What is it about the Sikh turban that makes some people get stupid? The colour? Red, orange, black, yellow, blue ... surely these innocent primary hues ought not to inspire idiocy. The fabric? It can't be - cotton is surely inoffensive, not to mention ecologically sensitive. It couldn't possibly be racism, could it? Perhaps it's the place where the turban sits on the body? Unlikely - after all, the head is the object upon which we put everything from hats to caps to helmets to hoods, bandanas, tiaras and crowns.

Not that I am suggesting anyone wear a tiara during a soccer game - a piece of headgear that is after all a decoration, not a religious symbol. But it was a soccer game that supplied the latest venue for turban stupidity to raise its ugly head.

It all came about as Calgarian Gurinder Dhah was minding his own business, which was helping his team, the Northwest United, win the Langley Labour Day tournament in which over 200 teams participated.

According to the tenets of his religion, Dhah, 17, was wearing his patka (a less formal form of a turban worn for sports) during the first game of the tournament held in Langley, a small town just outside Vancouver. Nobody, including the ref, said anything.

All of a sudden at the beginning of the team's second game another ref announced that Dhah had a choice - he could remove his turban or he could sit out the game. Dhah said some rude words and got thrown out of the game - a rather ironic occurrence.

It is a sacrilege for a Sikh to remove his turban. It is a thing not to be done.

And of course, we've been here before. A number of years ago, there was a fuss in both the Canadian Armed Forces and in the RCMP about recruits wearing turbans. It was much ado about nothing and to Canada's credit, there are Sikhs with turbans in both services.

Then there was the tempest in a teapot over Sikhs in various Canadian Legions supposedly refusing to remove their turbans upon entering. That, too, was let go after everybody realized how embarrassing was the whole argument - especially since Sikhs had acquitted themselves well in the Second World War.

So most of us had understandably forgotten all about this inane controversy. Until last weekend, that is.

Until Dhah, and another Sikh boy from a Williams Lake, B.C,. team were presented with an impossible choice - the game or their religion.

Neither Dhah nor the other boy backed down. They announced they'd sit out all the games. And to their credit their teammates backed them. They announced they'd sit out, too. Bravo!

And all of a sudden the media got ahold of the story and there was much huffing and puffing by everyone connected with the tournament.

Some officials huffed that the no turban thing was a B.C. soccer rule. Others puffed that it was an international rule, others said with great sincerity that no gear unrelated to soccer could be worn - a fine statement considering that several non-Sikh players were evidently wearing bandanas.

Within a very short space of time, everybody connected to the soccer tournament in Langley leaped to disassociate themselves from this affair. It seems there's nobody in Langley except pro-turban people.

Moreover, Dhah and his team were allowed back on the field on Monday just as though there had never been a controversy in the first place.

There is now an inference that it was all the fault of the various referees. A fine rationalization, except for one thing: It was reported that somebody scolded the ref in the first game for ignoring Dhah's turban. The ref involved was quoted as saying that he kind of didn't notice - exactly what he should have done. The scolding evidently got through to the second referee.

It was said that with 2,000 referees, it's possible some of them misinterpreted the rules. What rules? And who told the refs to enforce stupid rules that don't even exist?

Thankfully, publicity is a wondrous thing. It mirrors our prejudices - and stupidity - right back at us and allows us to set things right.

It gives us an opportunity to say "good on you" to Gurinder Dhah and the boys on his team who backed him by refusing to have anything to do with religious prejudice. And maybe it will permit us to put the turban issue behind us, forever.