Muslim GI gets 14 months for avoiding duties in Iraq

Stars & Stripes ^ | 6.5.04

[ambrose]

Muslim GI gets 14 months for avoiding duties in Iraq

By Rick Emert, Stars and Stripes European edition, Saturday, June 5, 2004

BAMBERG, Germany - A 1st Infantry Division Engineer Brigade soldier who refused to deploy to Iraq citing religious beliefs was sentenced Thursday to 14 months' confinement and given a bad-conduct discharge.

During his court-martial, Sgt. 1st Class Abdullah Webster, 38, pleaded guilty to two counts of disobeying a lawful order from a superior commissioned officer and one count of missing movement.

When his unit was deploying on Feb. 8, Webster - the battalion security noncommissioned officer - told his leaders he would not deploy based on guidance he received from Muslim clerics.

Prosecutors Maj. Vince Vanek and Capt. Catherine Cunningham asked government witnesses about the effect Webster's refusal to deploy had on the unit.

Maj. David Kennedy, executive officer of the 82nd Engineer Battalion when Webster was assigned to the unit, said the refusal had only a modest effect on the unit because it distracted soldiers from their missions.

But Command Sgt. Maj. John S. Gioia, the 82nd Engineer Battalion's top NCO, said the unit in Iraq is now short-handed.

"We are a battalion covering a brigade combat team-sized sector," Gioia said as he testified via telephone from Iraq. "It has had a significant impact on the unit."

Gioia also said some soldiers had reservations of deploying with Webster, who converted to Islam in 1994 after returning from Operation Desert Storm.

Gioia brought up an incident in which Sgt. Asan Akbar, a Muslim soldier assigned to the 101st Airborne Division, allegedly threw a grenade into a tent killing one U.S. soldier and wounding a dozen more in March 2003.

"Some of the soldiers, when Webster didn't go, were saying: 'This is great, now we can do our job without having to watch our backs,'" Gioia testified.

Also testifying via telephone from Iraq, engineer brigade commander Col. William Haight III said Webster was "truly struggling" with his responsibilities to the Army and to his religion.

"His reputation is solid," Haight said. "The problems were when we had missions in Muslim countries; that's when he started drawing the line."

However, several witnesses testified that Webster deployed to Kosovo, a largely Muslim country, and that he carried a weapon. But the battalion commander during the Kosovo deployment, Lt. Col. Thomas Quigley, said Webster never had to go on a security patrol there.

Quigley also agreed with defense attorney Capt. Christopher Ryan that the situations in Kosovo and Iraq were far different, with the former being a peace enforcement mission and the latter being an all-out war.

Air Force Chaplain (Capt.) Hamza Al-Mubarak, an imam based at Ramstein Air Base, testified for the defense that Webster had done the right thing.

Al-Mubarak said Webster consulted several Muslim scholars, and that he chose not to deploy because the clerics said it would be better for him to die than to bear arms against fellow Muslims.

"I would not say he's an extremist," Al-Mubarak testified during cross-examination. "He was adhering to the sincere advice of the scholars. It is not permissible for him to take up arms and kill another Muslim.

"It would be better for him that he was killed than to pick up arms against anyone."

Webster had prepared a conscientious objector packet, but it was disapproved at the unit level. It has advanced to the 1st Infantry Division level, and if disapproved there, it will go to the Army level.

But Webster does not qualify as a conscientious objector, because he was not opposed to all wars, only wars in Muslim nations, Quigley said.

In closing remarks, Cunningham asked Hall to ignore the fact that Webster was a senior NCO with 18 years of service. Webster faced a maximum prison term of five years.

"Duty called; he didn't answer," she said. "There is a message to be sent. You cannot look at rank in this case."

[LibKill]

Air Force Chaplain (Capt.) Hamza Al-Mubarak, an imam based at Ramstein Air Base, testified for the defense that Webster had done the right thing.

Back in the bad old days of the 1980's we called that "mutiny and incitement to mutiny".

If this is the quality of inam chaplains then we must get rid of them.

[Pearls Before Swine]

True BELIEVING MUSLIMS should NOT be allowed to enter the armed forces..

..Then it follows they shouldn't be allowed to receive benefits from this country or become citizens. Why should the rest of us protect them?

[mark502inf]

the battalion security noncommissioned officer

This is normally an intelligence specialty NCO in the S-2 staff section; meaning someone with a security clearance and fairly routine access to classified informatin. Not good.

[Righty1]

Yes as is third world immigration to the first world. Did you catch Hussein Ibish on Fox? He looks more like Baron Harkonen every damned day! I would sure like to extract his heart plug.

[Destro]

The Musli had no problem being posted in Kosovo I see. Maybe he helped his fellow Muslim terrorists "escape" Camp Bondsteel withouta trace with such security clearance.

[Siamese Princess]

I'm becoming suspicious of every Muslim I encounter.

I am suspicious of every Muslim I encounter and have been for many years, long before 9-11.

[Siamese Princess]

What the military needs to learn is that for 99% of Muslims, their "religion" comes first. Their commitment to their country is not an issue for them, as it does not exist for this country. So they should not be in the military, period.

The majority of American Muslims are not affiliated with a mosque and many, especially Iranians, fled Islamic tyranny. What I am concerned about is that Muslims do possess a strong sense of solidarity with one another and that in a showdown in the Middle East even irreligious Muslims will side with their fellow Muslims against the infidels. Iranians may be an exception -- they fled Islamic tyranny plus they dislike Arabs and Pakistanis anyway. On second thought, the children of Iranian refugees may disagee with their parents -- Cuban refugees are strongly anti-Communist and pro-Republican, their children, born here, less so.

[Siamese Princess]

Abdullah, if he had paid a little attention in school, could have learned that the Muslims were among the first to trade Slaves out of Africa, walking them out of Africa east. How African-Americans can convert to a Religion that condoned African Slavery and still advocates Slavery defies logic. American schools in their teaching of history insinuate that the United States was the only transporter of Slaves and responsible for all the slave trade, Abdullahs are the result of this education.

Modern public education teaches white, Christian children to be ashamed of their history. Westerners are demonized as the scum of the earth.

Americans are Americans and if you don't or won't defend this country get out. Muslims want what this country can give but do not want our culture. If you wont assimilate get out, this is not the melting pot of the early immigrants.

I wonder why a pious Muslim would choose to move from an Islamic nation to a non-Islamic one. From a religious standpoint, the one way he can justify it is by working for the Islamization of the host society. This is ironic -- he leaves a failed Islamic nation for a successful non-Islamic and seeks to replicate the old country in the new. Would an Islamic America be prosperous and free, or would it be an impoverished, corrupt, squalid pile of camel droppings like Pakistan? The relative affluence of a few predominately Muslim nations is based on: (1) oil or (2) the activities of non-Muslim minorities or foreign investment.

[Siamese Princess]

This has always been a rather obscure point. Personally, I think McVeigh probably had converted - since Muslims are allowed to lie to the rest of us idiots - but thought it would be better not to mention this, although it seems that he frequently referred to Gulf War I. (He was a nut on a number of other levels as well, of course.)

I read that McVeigh was either an agnostic or atheist. Before he was executed, though, he accepted the last rites of the Catholic Church.

[bad company]

this is tatamount to desertion and he should be shot.

[WaterDragon]

"Some of the soldiers, when Webster didn't go, were saying: 'This is great, now we can do our job without having to watch our backs,'" Gioia testified.

I doubt their concerns were solely due to his religion. He must have given them other reasons.

It certainly does not sound as though his first allegiance is to America. If so, then he should be drummed out of the military that is our sole line of defense.