.co/BuakRhcW50— Sonya Ward (@Sonya_Ward) March 10, 2018
Earlier in February, a Sikh man’s turban was ripped outside the UK parliament by a white man who shouted, “Muslim go back”. The man was in queue to meet Labour MP Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi.