From the New York Times
October 7, 2001
Military Clerics Balance Arms and AllahBy LAURIE GOODSTEIN
[W] ASHINGTON, Oct. 5 ? The pipe organ in the small military chapel here at Walter Reed Army Medical Center is silent. Instead, the sound of worship is a human voice calling, deep and clear, "Allahu Akbar" ? "God is great."
The voice belongs to Capt. Abdul-Rasheed Muhammad, who eight years ago became the first Muslim chaplain in the United States military. He is now chaplain at the military hospital here, where an ethnically diverse group of Muslim soldiers in fatigues and civilian Army doctors in white jackets knelt on rugs for Friday's communal prayers.
They find themselves in what they say is an awkward position: Muslim members of the American armed forces preparing to fight a war against terrorists who claim to represent Islam.
But Chaplain Muhammad sees no conflict between being a loyal soldier and a loyal Muslim and regards his mission as helping American Muslims think through the laws and teachings of their religion. He delivered a sermon intended not only for the faithful in this small chapel but for Muslim leaders in the United States and abroad who he contends have not done enough to condemn the extremists in their midst. While they have denounced the terrorism on American soil, he said, many of them have condoned Palestinian suicide bombers in Israel, for example, or Saudi Arabia's persecution of worshipers of other faiths.
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Paul Hosefros/The New York Times
Sgt. Jamal Abdelwahed reads from a prayer book before a service at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.
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"It is time now for us to not only wake up, but speak up," he said in his small chapel. "The prophet said when we see evil action we are compelled to change it with our hand, challenge it with our tongue or at least hate it in our heart. If we cannot do that, we are not good Muslims."
The military says it has about 4,000 Muslims in its ranks, most of them blacks but including Arab- and Asian-Americans as well as white converts. But some Muslim veterans say there are at least twice that many because many Muslim recruits do not elect to put their religion on their enlistment papers out of concern that they will be ostracized.
In fact, they join a military that has become increasingly accommodating to Muslim recruits ? providing prayer rooms on many bases, time off for Friday prayers and combat rations that comply with Islamic dietary restrictions.
Until 1993, the military had no Muslims among the 3,150 active duty chaplains ? only Christians and Jews. Chaplain Muhammad, who is black and was raised a Baptist, became an Army chaplain in a ceremony that year at the Pentagon. It was three more years before the second Muslim chaplain was commissioned, by the Navy, and by 1999, there were still only four.
Now there are 14 Muslim chaplains ? 8 in the Army, 3 in the Air Force, and 3 in the Navy, 2 of whom serve in the Marine Corps. The chaplains serve on bases in the United States and in Okinawa, Korea and Germany. At least three have been deployed in recent weeks.
Colleagues said that two were sent to the Middle East, though military spokesmen said they could not divulge their destinations. They are an ethnically diverse group, chosen to reflect the polyglot picture of Muslims in America, said Qaseem A. Uqdah, a Marine Corps veteran who is executive director of the American Muslim Armed Forces and Veterans Affairs Council, the group designated by the military to select Muslims as chaplain candidates. They include Muslims born into the faith in families originally from Asia, Africa and the Middle East, and Muslim converts who include several blacks, an Anglo- American and a Chinese-American.
Military officials said they would like to have more Muslim chaplains, but there is a shortage of candidates with the required education. Three Muslim chaplains are being trained at Hartford Seminary in Connecticut, which houses an Islamic study center.
Those in training at Hartford include a woman who holds the rank of major in the Army. Because traditional Islam forbids women imams, or prayer leaders, she will not be allowed to lead prayers like the male chaplains but will focus on other responsibilities like counseling enlisted members, Mr. Uqdah said.
Nevertheless, a Muslim chaplain who is a woman could be controversial among Muslims in and out of the ranks, he said, and this particular candidate was chosen, in part, because her high rank might help neutralize any objections. Once commissioned, she would be the highest- ranking Muslim chaplain in the military.
The newest Muslim chaplain is James J. Yee, a Chinese-American and a West Point graduate who was born into a Lutheran family, took an interest in Islam in college and deepened his convictions while stationed at Fort Knox, Ky., where he was studying vehicle maintenance during the month of Ramadan alongside four visiting Egyptian army officers. In a telephone interview, Chaplain Yee said he left the military to attend a traditional Islamic school in Damascus, Syria, where he spent four years studying Arabic and religion. He is serving with the 29th Signal Battalion at Fort Lewis, Wash.
Chaplain Yee said that since the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, some of the 80 Muslims on his base have come to him with concerns about being deployed to fight Muslims overseas.
He said he tells them, "An act of terrorism, the taking of innocent civilian lives is prohibited by Islam, and whoever has done this needs to be brought to justice, whether he is Muslim or not."
After the prayer service at the Army hospital here, Sgt. Jamal Abdelwahed said he was grateful that the American government had not responded to the terrorist attacks with immediate, brute force.
"It would put me in an awkward situation if the response was blindly punishing a Muslim country," said Sergeant Wahed, a Palestinian- American raised in Kuwait who joined the military for the educational opportunities.
Lt. Col. Anwar K. Malik, an Army doctor who emigrated from Pakistan 22 years ago, said he had no hesitation about the American military mission. "I have very strong feelings," he said. "We should do everything we can to recompense for the attacks."
Later, over a lunch of halal pizza, Chaplain Muhammad said he knew that his message critical of some American Muslim leaders would be controversial among those gathered for prayers. Many American Muslim leaders were quick to condemn the terrorist attacks on the United States, he noted, but at the same time have condoned suicide bombers in Israel.
"I have a great deal of empathy for the Palestinian people and the loss of their homes, but out of desperation, the methods they have chosen have been un-Islamic," Chaplain Muhammad said. "For example, suicide is haram ? forbidden ? and we are not speaking against it."
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