NEWS FEATURE: After Complaints, Thong With Sikh Religious Symbol Taken Off the Market

c. 2005 Religion News Service WASHINGTON _ Clothing vendor HahaPanties has agreed to stop selling underwear featuring a Sikh symbol after the World Sikh Council complained that the undergarments are offensive. The $10 white thong featured the Khanda, an emblem representing the four pillars of Sikh belief, on the thong’s front, and was sold through […]

c. 2005 Religion News Service

WASHINGTON _ Clothing vendor HahaPanties has agreed to stop selling underwear featuring a Sikh symbol after the World Sikh Council complained that the undergarments are offensive.

The $10 white thong featured the Khanda, an emblem representing the four pillars of Sikh belief, on the thong’s front, and was sold through the e-commerce Web site CafePress.com. The site also said, “Are you a practicing Sikh? How about your wife? She may not want them, but I’m sure the hip Sikh daughters will find these a hit.”


Tarunjit Singh Butalia, secretary general of the Columbus, Ohio-based World Sikh Council, said the thongs were inappropriate and is glad they were removed from the Web site.

“Putting the Sikh religious symbol on a golf shirt is OK,” Butalia said. “Putting it on a provocative piece of clothing _ I would consider it to be in bad taste and offensive to people of faith.”

Thongs aren’t allowed under Sikh tenets, which say that the faithful should wear loose-fitting cotton underwear, called kachera, as a reminder of purity.

The dispute is the latest conflict between clothing makers and religious groups. Last year, the Victoria’s Secret catalog removed bikinis with Buddha on the crotch and breast areas after Buddhist groups complained. Also last year, Urban Outfitters removed the dollar signs from its “Everyone Loves a Jewish Girl” T-shirts.

Chris Belle, 23, of Florida, said he created HahaPanties to sell “trashy thongs to the college-age market” and earn extra money to pay for his wedding. He said he received numerous e-mails and phone calls from offended Sikhs.

“They are obviously gag gifts to give to people. During the holidays I added the religious section. I wasn’t trying to exploit anybody,” Belle said. “Most people our age really don’t get that bent out of shape over things like this. It’s more or less funny, not offensive.”

CafePress.com operates an e-commerce site that sells 6 million products designed by third-party vendors such as HahaPanties, and has an entire section dedicated to religion-themed thongs.


The World Sikh Council appealed publicly to CafePress.com to stop selling the other religious thongs.

In addition to the Sikh thong, products have included a “Jesus Is Watching You Masturbate” thong for $12, one with the word “Satan” in a red heart, and others with slogans such as “Spin My Dreidel” and “Jesus saves, Buddha recycles.”

“One of the questions that we have to ask ourselves is when is the use of religious symbols on clothing appropriate and when does such a use become offensive?” said Butalia of the World Sikh Council. “We expect to work with the interreligious and interfaith community to support them in this regard.”

CafePress.com bans content that glamorizes drugs, racism, Nazi and Ku Klux Klan symbols and “material that is generally offensive or in bad taste.”

Said CafePress.com spokeswoman Erin Fors, “We have to look at things on a case-by-case basis. We take complaints from the community very seriously.”

MO/PH END RNS

Donate to Support Independent Journalism!

Donate Now!