[Police Officer Kenneth] Wallace, a 31-year-old Muslim, has asked for an arbitration hearing to challenge the department’s 1/4-inch limit on the length of beards. Muslim city workers sued Philadelphia, the fifth-largest U.S. city, beginning in February to challenge grooming and dress codes they claim violate their rights to religious expression.
“The Philadelphia community has a very large and visible Islamic core,” said Craig Thorpe, a lawyer for one of the plaintiffs. “It’s kind of an anomaly that the police department and the fire department seem to be out of step.”

What’s even more crazy is that, you know, when you get right down to it, most of these dudes aren’t even Muslims. They’re just really, really into Freeway.
Bloomberg: It’s A Beard, Beard, Beard World

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 19th, 2005 at 10:46 am.