The Transportation Security Administration has changed its screening procedures to include searches of the Sikh turban on August 4, but has not informed any Sikh group, according to the New York-based Sikh Coalition.

“TSA Administrator Kip Hawley has called for a meeting soon. We are waiting for the outcome of it before proceeding further,” said Neha Singh, advocacy director and staff attorney at the coalition.

The Coalition learned of the change of policy after it received more than 50 complaints of harassment over turbans, she said.

It has started a petition online against removing and searching turbans at airports, which by September 6 was signed by 4,700 people.

“We do not say the new rule was made to target the Sikhs. But it is the Sikhs who face the harassment,” said Rajbir Datta, associate director of the Washington D.C.-based Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund.

The old rule was made soon after 9/11 to prevent harassment of the Sikhs. The new rule is a result of the fear that non-metallic explosives or other things could carried in the turban.

That earlier protocol allowed for a wand to be passed over turbans without touching them. But the new rule mandates a pat down of any headgear, including hats, saying it was one of the periodic adjustments made to address changing threats.

“So far we have no instance when a person used the turban to carry illegal things. There were no incidents of a person disguising as a Sikh to carry illegal things into a plane. So mostly, the new rule is a result of unfounded fear,” Datta said.

If people want to carry non-metallic things, they could do so inside their dress. But the TSA has no rule for frisking every passenger, he said.

The TSA claims the search or removal of the turban is not mandatory. But low-level officials have made it a habit to pat down a turban or demand its removal, causing much resentment.

Hawley assures community leaders that the TSA understands the importance of the Sikh turban and the community’s concerns about the new policy.

A statement said, “TSA Administrator Kip Hawley responded to the leaders of the Sikh community. He expressed understanding about the sensitivity and importance of the Sikh head dress screening. He said TSA takes their concerns seriously and is interested in reaching a workable solution that does not compromise security. TSA will implement additional cultural awareness training for its transportation security officers and will continue dialogue with Sikhs and other groups.”

But the disputed screening procedures remain in effect. This means that Sikhs may be subject to pat-down searches of their turbans at airports or even removal of their turbans, at the discretion of a TSA screener.

The Sikh Coalition forwarded a complaint by Charanjit Singh Ghai at San Francisco International Airport on August 23. Officials forced him to remove his turban in public, place it in a bin, and then ran it through an x-ray machine.

They threatened that “If you don’t do it, I’ll have you escorted out.” Ghai was accompanying his daughter, a political science student at the University of California, Berkeley, to London for her semester abroad.

Though he walked through the metal detector without sounding an alarm, a TSA screener tapped his shoulder and told him that his turban would need to be patted down. His mini-turban was more akin to a simple patka (a square cloth tied tightly over the head) than a turban. Under pressure, confused and distressed by the idea of having his turban touched by anyone else, Ghai offered to remove his turban quickly to show he was not hiding anything. After he removed his turban, the supervisor insisted that he also be able to pat down his hair. “This exercise was all done to demean me. It was unbearable,” Ghai told Sikh Coalition attorneys.

Again he was humiliated by placing his small cloth turban in a bin and through an x-ray machine, he said.

Dr. Sawraj Singh, chairman of the Washington State Network for Human Rights, told a congregation at the Gurdwara Singh Sabha Sahib Renton in Seattle that it is not just an issue about a turban, but about America accepting its new multicultural identity. He noted that there are different concepts of the turban in the East and the West. In the East, contrary to the West, you cover your head as a mark of respect.”

“The federal government has equated our most precious article of faith with terrorism,” Amardeep Singh, the executive director of the Sikh Coalition, noted. “It’s like asking a woman to take off her blouse in public. It’s that bad,” J.P. Singh, president of the Sikh Center of the San Francisco Bay Area in El Sobranted, told the local media.