A suburban Melbourne council is holding a free information session for Sikhs to help them understand the laws around daggers called kirpans that they are required to carry for religious reasons.
Hume City Council said the event, which will be held at 11.30am on Sunday at the Sri Guru Singh Sabha Sikh temple in Craigieburn, in the city’s north, will help attendees learn about the knife and their legal responsibilities, and will provide “practical guidance for everyday situations”.
The session will be delivered in English and Punjabi, and will be attended by Victoria Police Multicultural Liaison Officers, who will be available to answer questions.
The topics covered will include “the significance of the Kirpan, Victorian laws and regulations, responsibilities of kirpan wearers, common situations and what to expect, interactions with police and security, community expectations and building trust, and support and resources”.
Sikhs have been allowed to carry and possess kirpans for religious purposes in Victoria since 2009, and are also allowed to take them into Parliament House.
The council’s announcement about the information session sparked a heated debate on social media, where some non-Sikh Indian immigrants objected to the event.
“That should not be allowed, as there are good people, and there are there are bad ones who will use it on innocent people. So I would say any exception should not be applied to any religion in Australia. Let it be Australia and call it a home sweet home,” wrote a Hindu man.
“You people are very ungrateful. The Sikhs saved your ancestors; otherwise, the Mughals would have wiped you out. You are sitting safely in Australia today just because Sikhs saved your sisters and mothers, it was the Sikhs who saved you from Mughals back in India,” a Sikh replied.
“Can I carry my sword around? It’s tradition, and I might need it to defend myself from nutters with kirpans,” asked an Aussie.
“If it can cut you, it’s a weapon. No more double standards, vote 1 One Nation,” wrote another.
The session comes after calls erupted to ban the kirpan in public during the murder trial Vickrum Digwa, who fatally stabbed Henry Nowak with a different kind of Sikh knife called a shastar in Britain in December last year.
Header image: A Sikh wearing a kirpan (Wikipedia: Skielor – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, Link).
