Senator Coons urges acceptance of Sikh Americans in the military

Senator Coons, Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA) and 13 of their colleagues have written a letter to Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel urging the Department of Defense to revise regulations on appearance that effectively prohibit religiously observant individuals from serving in the U.S. military. While applying to all faiths, the letter specifically references followers of Sikhism, who wear turbans and maintain unshorn hair and beards as a matter of religious obligation. Current military policy requires religiously observant service members to remove their head coverings, cut their hair, or shave their beards while accommodation requests are pending, even if they are capable of meeting safety requirements. 

 “No American who wishes to serve our nation should be barred from doing so because of their faith,” Senator Coons said. “In recent years, the military has taken steps to improve its accommodation of religiously observant individuals, but its restrictions regarding unshorn hair, beards, and turbans continue to prevent many Sikh Americans, in particular, from having the opportunity to serve. The Department of Defense can and should refine its regulations to accommodate religious obligations that do not interfere with the safe performance of duties. Our military has only to gain from the service of these dedicated and principled people of faith.”

Since the Reagan Administration, service members have been allowed to wear neat and conservative religious apparel as long as it does not interfere with the performance of military duties. In recent years the U.S. Army has granted waivers to three Sikhs to wear turbans and maintain unshorn hair and beards, as required by their faith. However, the most recent revisions would require religiously observant service members to remove their head coverings, cut their hair, or shave their beards while an accommodation request is pending and submit a new accommodation request each time they are assigned to a new base or duty station.

Full text of the letter is below:

Dear Secretary Hagel,

We respectfully request that the Department of Defense refine its January 22, 2014, revisions to Instruction 1300.17 (Accommodation of Religious Practices Within the Military Services) so that religiously observant individuals are not presumptively prohibited from serving in our military.

As you know, 10 USC § 774 was enacted during the Reagan Administration and permits service members to wear neat and conservative religious apparel, such as a yarmulke, as long as it does not interfere with the performance of their military duties.  In recent years, the U.S. Army has granted individualized waivers to three Sikhs to wear turbans and maintain unshorn hair and beards. Each of them successfully completed basic training and complied with safety requirements relating to helmets and protective masks.  Two of these soldiers deployed to Afghanistan and earned a Bronze Star Medal and Army Commendation Medal for their service; another was recently promoted to the rank of Corporal.  In recent years, the U.S. Army has also granted waivers to a Jewish Rabbi and two Muslim doctors to maintain beards.

Despite their achievements, Section 4(g) of the revised Instruction would require religiously observant service members to remove their head coverings, cut their hair, or shave their beards—in violation of their religious obligations—while an accommodation request is pending, even if they are capable of meeting safety requirements.  Section 4(j) of the revised Instruction would require each of these soldiers to submit to a new accommodation request each time they are assigned to a new base or duty station.  These seem inconsistent with the intent of section 774, which creates the presumptive entitlement to wear religious apparel that is neat and conservative and which does not interfere with military duties.

We believe that a service member’s religion should not be a barrier to serving in our nation’s armed services.  Accordingly, we hope that Instruction 1300.17 can be further amended so that talented Americans of faith are given a fair opportunity to serve in our nation’s military.

We appreciate your attention and look forward to working closely with you on this matter. Thank you for your time and consideration.

Senator Coons marks birthday of Guru Nanak Dev Ji

On Sunday, Senator Coons marked the birthday of the founder of the Sikh religion, Guru Nanak Dev Ji.

Guru Nanak Dev Ji was born in 1469 in what is now Lahore, Pakistan.  Guru Nanak preached equality among all people, and espoused the principles of hard work and community service.  His birthday is considered one of the holiest days in the Sikh faith.

"As Sikhs all across our country celebrate the life Guru Nanak Dev Ji, I join them in honoring his vision of a society built on equality, compassion, and justice," Senator Coons said.  "I send my best wishes to Sikhs in America and all around the world on this holy day."

According to the Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund, Sikhism is the fifth largest religion in the world, with more than 700,000 Sikhs living in the United States.   

Senator Coons talks about faith and poverty

At a gathering of global aid activists, scholars, and clergy this evening, Senator Coons spoke about his travels in Africa as a youth and how the depth of poverty he witnessed on that continent affected him as a person of faith. The event was hosted by International Relief and Development and the Yale Divinity School, of which Chris is an alumnus, having earned his degree in ethics there in 1992.

Timed to coincide with the beginning of Lent, the event featured Chris discussing how faith can be a powerful catalyst for action to ease the suffering of others.  He drew on his own religious background as an ordained Presbyterian elder as well as lessons from other faith traditions, including Islam and Judaism, to explore the meaning of our connections to one another as people sharing this world.  Faith, he told those in attendance, has the power to motivate us to act – as individuals, as communities, and as a nation – to help feed the hungry, heal the sick, and shelter the homeless. 

Chris recalled some of his early experiences in Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania as a student in college:

I’ll never forget walking through Nairobi’s Mathare Valley for the first time.  Its seemingly-endless slum fills the narrow space between the hills, a mess of corrugated metal, dirt roads, animals, and people.  It is difficult to imagine unless you have actually been there. 

While there is difficult poverty in every nation, including our own, the depth of poverty in the slums of the developing world is unmatched. 

Mathare today is home to nearly half a million Kenyans, and they live without running water, sewers, and access to basic health care, education, and adequate food.  Homes are constructed from garbage, and the stench of the slum is just unbearable to those who were not forced to grow up inside it.

…I saw something else in Mathare and in all the slums I visited that stood in striking contrast to their poverty.  I once attended a church service lasting over four hours, and the faith and hope and joy that overflowed from the worshippers was incredible. 

These people, so poor in wealth, were so abundant in their love for God and hope for the future.  Several of us who were there working on relief visited the home of a family who slaughtered their last goat in order to serve their guests an adequate meal.  We were as the three strangers arriving at Abraham’s tent. 

After returning to the United States, Chris worked with the South African Council of Churches against apartheid and later worked with the Coalition for the Homeless in five states. He noted how striking it was that, twenty-five years after that first experience in Nairobi, he has just recently been selected to chair the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on African Affairs. 

In his leadership of the Subcommittee, Chris looks forward to working with his colleagues, with the Administration, with our allies, and with aid groups – including faith-based organizations – to help Africans escape the painful cycles of poverty and work toward political freedom and economic developme