Over 100 US lawmakers belonging to both the Democratic and Republican parties have urged the US Defence Department to end the presumptive ban on Sikh Americans serving in the US military with their beards and turbans.
In a letter to Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel, the lawmakers have specifically requested that the US Armed Forces update their appearance regulations to allow Sikh Americans to serve while abiding by their articles of faith, such as wearing a turban or beard. “Given the achievements of these soldiers and their demonstrated ability to comply with operational requirements while practicing their faith, we believe it is time for our military to make inclusion of practicing Sikh Americans the rule, not the exception,” noted the letter, signed by 105 lawmakers.
The representation comes six weeks after the Pentagon announced a new policy of showing greater accommodation for troops wanting to groom or dress according to their religious beliefs, including having long hair and wearing beards, turbans, head scarves, yarmulkes or tattoos. But the policy still required that recruits make a request for the waiver of regular military-attire policy that would then be evaluated on a case-by-case basis and a decision taken within a month.
Democrat Joseph Crowley and Republican Rodney Frelinghuysen, who led the bipartisan push, pointed out that in the last 30 years, only three Sikh Americans have been granted an accommodation, or permission, to serve in the US Army while maintaining their articles of faith. Such accommodations are neither permanent nor guaranteed, and must be renewed after virtually every assignment, they said, noting that Sikh Americans may even be required to remove their articles of faith while their accommodation request is pending.
The lawmakers noted that Sikhs have served in the US Army since World War I, and they are presumptively permitted to serve in the armed forces of America’s NATO allies such as Canada and the United Kingdom. The New York-based Sikh Coalition lauded the lawmakers’ initiative. Terming it a big step forward in the campaign to ensure equal opportunity for Sikh Americans in the US military, Rajdeep Singh, the coalition’s legal director, said: “Sikhs have proven time and again around the world that they are excellent soldiers. It’s time for the Pentagon to realise that Sikh Americans are here to stay and that policies of exclusion are inevitably going to fail.”