Posted on 11/12/2005 8:04:32 AM PST by timpad
Today there was a terrorist attack at a place most people have never heard of. Unless you’re a soldier stationed here, the name Tal Afar would probably be insignificant to you. But Tal Afar means a lot to me.
Today some terrorists decided to kill some Iraqi citizens — good Muslims — in order to discourage them from voting on Saturday on the new constitution. These terrorists called themselves Muslims and claimed that what they did was for Allah. But their connection to Islam is about as true and strong as Timothy McVeigh’s connection to Christianity. What they did is so contrary to the holy teachings of the Prophet Mohammed (pbuh) that to say their name in the same breath as Islam is considered sacrilege.
I was at the Combat Support Hospital — known as CASH — when the call came: Terrorists had hit, no American casualties, but 22 Iraqis wounded, five of whom were children under the age of twelve. I stood on the tarmac watching as the MEDEVAC choppers came in one at a time to deliver the wounded. Many of the wounded had no legs, or deep chest, head, and abdominal wounds. I noticed the children, two in particular who had severe head trauma. I followed them into the ER and then watched our physicians struggle in the OR to stabilize them. After the physicians did what they could, the children were taken to the ICU. I helped carry their stretchers into the ICU and stood by to see if I could help. I had a serious conversation with G-d and pleaded with him to take care of these kids — kids who should be playing soccer, or doing their homework for school the next day, or helping their parents get ready for supper. Both of these children had skulls so badly shattered that their heads needed to be bandaged to keep their brains in. I watched as the nurses and medics gave them pint after pint of blood and as their head bandages turned from white to red. I held the youngest one’s hands, reassuring him to the extent I could.
As they were giving the youngest his third pint of blood, I heard the nurse say that they were running low on O Positive, the universal donor, and that due to the tremendous internal bleeding, this child would need more. I asked what blood type he was, and it turned out both children were B Positive, my own blood type. I went to the head nurse and asked if I could donate blood for the youngest child and they quickly hooked me up and took a pint. After giving it, I went back to see him; he already my blood hooked up to him and surging in his veins.
I held his tiny hand and watched as the monitors told the story: His heart was in trouble owing to the brain trauma. I watched as he fought for his life, fighting to breathe. But I knew he was dying and there was nothing I could do. This innocent Muslim child, who had been observing Ramadan the way a child does, was now dying despite the fact that my blood was moving though his veins, despite the fact that I pleaded with G-d to do what I thought was right, to keep him alive. But G-d had other plans.
I didn’t want this boy to die hearing the strange sounds of a hospital and a foreign language. I wanted him to be comforted by the last sounds he heard, by words that were close to his heart, words that spoke of home and faith. I started to recite the Holy Koran to him.
My close friend, a fellow clergyman, Imam Burgos, the imam for the United States Military Academy, had helped me learn Surahs of the Holy Koran, and I chanted these out to the boy in Arabic. As I chanted, I heard the monitor go flat-line. I held his little hand, as my blood moved through his tiny pure heart that could no longer bear the evil of this world.
I held his hand and cried — cried for a boy whose name I didn’t know, for an innocent Muslim child who gave his life for his G-d, Allah, for his country. He was the true face of Muslim martyrdom. With tears streaming down my face, I looked down and noticed blood on my uniform. His blood, my blood, our blood had dripped from his open head wound onto my uniform.
An hour or so later I walked away into the waiting area as they prepared his body for transport. There I met Chaplain Mark Greschel, a Catholic priest. He looked at me and knew that I was in trouble. He sat with me, somehow knowing that the pain we felt was best not mixed with words. He quietly put his arms around me, and we both sat there in silence. I thought to myself, isn’t this the kind of world we are fighting for — a world where an Imam teaches a Rabbi words from the Holy Koran to comfort a young Muslim boy, and that rabbi himself is comforted by a Christian, a Catholic priest.
On this day before Yom Kippur, the Jewish Fast Day, the Day of Atonement, I ask myself: What is Ramadan all about? Is it about killing, or is it about seeking out G-d through fasting and prayer? For those of us who choose not to carry hatred and prejudice in our hearts, the answer is simple. For the holy Islamic community, Ramadan is a time of introspection, of hope, of belief that if we all work together, we can truly build a better world for all our children, even those whose names we don’t know. There is so much that we can learn about faith and G-d through other religions; there is so much that our Muslim brothers and sisters can teach us about our Creator, about personal sacrifice and selfless service. But if we consider their faith only with mistrust, hatred, and indifference, then this nine-year-old angel with his faith in G-d means nothing. Then we have diminished our own faith in G-d. If we objectify the Muslim people as well as those who don’t share our exact views on the nature of G-d, if we see them as less than our brothers and sisters, then we as a human race are lost.
There are many Americans who ask why we’re here. Why are we sacrificing so many American lives and placing so many in harm’s way? What is the purpose of it all? Well, I don’t really know the big picture. But from my small sector of the battlefield, the reason I am here is to give “the least of these,” my children over here, a shot at “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” — just like my other children living in America.
I didn’t give birth to him, but on this fast day in Ramadan, on this day before Yom Kippur, I lost a son, someone who had my blood coursing through his body. And for him, I choose not to hate, I choose to follow the path that the great Sheik Ibn Arabi followed when he said, “Love is my Faith and my religion and wherever its caravans take me, that is where I shall follow, for love is my religion and faith.” Let us join hands with our Muslim brothers and sisters and let this be the message of Ramadan that we carry in our hearts and take with us. G-d has a new Muslim angel in Paradise. I hope to tell you his name one day when I meet him again.
— Chaplain Carlos C. Huerta is Jewish Community chaplain in Mosul, Iraq.
Foggy monitor alert.
May God comfort those who mourn..I thank them for serving our country..This is a very powerful story.
May the children who survive these atrocities grow up in freedom.
No amount of Zarqawi's will ever take away the power of faith.
A Misty Eyed Bump...Thank You.
I've heard this ridiculous argument before, and I'm surprised that somebody is still using it.
McVeigh acted one time and he was one man, (though some journalists and others who've researched the case claim that ISLAM was behind the plot). None-the-less, McVeigh never attacked the Murrah building under the banner of Jesus Christ and His Church, and he did not consider himself a Christian martyr. Islamic terrorists murder in cold blood, in the name of 'allah' and 'martyrdom' every single day of the year, year after year after year).
No matter how many islamic terrorists are killed, and there have been tens of thousands of them sent to 'allah' since 9/11, they keep getting replaced by other muslims. This cannot be said of McVeigh. Islam is a religion of blood, and though there are surely those amongst them who like peace as much as anybody else, it is the religion itself that warps their minds, perverts their thinking and undermines their consciences.
They are willing to kill anyone, simly to terrorize. We are willing to befriend anyone, in the interest of a lasting peace. We do not hate the Iraqis. We wish them peace. The terrorist wishes for another government like Husseins, which can continue to torture in perpetuity.
This is a nice article. It does bother me when people say things like the following. "This innocent Muslim child, who had been observing Ramadan the way a child does, was now dying despite the fact that my blood was moving though his veins, despite the fact that I pleaded with G-d to do what I thought was right, to keep him alive. But G-d had other plans."
The Bible tells us that the wages of sin is death. If God were to nulify the wages of sin, how would the universe comprehend the full extent of it's impact?
Satan's forces cast this kid's immeidate fate. God didn't. In the end God will rectify this.
I'm sure the good chaplain realizes this.
"isn’t this the kind of world we are fighting for — a world where an Imam teaches a Rabbi words from the Holy Koran to comfort a young Muslim boy, and that rabbi himself is comforted by a Christian, a Catholic priest."
"Why are we sacrificing so many American lives and placing so many in harm’s way? What is the purpose of it all? Well, I don’t really know the big picture. But from my small sector of the battlefield, the reason I am here is to give “the least of these,” my children over here, a shot at “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” — just like my other children living in America."
Big Bump!
Thanks for the post.
The blood of these innocents is on the hands of the Jihadists in Iraq and the rat $inators in America like:
Kennedy, Kerry, Boxer, Fineswine, Schumer, Reid, Hagle, Rockefeller, Leahy and other rats who condemn GW and love the terrorists.
My understanding is that mcveigh stated in an interview he was more of an agnostic. He never claimed to be a christianas far as I read
Your point is well taken, and I am surprised the Chaplain seems to have no awareness that Islam has NOT been the eternal religion of the Iraqi people. As recently as 1947, tehre were 175,000 Jewish people in Baghdad for one example, and there were millions of Christians before the invading Islamic hordes in the 600's. The story gives too much credit to Islam for the nice people of Islamic countries, forgetting that they would have remained nice people had they been allowed by the jihadists to stay Christian or Hindu or Jewish. Islam is merely a terrorist political movementr to take over the world with a pretense that allah told them to do it.
CONTRARY TO THE TEACHINGS OF THE HOLY PROPHET MOHAMMED?????
The people who say this, and those who believe it, are in serious psychological trouble. Denial of this magnitude is a true illness.
As long as the Koran exists, with the INSTRUCTIONS to kill non Muslims in black and white, this is the biggest lie perpetrated on humanity in millenia.
The terrorists ARE following Islam as it is written.
It is a LIE to say otherwise and intentionally misleading( not to mention insulting) to try to convince others. Muslims who say this LIE, Americans who say this LIE and anyone who believes it is a fool.
The truth is in the Koran.
I'm generally one cold-stone hearted SOB.....
I still have a lump in my throat after this article...
Obviously the chaplain is a good and sincere man.
However, the child didn't die for Allah, he died for nothing at the hands of Satan's minions - the Muslims.
Islam was spread across the region through warfare and violence for the first 500 years of its history.
And all three religions are mutually exclusive - that is, all three say in their scriptures that they are the only way to God. Those who believe the nice little idea that all religions are different ways to the same god are in for a shock. Every man should examine religion and make a choice - it absolutely DOES matter what path you take.
For me and my family, Jesus is Lord. There is too much evidence in His favor to choose otherwise.
But not on the good Chaplain!
Bump for later
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