Should this Muslim NYPD officer have been suspended for refusing to shave his beard in observance of Muslim faith?

A 32-year-old Muslim policeman is fighting the New York Police Department (NYPD)’s “discriminatory” decision to suspend him for not accepting to shave his beard.


Masood Syed, a 10-year NYPD veteran and lawyer works as a law clerk for the department. He was told by his bosses last Monday that he had to shave his beard, which he wears between one-half and 1inch in observance of his Sunni Muslim faith.

While the NYPD maintains a “no beard” policy, facial hair up to 1 millimeter (about four-hundredths of an inch) is the unofficial exception for religious purposes, Syed’s lawyers said in a civil complaint filed in Manhattan Federal Court on Wednesday.

Syed, of Whitestone, Queens, previously obtained permission to wear his beard at 1 millimeter and never had a serious problem with his facial hair exceeding that measure until fall 2015.


Since then, he has been working to get a religious accommodation letter allowing him to wear his beard at its present length, the lawsuit said. He also claimed many other officers wear beards exceeding 1 millimeter.

He was nevertheless suspended without pay for 30 days and risks being fired should he continue refusing to shave his beard, says the suit.

Syed was stripped of his badge and gun and then escorted out of Police Headquarters by two supervising officers, he said.

“It was extremely humiliating,” he said after the hearing. “I felt insulted", New York Daily News reports.

During an emergency hearing Wednesday, Manhattan Federal Judge Kevin Castel asked city Law Department lawyer Michael Fleming whether the department plans on reinstating Syed after the 30 days.

“It depends on whether or not he is compliant with the requirements,” Fleming said.

Judge Castel overturned the department’s decision to withhold Syed’s pay and barred the NYPD from taking further disciplinary action against him until July 8, when another judge will weigh whether he can return to work as the lawsuit proceeds.


Syed has faced scrutiny for issues other than his beard. The city in 2010 paid a $250,000 settlement to a panhandler whose cheekbone was broken during a January 2009 altercation with Syed.

The cop was also placed on modified duty and lost 20 vacation days in August 2014 for having his gun stolen out of a backpack in his car, a police source said.

Source: New York Daily News