by Zachary R. Dowdy; June 25, 99

Source: LI Newsday

Since he converted to Islam, New York Park Police Officer Christopher Letz has longed to grow a beard and be like many Muslim men who believe it is Allah's will that they spare their facial hairs.

But When he reported to work on Tuesday with stubble on his chin, his supervisor took his badge and gun and placed him on unpaid suspension indefinitely for violation of force regulations, which prohibit beards except for medical reasons.

Letz, who said his allegiance is to Allah and not the state, is seeking to get his job back without compromising his religous convictions.

"I knew that they probably wouldn't like it...," said Letz, of Valley Stream. "But they're police officers charged with protecting the rights of everybody, and they are supposed to respect people's constitutional rights."

The six year veteran said he was emboldened to grow his beard, now a tad more hairy than a goatee, when the U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in March that Newark Police Department in New Jersey violated the first amendment rights of two Muslim officers it fired because they wore beards.

That case is similar to Letz' since the police department did allow beards for medical reasons but not for religous ones.

"To me it doesn't seem right that they should worry so much about a little hair on my chin," Letz said. Letz has not decided whtere he would sue for his job.

Park Police would not comment on specifics of the case but a spokeman, Randall Sawyer, said each officer is given a copy of the police manual spelling out dos and don'ts upon hairing.

"The clean-shaven look is commonly understood as the look of a police officer," Sawyer said, adding that the ban on facial hair promotes "uniformity," among the state's 210 officers.

But civil libertarians and Muslim authorities say the policy is too severe an infringement on an individual's rights to religious expression.

"His First Amendment righst should take precedence over ideas of style," said Barbara Bernstein, executive director of the Nassau chapter of the New York Civil Liverties Union.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Washington-based advocacy group, found Letz' suspension "puzzling," citing the New Jersey case. The court opinion said, "We conclude the Department's policy violates the First Amendment."

However, judges in New York are no bound by that decision since it happend in another circuit.

Imam Al-Amin Abdul-Latif, head of the Islamic Leadership Council of New York, said the suspension was unfortunate. "The Prophet (Muhammad) emphasized this as an obligation or duty upon men to wear their beards," he said.