Italian court rules against Sikh migrant wanting to carry 'Kripan'

The Italian Supreme Court has ruled against a Sikh migrant who wanted to carry a kirpan (dagger) in public and said that migrants in the Western world must conform to the values of the society they have chosen to settle in.

The Italian High Cassation Court Tuesday ruled against the Sikh Indian migrant who wanted to carry a kirpan, a dagger considered sacred in Sikhism, even as it was against the Italian law, the Italian news agency ANSA reported.

The court said migrants who choose to live in the Western world have an obligation to conform to the values of the society they have chosen to settle in, even if its values differ from their own.

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“An attachment to one’s own values, even if they are lawful in the country of origin, is intolerable when it causes violating the laws of the host country,” the court said.

“The multi-ethnic society is a necessity, but it can’t lead to the formation of conflicting cultural groups of islands according to the ethnicities they’re made up of, precluding the unity of the cultural and judicial fabric of our country, which identifies public safety as an asset to defend and as such bans carrying weapons and objects aimed at injury,” the court said.

The Sikh man, who has not been named, was appealing against another court’s decision ordering him to pay a 2,000 euros in fine because he had been caught leaving his home in Goito, northern  Italy, armed with a knife measuring nearly 20 cm, BBC reported, citing local media.