Sunday, August 20, 2006

The Summer School learns a hard lesson

This is probably not something that comes up at the Harvard Summer School (or the University) that often, but it's worth noting. It's a story carried in the Harvard Crimson about Navdeep Singh Johal, and his kirpan, a knife carried by some Sikhs for religious reasons. Navdeep is a GSAS student taking Summer School classes. The Summer School confiscated it, but gave it back and apologized to his parents after Professor of Comparative Religion and Indian Studies Diana L. Eck intervened.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I would suggest changing "some" sikhs to "baptized" sikhs

Anonymous said...

Harvard students need to know that fellow students aren't carrying weapons hidden in their clothing for the preservation of the acadmic environment. Just because some man made up a rule saying his religious followers should carry hidden weapons does not mean Harvard should follow his teaching.

Unknown said...

Its not about Harvard having to follow Sikh teachings, its Harvard's duty to respect these teachings and let those who practice them follow them. Sikh teachings aren't so bad. i mean, imagine a guy came to the school and said "Im a Nudist Genesisist" (which is in fact a type of religion). There would be a naked man walking around thinking he's the son of Adam!

America has freedom of religion.