A outstanding Sikh Marine officer, in addition to a number of Sikh Marine recruits, filed a federal lawsuit Monday that they hope will get the service to allow them to serve overtly with their turban and beards always.
Capt. Sukhbir Singh Toor, one of many 4 plaintiffs within the lawsuit, has been attempting since final 12 months to get the Marine Corps to let him serve whereas carrying a turban, beard and uncut hair. The service has made some concessions: Final August, Toor was informed he may put on his turban and beard however not when deployed and receiving hostile-fire or imminent-danger pay.
Graham West, a spokesman for the Sikh Coalition, an advocacy group for these of the religion, argued that the restriction “constitutes a good portion of the world — and plenty of important deployment areas for an artillery officer with Capt Toor’s experience” in an announcement on the lawsuit.
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In the meantime, the three Sikh recruits who’re a part of the swimsuit “are topic to the identical restrictions, with the added limitation that they have to sacrifice all of their articles of religion throughout their time at boot camp,” West famous.
The lawsuit itself takes the Marine Corps, which has a status and historical past for being one of many least accommodating within the Division of Protection in relation to grooming requirements and general inclusion, to process over what it argues is an inconsistent software of coverage.
“It’s perverse to say that respecting ‘the person wishes of Marines’ to have full-body tattoos … is in keeping with the Marine Corps’ picture, however that respecting [the four Sikhs’] wishes to be devoted to God is by some means antithetical to the concept of cohesiveness and uniformity inside the service,” the criticism argues.
The criticism goes on to notice that Marine Corps’ motion “belies its claims” that the dearth of lodging is over uniformity because the department just lately expanded safety for Marines with pseudofolliculitis barbae, a situation attributable to frequent shaving that results in bumps and scarring and is commonest amongst African People, by permitting indefinite shaving waivers.
“These Marines face no limitations going into ‘fight zones,'” the authorized submitting notes.
“Neither do Marines with beards worn throughout particular operations,” it provides earlier than exhibiting an image of a Marine Corps special-operations workers sergeant in Afghanistan carrying a full mustache and beard.
Navy.com reached out to the Marine Corps for a touch upon the lawsuit however was directed to the Justice Division, which didn’t instantly reply.
The lawsuit pointedly famous that the Army “now has a five-year historical past of totally accommodating Sikh troopers” and the Air Power additionally just lately allowed Sikhs to serve with out restriction. In April, 2021, a federal decide pressured the Navy to let a sailor who’s a Hasidic Jew preserve his beard whereas aboard the usTheodore Roosevelt.
West famous in his assertion that “all informed, there are actually roughly 100 Sikh Troopers and Airmen serving with non secular lodging — proving that their articles of religion pose no barrier to service.”
In the meantime, the Marine Corps has a historical past of being final to accommodate minority teams. Its personal historical past web page notes {that a} presidential order “pressured the Corps, regardless of objections from its management, to start recruiting African American Marines in 1942.” The service was additionally the final to totally combine its boot camps for women and men. The primary feminine Marine graduated from Marine Corps boot camp in San Diego lower than a 12 months in the past – in Might 2021.
The Sikh Coalition spokesman defined that the lawsuit comes “after greater than a 12 months of makes an attempt to have interaction the USMC in direct dialog.”
“Our workforce intends to argue that the USMC should replace its insurance policies to be in step with the U.S. Army, U.S. Air Power, and allied forces all over the world whose forces already function with beards,” he mentioned.
The lawsuit additionally comes amid renewed authorized scrutiny of the general non secular lodging course of. Refusers of the COVID-19 vaccine have cited the identical legislation because the Sikhs to argue for his or her proper to be exempt from the mandate. They’ve met some success within the decrease courts, with one decide ordering the Navy to halt the discharge of any refusing sailors.
— Konstantin Toropin will be reached at konstantin.toropin@army.com. Observe him on Twitter @ktoropin.
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