Sikh comedian Jasmeet Singh forced to remove turban at US airport

Indo-Canadian Sikh comedian Jasmeet Singh, who's known on the internet as "JusReign", was forced to take off his turban here during a security check, weeks after a Sikh-American actor was barred from boarding a flight in Mexico for refusing to take off his turban.

Jasmeet Singh posted about the incident on Twitter, NewYork Daily reported.

"So the (agents) made me take off my turban in extra screening or they said I wouldn't be able to be let through to catch my flight," he tweeted.

"After finding absolutely nothing wrong because a turban is just cloth and the whole thing is stupid I ask for a mirror to tie it back again.

"The agent tells me there are no mirrors and that I can just walk down the terminal to the nearest restroom without my turban on," Singh tweeted.

Turbans are mandatory in public for Sikh men, and are worn to protect the hair, as well as to convey a sense of identity.

Jasmeet's tweets

Singh also took to Instagram to share his experience:

Sunday night I was taking a flight back from San Francisco to Toronto and was stopped by security and ordered into additional screening. Now this is nothing new to me, as I'm a brown dude who flies quite often and these types of extra screening and searchings are regular occurrences. In this specific case however I was asked to remove my turban so it could go through an additional extra check. my first inclination was to say nah, I had a flight to catch and taking off a turban and tying it back on before a flight would be inconvenient. I asked to have a pat down instead (i get my clothes patted down, and those too are made of cloth, never asked to remove those) the manager insisted that either I would take off my turban and or I would be escorted back into the public area and I could book a flight with a different airline or airport. They provided a private screening room, and after they had done a complete body search and scanned my turban through another x-ray... they came back and told me I was good to go. It was at this point I asked for a mirror to retie my turban again, because unlike a hat or a shoe, tying a turban back on takes time and skill (great skill, only the manliest of men know) plus I gotta make sure i look extra crispy and good ALWAYS (my motto in life, most of the time when I'm not lazy of course) The officials responded that they don't provide mirrors and one of them had even told me to walk down the nearest bathroom at the other end of the terminal, in public, without my turban on. Which completely defeats the purpose of being in a private room in the first place... why "undress" me and then tell me to walk out "undressed" to the nearest bathroom to retie my turban again? The turban is a sign of royalty, respect, dignity, courage and has a huge significance for my people. I followed all the security protocols, asked whatever they wanted me to do, the issue isn't JUST with the fact that I was asked to remove the turban (however silly it still is) but with the lack of respect and insensitivity when I asked for a simple request like a mirror to tie it back on again. also fun fact: no one has ever found anything dangerous in a turban... ever.

A photo posted by Jasmeet Swizzy (@jusreign) on Feb 23, 2016 at 7:46pm PST

On February 9, Waris Ahluwalia, a Sikh-American actor, model and designer was barred from boarding Aeromexico flight from Mexico City to New York after he refused to remove his turban during a security check, drawing swift condemnation from the fashion community.

Later, Mexico's flag carrier apologised to the 41-year-old actor saying it "recognises and is proud of the diversity of its passengers".

"We apologise to Mr Waris Ahluwalia for the bad experience he went through with one of our security personnel," Aeromexico had said in a statement.