The Italian Supreme Court has ruled against a Sikh who wanted to carry a kirpan in public and said migrants in the Western world must conform to the values of the society they have chosen to settle in.
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According to the Italian news agency ANSA, the Italian High Cassation Court gave the ruling against a Sikh Indian migrant as Italian laws prohibit the carrying of weapons including the kirpan, the ceremonial dagger of the Sikhs.
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. "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.
Though the court acknowledged that a multi-ethnic society is important, it ruled against the Sikh immigrant as public safety from weapons was of prime importance. "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 are 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 added.
The Sikh man had appealed against another court's decision that had ordered him to pay a €2,000 (Rs.1.4 lakh) fine because he was caught leaving his home in Goito, northern Italy, with a knife measuring nearly 20 cm, said local media reports.
