|
Posted on 09/20/2003 8:34:39 AM PDT by Destro
Muslims in the U.S. military are as loyal as any, chaplain says
Saturday, October 20, 2001
By MIKE BARBER
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER
FORT LEWIS -- Each Friday, soldiers in battle-dress camouflage here remove their boots, face Mecca and prostrate themselves, heads bowed to the carpet in obedience to Allah.
In the military base's Islamic Chapel Center, they recite their Jumah prayers, following the lead of Capt. James Yee, a West Point graduate and a convert to Islam who is chaplain of Fort Lewis' largest battalion. (and now charged with espionage, aiding the enemy and spying)
More than a month after terrorist attacks sent the United States into war against Middle Eastern terrorists who twist Islam to validate their perversions, Yee and military chaplains in general are playing increasingly important roles.
And in the first U.S. war with religious overtones, especially after calls by terrorists for "holy war" against the United States, Yee has become one of the most sought-after figures at the base, called upon to edify others about Islam and to elaborate on the relationship between soldiering and spirituality.
"Most people want to know how Sept. 11 fits into Islam," said Yee, 33, a former Lutheran who specialized in air artillery defense and was a Patriot missile fire control officer before becoming a chaplain.
"What happened is un-Islamic and categorically denied by a great majority of Muslim scholars around the world," he said of the terrorists who commandeered passenger jets and slammed them into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a field in Pennsylvania, killing people from all faiths. (The Koran says a Muslim cam lie to infidels to further the goals of jihad)
Yee is chaplain of the 700-member 29th Signal Battalion, which counts nearly a dozen Muslim soldiers in its ranks. (Such a high percentage, no?) He estimates that there are 100 to 150 Muslim soldiers at Fort Lewis and McChord Air Force Base.
The number of Muslims in the U.S. military is hard to estimate. Estimates vary from 4,000 to more than 12,000. Armywide, Yee knows of at least seven other posts with Muslim chaplains.
Qaseem Uqdah, a former Marine Corps gunnery sergeant who heads the American Muslim Armed Forces and Veterans Affairs Council in Washington, D.C., counts upwards of 15,000 soldiers, sailors, airmen, marines and Coast Guard members.
The average age of U.S. Muslim troops is 21, Uqdah said. Most are married, with one child.
Like servicemen and women of other faiths, American troops who study Islam's Quran are as loyal as anyone, said Uqdah, whose organization helps recruit and endorse Muslim chaplains for the armed forces.
"These troops are focusing on getting ready and are ready to execute the commander in chief's orders," Uqdah said. "Muslim men and women are no different from anyone else in the military."
Uqdah believes the presence of Muslim chaplains in the military is sending "a profound message to the world."
As a chaplain, Yee is available as a ready counselor and sympathetic ear to soldiers of all faiths, as well as a spiritual leader for Muslim soldiers, just at Protestant, Catholic and Jewish chaplains lead services in their respective faiths.
"I serve all the soldiers here. The role of a chaplain is to help facilitate the free exercise of religion. That's our main job," Yee said. "Chaplains aren't in the soldier's chain of command, but provide another channel ... to share feelings or complain without ramifications."
The first Muslim chaplain in the U.S. military, Army Chaplain Abdul-Rasheed Muhammad, on Oct. 11 participated in memorial services at the Pentagon, reading from the Quran. Muslims in other countries who see American Muslim chaplains praying at the Pentagon, "will see that Muslims are not being oppressed in America," he said.
These days, Yee and other Muslim chaplains find themselves not only edifying non-Muslims about Islam, but advising troops who follow the Quran and who wonder what Islamic law says about fighting other Muslims.
Such concerns generally are no different than those any soldier brings up when faced with combat, Yee said.
"Taking up arms and killing is an issue all soldiers have to deal with," said Yee, adding that some Muslims will feel a conflict between their faith and going to war no matter who is the enemy.
"I encourage them to go," Yee said.
Said Uqdah: "They (Muslim service men and women) already made a decision when they joined the service. The Quran tells you to honor your contracts. They were not coerced, they were freely entered into, they were not drafted."
Several months ago Abdul-Rasheed Muhammad, asked Islamic scholars to issue a "fatwa," or religions opinion, on the question. The supportive opinion said Muslims have a duty to fight terrorism.
Yee recently wrote a piece for Fort Lewis' newspaper, the Northwest Guardian, titled "Islam, what is there to fear?"
"I wanted to address some of the reasons why people in the United States are having a difficult time distinguishing between the religion of Islam and the actions almost everyone witnessed on Sept. 11 by some Muslims," Yee said.
"When Mohammed Ali, the boxing champ, visited the attack site at the World Trade Center, a reporter asked him, 'How do you feel about the suspected hijackers sharing your faith?'" Yee noted. Ali answered, "How do you feel about Hitler sharing yours?"
The point, said Yee, is that while a person can be of a certain faith, his or her actions don't always fall within the teachings of that faith.
Uqdah and Yee said that Muslim soldiers know how to balance religious obligations that involve five mandatory prayers a day with military duties.
"When it comes time to pray, what is required is that he or she be in a certain state of spiritual purification and needs a clean place to pray. They can do that almost anywhere," Yee said.
Interest in hiring Muslim chaplains escalated shortly after the Persian Gulf War in 1991. With Islam the fastest-growing religion in America, the services are moving to accommodate more followers. Uqdah said African Americans make up the largest ethnic group among Muslims, followed by Indo-Pakistanis, Arabs and Caucasians.
The military opened its first permanent Islamic prayer center, the Masjid al Da'wah, at the Norfolk, Va., Naval Air Station in 1997. As many as two dozen sailors attend weekly. Fort Lewis' Islamic center, formerly used for Protestant and Catholic services, became a Muslim center in 1998.
Nationwide, Uqdah, who is in touch with Muslim service members, said reports of anti-Muslim bias are rare among the services.
"President Bush set the tempo, and each commander sets zero tolerance," Uqdah said. "Religious bias, just like racial and sex discrimination, is not tolerated in the military."
P-I reporter Mike Barber can be reached at 206-448-8018 or mikebarber@seattlepi.com
9-11 opened up my eyes to the truth of Islam.
|
The worst of it is that he (Barber) was used to spread palatable poison to a wider audience.
All wars have religious overtones. But, how soon we forget. The war w/ Japan, whose emperor was god in the Shinto scheme of things, caused America to do a lot of scrambling to see to it that adherents of Shinto here in America could be in no position to do us harm from within. So people were interned, many of them quite loyal. But it only takes one; and in war, you must do everything to win -- including rounding up potential saboteurs, because it IS war. How soon we forget.
Smertz Spionam!
Death to Spies!
So, let me get this straight. We have a dozen Muslims in a SIGNAL BATTALION, with access to secret US crypto gear?
What kind of a MORON is the reporter to use this in the story at all? Hitler was not a practicing, professing Christian, and he did not do what he did in the name of God or Jesus Christ. What part of "Allah Akbar!" doesn't Yee and the reporter understand?
Our leaders believe there exists a "pacifist" version of Islam. I think that's naive and belied by any reasonably literate interpretation of the actual words on the pages of the Koran. I've watched and read as islamic scholars are asked if democracy is a viable governmental system according to the Koran. To a man they've denied democracy and insisted that a caliphate is the only credible government according to islamic law. Think abou that for even a fraction of a moment, and you'll see the issue.
The religion itself calls on islamics within our military to deny the validity our governmental structure.
This is a black eye for the chaplaincy. It documents for me the incredible mistake of our chaplaincy providing organizing opportunities for islam within our own military through the religious programs, structures, and budgets. We must remember that fundamental islam believes there should be no distinction between religious and governmental structures.
Xzins
Chaplain (Retired) US Army
|
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.