Sikh Activists Upset Over Inmate's Haircut

The United Sikhs New York-based U.S. division, which is spearheading the protest on Ahuja's behalf, staged a peaceful demonstration in Jacksonville Sunday with about 80 protestors, most of them Sikhs.

The Sikh community is protesting the forced haircut and shave of Jacksonville, Fla. inmate Jagmahon...

The Sikh community is protesting the forced haircut and shave of Jacksonville, Fla. inmate Jagmahon Ahuja, a Sikh who had not cut his hair since birth. The Sikhs view uncut hair as a religious article and say cutting of the hair is akin to religious persecution.

(Courtesy United Sikhs/Jacksonville Sheriff's Office)

Jaspreet Singh, the group's lawyer, said he has met with Ahuja, who he said is divorced with two young daughters, twice, and described him as being "very distressed," even more so after his second haircut and shave Sept. 28.

"He was very happy to hear the people were taking concern over this issue," Singh said today.

Singh noted that to Sikhs, the hair is like a limb. Uncut hair is one of Sikhism's five articles of faith, along with a small wooden comb, an iron bracelet, a short steel or iron blade and an article of clothing similar to boxer shorts.

"Their reasoning for cutting the hair in the jail is you can hide contraband ... or if you were to escape, you could shave yourself and alter your appearance quickly," Singh said.

Related

Inmates' Threat: No Segregation, No Peace

Does White Privilege Exist in America?

Could Age Discrimination Be Good Business?

The state of Florida -- whose policy is closely adhered to by the Jacksonville Sheriff's, Singh and Datta said -- states that the government shall not "substantially burden" a person's right to religious exercise and must find the least restrictive means of accomplishing the government's interest -- the safety and security of the jail in Ahuja's case.

Glenn Katon, an ACLU lawyer in Florida and director of the Religious Freedom Project, today said that cutting Ahuja's hair as a security issue is hard to justify when the Federal Bureau of Prisons and several state corrections departments have already adopted policies allowing inmates to keep certain grooming practices for religious reasons.

"I think we have a pretty good case," Katon said today, adding, however, that the ACLU has not yet committed to legal action.

There are several inmate grooming cases involving hair on the law books across the country, involving Hasidic Jews, American Indians and Rastafarians, but not Sikhs, Katon said. The outcomes of the cases were fairly mixed between rulings in favor of the inmates and the prison systems, he said.

Singh noted the 2006 case of Satnam Singh, a Florida state inmate who was moved to Vermont after the Sikh community protested the impending cutting of his hair while in prison. That, Jaspreet Singh said, was a reasonable accommodation.