The US Army has reportedly changed a policy that will make it easier for Sikhs to obtain religious accommodation. An Army message entitled USAREC Message 15-032 Update, Religious Accommodation Exceptions to Policy, was released last month but does not appear to be publicly available. It reportedly allows applying US Soldiers to adhere to their faith tenets while their request for accommodation is being granted. The previous policy — and the policy that still exists in the other services — is that troops requesting accommodation were required to first adhere to general policies, only deviating from them after they were granted accommodation.

The change has been reported on a variety of Sikh organization websites, including the Sikh Coalition, which has long been working to encourage the US military to permit Sikhs to serve while adhering to the tenets of their faith. The Sikh Coalition summarized the policy this way:

The U.S. Army rules require the Sikh recruit to first enlist with the Future Soldier Training Program (FSTP) or Delayed Entry Program (DEP). After enlisting, a Sikh future soldier must submit a religious accommodation request to their immediate commander in order to serve with their articles of faith.

Importantly:

A Sikh will be allowed to enlist in the Future Soldier Training Program or the Delayed Entry Program for a minimum of 180 days [without abandoning the articles of their faith] to allow for the processing of religious accommodation requests consistent with the procedures outlined above.

It appears to be a small, but significant, change.

While a few Sikhs have been granted permission to serve, and a few Jewish personnel have been likewise permitted to serve with beards, an open policy that permitted Sikhs to serve while maintaining the tenets of their faith would be one of the most visual demonstrations of religious accommodation in the US military. There is no indication at this point of a dramatic policy shift forthcoming, though the 2014 religious accommodation changes and this recent move by the US Army may indicate continuous, if small, steps in the direction of religious liberty.

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