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Rockall Sikh turban piece deemed 'offensive'

We don't often get mail concerning matters racial, but this is one of them. It's about a story from way back in 2003, called Al-Qaeda engulfs US with Sikh porn tsunami:

I just wanted to comment that the story about Sikh porn movies in which a Sikh man is stroking his turban and also takes off his turban, etc... is quite offensive, even as satire. I have a good sense of humour, but that story is just base and infantile. It could also cause embarrassment to the Sikh community, because that story comes up on Google search when I typed "sikh turban fabric", and could therefore be easily seen by respectable Sikhs searching for turban fabric online! Satire can be done tastefully; theres no need to make fun of things you dont (apparently) understand.

Sincerely,

Palpreet Kaur

For the record, here is our position on offensive material as laid down in our contributor guide:

Is there anything you won't print?

Yeah, loads of stuff. Things that aren't funny for one. If you think it's funny but we don't, it just doesn't go on the site. That's because the world does not revolve around you. Nothing to stop you setting up your own site though.

Material that is nothing more than offensive garbage will just be binned. Simple as that. We should also mention here that currently we are tied down to words and the odd picture. Only go beyond this at the moment in the most important cases of hilarity.

We are opinionated, heartless, cynical realists. However we really, really dislike racists and bigots. You may find our unswerving criticism and mockery of public figures, organisations and soft-headed woolly liberals very funny but that does not mean we will find anything that preaches unnecessary hatred of people different to yourself anything but repugnant. Just so as you know.

Apart from that, everything else is fair game. We are not afraid of offending people but we won't set out deliberately to do so. We have a particular dislike for people that attempt to pressure others into thinking the way they do – even if that is currently deemed the "right way" to think about matters. We will defend our position and we will not change our mind. But most likely we'll just ignore you.

Of course, we respect our correspondent's position on the matter. Other readers are invited to judge for themselves, and send us their thoughts. Contact details here.

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