{"id":53644,"date":"2025-10-24T00:08:53","date_gmt":"2025-10-23T18:38:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/punjabenews.com\/English\/?p=53644"},"modified":"2025-10-24T00:08:53","modified_gmt":"2025-10-23T18:38:53","slug":"us-lawmaker-urges-pentagon-to-review-beard-policy-affecting-sikh-soldiers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/punjabenews.com\/English\/latest\/us-lawmaker-urges-pentagon-to-review-beard-policy-affecting-sikh-soldiers\/","title":{"rendered":"US lawmaker urges Pentagon to review beard policy affecting Sikh soldiers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Washington: Highlighting concerns over religious freedom, a prominent US lawmaker has urged the Pentagon to review its policy that restricts service members from keeping beards. He argued that maintaining uncut hair and beard is a fundamental tenet of Sikhism.<\/p>\n<p>In a letter addressed to Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, Congressman Thomas R. Suozzi said that Sikhs have served alongside American troops for generations, including during World Wars I and II.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFor Sikhs, it is a sacred duty to serve their country, which represents the ideal of a saint-soldier \u2014 combining faith with service,\u201d said Suozzi, who represents New York\u2019s third congressional district.<\/p>\n<p>He added that Sikhism requires its followers to keep their hair and beard uncut as a symbol of devotion and equality before God.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Washington: Highlighting concerns over religious freedom, a prominent US lawmaker has urged the Pentagon to review its policy that restricts service members from keeping beards. He argued that maintaining uncut hair and beard is a fundamental tenet of Sikhism. In a letter addressed to Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, Congressman Thomas R. Suozzi said that [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":53645,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[60,19],"tags":[10554],"class_list":["post-53644","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international","category-latest","tag-washington-highlighting-concerns-over-religious-freedom"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>US lawmaker urges Pentagon to review beard policy affecting Sikh soldiers - PunjabENews<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/punjabenews.com\/English\/latest\/us-lawmaker-urges-pentagon-to-review-beard-policy-affecting-sikh-soldiers\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"US lawmaker urges Pentagon to review beard policy affecting Sikh soldiers - PunjabENews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Washington: Highlighting concerns over religious freedom, a prominent US lawmaker has urged the Pentagon to review its policy that restricts service members from keeping beards. 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