Terrorist joke costs eatery manager $75
Pakistani native takes offense
judge agrees
August 06, 2010|By Brian Cox
The manager of a North Chicago sandwich shop learned in a Lake County courtroom this week that the difference between a joke in poor taste and an inflammatory remark is 75 bucks.
Arjunsinh Sindha, 64, doesn't agree with the judge who hit him with a $75 fine after finding him guilty of disorderly conduct for asking a Pakistani-born customer if he was a terrorist.
"I don't think it was a fair deal," said Sindha, who manages the Subway sandwich shop at 2302 Green Bay Road in North Chicago. "We all talk when something happens. We just kid around."
Sindha made the questionable comment on May 5, just days after a terrorist unsuccessfully tried to explode a bomb in Times Square in New York City.
Zohaib Khan, 29, said that Sindha casually approached him and said, "I heard you guys were recruiting more terrorists in New York. Are you one of them?"
"I was very surprised and shocked that people reacted this way," said Khan, who moved to Waukegan from Pakistan with his family when he was 14. "It was very upsetting, and I was very offended."
Khan reported Sindha's comment to North Chicago officials, who ticketed Sindha under a city disorderly conduct ordinance.
On Thursday he was fined $75 by a Lake County judge. North Chicago and Lake County officials could not be reached for comment.
Sindha was born in India and moved to the U.S. in 1971. He paid the fine, but said he doesn't understand what the big deal was about.
He said he recognized Khan from previous visits to the store and that the comments were made in jest.
"It's not the money, but I don't think it was a fair deal," he said. "Are we not allowed in the world to talk anything to a guy?"
Khan said he doesn't know Sindha, and was very upset about being called a terrorist.
"I didn't respond back even though I wanted to," he said. "I contained myself, and I just left."
Khan said that he was so upset by the remark that he quit his job as a taxi driver and is now unemployed and depressed.
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