Excerpt:
A Muslim cop is fighting the NYPD's "discriminatory" decision to suspend him for refusing to shave his beard.
Masood Syed, a 10-year NYPD veteran and lawyer who works as a law clerk for the department, was told by his bosses Monday that he had to shave his beard, which he wears between one-half and 1 inch 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.