From The Daily Beast
Despite granting waivers to allow minorities to maintain their religious dress while serving, military policy still keeps most of them out. But the successes of the waivers have proved that ending the discrimination will give us stronger, more diverse armed forces.
The rash of hate crimes following the Boston Marathon bombings reminds us of the major challenges religious minorities face in this country. Last week a taxi passenger in Northern Virginia verbally and physically attacked his driver for being “a fucking Muslim.” The victim, Mohamed Salim, who served with the U.S. Army in Iraq and currently serves as an Army Reservist, was left with a fractured jaw. This week in California, an 81-year-old Sikh man was brutally assaulted with a steel pipe in a suspected hate crime, from which he suffered a fractured jaw, punctured lung, and head injuries.
While the police investigate whether or not to charge the attackers with hate crimes, politicians and community leaders continue to explore ways to minimize hate-biased violence and facilitate the integration of diverse communities in modern America. The U.S. military has an opportunity to contribute in this regard by opening its doors to various religious minorities, many of whom remain marginalized.
In January, the military announced that it would allow women to serve in combat roles. Although long overdue, this announcement comes as no surprise given that the Armed Forces has opened its arms to a variety of communities over the past several years.
Despite this progress, a number of religious minorities are still barred from serving in the military. Sikh, Jewish, and Muslim Americans are among the many communities affected by a policy that does not allow military personnel to adhere to their religion’s articles of faith, usually involving dress or personal appearance, and members from these groups have been working diligently to repeal the policy.
For example, Rabbi Menachem Stern filed a federal discrimination lawsuit against the Army for the right to serve while maintaining his facial hair, which he considered to be an article of faith. In 2011, the Army agreed to a deal that would allow the rabbi to serve as a chaplain and keep his “unshorn beard in a neat and orderly manner while serving in the Army.”
Like Rabbi Stern, three turbaned Sikhs have received exceptions to the Army’s grooming policy and have been allowed to serve in the military. In 2009,Simranpreet Singh Lamba enlisted for and was recruited by the Army, and he applied for a waiver to maintain his Sikh articles of faith. After a 10-month review, the Army approved Lamba’s waiver given that the “religious accommodations would not affect training, unit readiness or cohesion, individual readiness, morale, discipline or safety and health; and as long as proper appearance and guidelines were maintained.”
