Jay Leno’s Romney joke reverberates in British parliament

Jay Leno’s joke in which he said Mitt Romney vacations in an Indian holy temple is making continuous ripples around the world.
In a recent episode of The Tonight Show, Leno joked about Romney’s wealth and said that the shrine of the Golden Temple was the GOP contender’s summer home.

This might have been an innocent quip but it has spurred outrage from India to Los Angeles. Dr. Randeep Dhillon, who runs a Punjabi religious organization, recently filed a lawsuit against Leno and NBC earlier this week asserting that the late-night host had exposed all Sikh people to “hatred, contempt, ridicule, and obloquy.”

Like it wasn’t enough for the uproar so now a pair of British parliament members has started another anti-Leno protest. They filed a motion to solicit an apology from Leno. According to the Labour party’s Virendra Sharma and John McDonnell, Leno’s comment “shows a complete misunderstanding of the Sikh faith and is derogatory to Sikhs across the world” and was “not acceptable to all those who believe in respect for all religions.”

The U.S. State Department’s spokesperson Victoria Nuland defended Leno’s joke earlier this week, saying his freedom of speech was protected.

Sharma and McDonnell requested A) apologies from Leno and NBC and B) that the British government “make representations to the US government that while recognising principles of freedom of speech there should be more understanding and respect shown to the Sikh faith.”