The Pentagon has approved a new policy that will allow troops to wear turbans and other religious clothing and engage in religious observances.
Until now there has been no set policy in the military to allow accommodations for religion.
Soldiers must apply for a waiver to be able to wear their religious garment or engage in a specific religious activity, which the military says they will take on a case-by-case basis.
The Pentagon has approved a new policy that will allow troops to seek waivers to wear religious clothing, seek prayer time or engage in religious practices.Defense officials say the waivers will be decided on a case-by-case basis and will depend on where the service member is stationed and whether the change would affect military readiness or the mission.
Until now there has been no consistent policy across the military to allow accommodations for religion. Now, for example, Jewish troops can seek a waiver to wear a yarmulke, or Sikhs can seek waivers to wear a turban and grow a beard.
Others can request specific prayer times or ask that they be allowed to carry prayer beads or other items.
The policy also says that service members can choose not to recognize any religion, according to NBC News.
According to Defense Department statistics obtained by NBC, there are only three Sikh Americans in the military. There are about 3,700 Muslims. 6,300 Buddhists, and 1,500 Wiccans.
The directive stresses that “the importance of uniformity and adhering to standards, of putting unit before self, is more significant and needs to be carefully evaluated when considering each request for accommodation,” according to NBC.
Christians are being baned from practicing their religion there is a defininte movement in this country to do away with Christianity. The IRS is now attacking the church, Military is banning the bible and the pracitice of the Chrisitan. Will not take much to start the killing of Christian in the US, along with the Jews. The Devil is in a hurry now because he has very limited time to kill, destory and deceive the people of this world.
Where’s all the atheists that scream about the separation of Church & State.
If these were Christians or Jews they would come down on it but I must assume they are afraid Muslims might attack them if they spoke out about their participation.
This is exactly the type of over reach they do!
I agree with Elise.
Every American soldier should stand down and go home ASAP this military is not ours or for our country
This might be alright if they stopped discriminating against Christians.
Who needs terrorist ragheads in our armed forces. You can smells what’s coming.
in my humble opinion… the term uniform means simply one form. observance i could kinda see but as far as dress, no, i don’t agree. any and every soldier should wear the standard uniform. there is a point to not standing out, several actually.
totally unacceptable
Good we know which ones to shoot first
Umm I think the turbans are for Indians, not Muslims.
I still don’t agree with it. Unless they are catching friendly fire. Hahaha