SACRAMENTO COUNTY, Calif — Four Sikh Americans are suing the U.S. Marine Corps for religious discrimination.
A group of attorneys is representing Captain Sukhbir Singh Toor and new recruits Milaap Singh Chahal, Aekash Singh, and Jaskirat Singh.
The legal team filed a 46-page lawsuit on Monday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, claiming the Marine Corps only allows the four men to practice their faith "sometimes" while serving the country.
"It really is unfortunate," said Amandeep S. Sidhu, partner at Winston & Strawn LLP. "Each of our clients is basically being asked to make a decision between whether they can continue to practice their faith as Sikhs or serve our country as Marines."
The Sikh Coalition is a national community-based organization, working towards a world where Sikhs, and other religious minorities in America, may freely practice their faith without bias and discrimination.
According to the Sikh Coalition, Captain Toor has served in the U.S. Marine Corps since 2017. In March 2021, with assistance from the Sikh Coalition, then 1st Lieutenant Toor submitted a request for an accommodation to serve with his articles of faith. Toor was "granted a historic - but still incomplete and inadequate accommodation" in June 2021.
Toor's current accommodation prohibits him from maintaining his beard, one of the five Sikh articles of faith, when he is serving in areas where he would receive Hostile Fire or Imminent Danger pay. After "exhausting Toor's appeals process," the Sikh Coalition explains a lawsuit was officially filed with Toor and the three other Marine Corps recruits.
"Each of them have received an initial decision from the Marine Corps that grants their accommodations," Sidhu said. "But, it includes limitations that requires them to remove their articles of faith, shave their beards, cut their hair, and remove their turbans to attend basic training."
Gurdip Sing Rehal is with the Sikh Temple of West Sacramento, also called Gurdwara. He explains Sikhs do not cut their hair as a sign of commitment and acceptance of God's Will, and the same can be said for wearing a turban.
"We are not supposed to cut our hair," said Rehal. "The turban is our identity. When you see somebody with a turban, 99% are Sikh. In our society, there's people of different faiths. We should all live in peace and respect each other's religious beliefs, or the way they look."
The Marine Corps Uniform Regulations read, "the face will be clean-shaven, except that a mustache may be worn." It also explains that "the requirement for hair regulations is to provide direction for maintaining a neat and professional military image."
ABC10's Race and Culture team reached out to the U.S. Department of Defense about the lawsuit, who declined to comment.
"This idea that you can simply pack up your Sikh faith into a suitcase and put it away to attend basic training, and then re-adopt it at the end, really smells like a loyalty test and one that's not necessary," Sidhu said.
