MILITARY MUSLIM
SERVICEMENAND WOMEN

When British news reporter Yvonne Ridley converted to Islam after her capture by Taliban soldiers in Afghanistan (2001) psychologists argued that she did so because she had suffered from "Stockholm Syndrome. This debilitating syndrome affects the minds of people who are captured and held hostage whereby they take on the cause of their captors." Wilkipedia even put her side by side with Symbonese Liberation activist Patty Hurst as a prime example of the illness.

However, there is a counter point to all this. They are the many men and women in uniform who take on the religion of those whose country they occupy. One day very soon I feel that these same psychoanalysts will eventually explain away this as a mental disease as well. Then our stories will begin to lose their appeal in the eyes of the public and we will be looked upon as maniacs. But until that time we must recognize an eerie sort of miracle; that the more Muslims are killed, the more Allah seems to replace them.

Conversions like these are nothing new, beautiful. People like Khalid ibn Waleed or the Children of Gengis Khan who ransacked the Muslims only later to join their faith and embrace their former enemies.

In the 1989 George Gallup Book: "100 Questions" asked "Which nationwide organizations do you (the American) people trust most?" The Answers were astounding. Number 1 were Religious organizations, and number 2 the Military. Political leaders ranked near the bottom of the top ten. When you consider the definition of the word "service", you can see a correlation between military and religion. Ideally, when one goes to a worship service she or he is in a state of servitude to the beloved.

Many of us were typical gung-ho soldiers who enjoyed the military life but could not live within the confines of the war against Islam along with constant McCarthy era FBI investigations. Some of us just did our time and got out well before all this mess happened.

We left the service of men and entered into the servitude Jesus spoke of when he said, "You cannot serve both God and Mammon. No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon." [Luke 16:13]de (•ibada) of Allah (God Almighty)

Sheikh Abdul Qadi of Dhahran, Saudi Arabia reported 13,000 Shihadahs (New Muslims) on file in his area alone. He speculates that most embraced Islam when there was still a large Western military presence in Eastern Arabia and Kuwait between the years 1990-98 C.E.

In the year 2000 CE the Department of the Army reported 12000 Muslims on active duty and many countless others in the reserve. They are at varying degrees of iman(faith) and most are poor to lower middle class as soldiers usually are everywhere. I don't have every one's story but I went with the few I knew personally. I decided to make this page as a sign to the Muslims here in America to be patient and hopeful that even people who are fighting our family now might one day join us in this world and be united with us in Paradise.

May Allah forgive the wrong we have done and help us to repair the damage to a point better than it was before. Ameen

THEIR STORIES

Imam Zaid Shakir is amongst the most respected and
influential Muslim scholars in the West. Born in Berkeley,
California, the second of seven children he accepted Islam
in 1977 while serving in the United States Air Force
(in Turkey). He then obtained a BA with honors in
International Relations at American University in
Washington D.C. and later earned his MA in Political
Science at Rutgers University, where he emerged as an
active leader in campus activities, helping to revive the
Muslim Student Association, co-leading a successful South
African divestment campaign, and co-founding a local
Islamic center, Masjid al-Huda. After a year in Cairo,
Egypt, studying Arabic, he settled in New Haven,
Connecticut and continued his tireless community activism,
co-founding Masjid al-Islam, the Tri-State Muslim Education Initiative, and the Connecticut Muslim Coordinating Committee. As Imam of Masjid al-Islam from 1988 to 1994 he speared-headed a community renewal and grassroots anti-drug effort in the local neighborhood, and taught as an Adjunct Professor of Political Science and Arabic at Southern Connecticut State University until his departure for Syria to further his studies in the traditional Islamic Sciences. For seven years in Syria and briefly in Morocco he immersed himself in an intense study of Arabic, Islamic law, Quranic studies, and Islamic spirituality with some of the top Muslim scholars of our age. In 2001, he graduated from Syria's prestigious Abu Noor University and returned to Connecticut to continue his work with the Muslim community in America. Teaching regularly as the Imam of Masjid al-Islam, writing numerous articles for various magazines, journals, and newspapers, and lecturing frequently at many of Americas largest Muslim conferences and conventions, he soon emerged as one of the most popular and sought after American Muslim leaders. Amongst several works that he has translated from Arabic into English, his translation of "The Heirs of the Prophets" was published by Starlatch Press in 2001. In 2003, he moved to Hayward, California with his family to serve as a scholar-in-residence and lecturer at Zaytuna Institute where he now teaches regular courses on Arabic, Islamic Law, History, and Islamic Spirituality. He has since lectured at many of the Bay Area's top universities,including Stanford and U.C.Berkeley, and is a frequent speaker at local Muslim events. He is widely regarded as an articulate voice on Islamand African American issues and as a visionary leader in theemergence of an Islamic community and tradition and that is indigenous to America.

Yusuf (James) Yee needs no introduction.
As one of the first Muslim military Chaplains, Yee was wrongly seen as a threat to the U.S. military mission at Guantanamo Bay detention center, Cuba where he was assigned. He was jailed for 76 days and accused of everything from adultery and espionage, to downloading kiddy-porn on his government computer. Through the grace of Allah, he was later released, cleared of all charges and eventually resigned his commission as a
Captain in the U.S. Army.

Yusuf Yee's path to Islam started shortly after his graduation
from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. He was assigned as
a Patriot anti air missile systems officer and sent to Saudi Arabia during the '91 Gulf crisis. The tour there strengthened his new found faith and he eventually went to study Arabic and Islam overseas. Yee now speaks about Islam and his experiences.

For a video interview:

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/week906/profile.html

1st Lieutenant Tariq (Erich) Scherfen served in the U.S. Army as an infantryman during the Persian Gulf War. When hostilities ceased
Erich was embedded in the urban culture of Eastern Saudi Arabia.
He spent several weeks in Al Kobar Towers where he entered a
Mosque for the first time. He immediately fell in love with the idea
of one unseen god and eventually embraced Islam . He left the Army
and went to Kean University at night, where he received his Bachelor's in Fine Art. At the same time Scherfen worked days as a fixed-wing flight instructor and tour pilot in the busy airspace around New York City. Later, Tariq rejoined the Army and received his commission as a Lieutenant. He went on to peruse his love for flying in the U.S. Army's flight school where he gained qualifications on various helicopters including AH-64 Apache and AH-1 Cobra. Tariq is now out of the Army and is giving short interfaith lectures entitled "Bridging the Gap". The goals of this program is to show, in a non-confrontational way, how Islam differs very little from the "original teachings" of Great Prophets like Moses, and Jesus Christ (peace on Them all.) and that it is part of what he would call a greater "Truth" with a capital "T".

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/08/22/pilot.watch.list/index.html?iref=
mpstoryview

Matt Fernandes, a recent convert, had already served 2 tours of duty in Gulf War (Episode II) when he converted to Islam with the hand of his father Abdul Haleem (Jerry) Fernandez who also recently converted. Mike was in the thick of things as a Staff Sergeant in the elite 82nd Airborne, eventually falling in love with the country he fought in. He and his father are both veterans and have a great story to tell, and I don't want to ruin it.

To see his article visit:
Oaklander "Ex-soldier finds peace in Islam"

http://youth.ibn.net/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=1621&PN=2

Ayah Hiriri "Desert Storm" by Ayah Hariri [289-293]
Sergeant Ayah Hariri was one of the soldiers stationed in Saudi during the Gulf War. She was curious about the Qur'an and asked a shopkeeper there to tell her a story that was in the Qur'an. He told her the story of Joseph and she was surprised to find how similar it was to the Bible. So she asked him for an english Qur'an and later decided she wanted to convert and take Shahada (bearing witness to the declaration of faith in Islam). She slowly learned more about Islam and started to wear a head covering. When she came back to America she went about to see what her religious rights were now concerning diet and apparel. There was nothing saying she could not do so so her superior allowed it. People stared and made comments but as soon as they found out her rank people kept quiet. Hariri feels most people did not bother her as much because of her rank. She was able to get her rights and help to educate other people about Islam.

Yusuf (Joe) Schade served in the Air Force for several years
as a sheet metal repair man and machinist on most of the big jets.
He remembers being called to alert while in England when President Ronald Reagan ordered F-111 air strikes on Libya in the 1980's. Though not a Muslim at the time, Yusuf felt regret in attacking a nation that had not attacked America in any manner.

Joe Schade continued his trade after leaving the Air Force. He obtained employment as a contractor working for the Saudi Airforce's Northrop F-5 fighter program near the city of Tabuk. It was there that Yusuf learned about Islam and eventually took Shihadah. He is well known in the local community for his generosity and kind demeanor.

The Guard Who Found Islam
Terry Holdbrooks stood watch over prisoners at Gitmo. What he saw made him adopt their faith.
By Dan Ephron, Newsweek
<http://www.newsweek.com/related.aspx?subject=Guantanamo+Bay>

Army specialist Terry Holdbrooks had been a guard at Guantánamo  for about six months the night he had his life-altering conversation with detainee 590, a Moroccan also known as "the General." This was early 2004, about halfway through Holdbrooks's stint at Guantánamo with the 463rd Military Police Company. Until then, he'd spent most of his day shifts just doing his duty. He'd escort prisoners to interrogations or walk up and down the cellblock making sure they weren't passing notes. But the midnight shifts were slow. "The only thing you really had to do was mop the center floor," he says. So Holdbrooks began spending part of the night sitting cross-legged on the ground, talking to detainees through the metal mesh of their cell doors. He developed a strong relationship with the General, whose real name is AhmedErrachidi.

Their late-night conversations led Holdbrooksto be more skeptical about the prison, he says, and
made him think harder about his own life. Soon, Holdbrooks was ordering books on Arabic and
Islam. During an evening talk with Errachidi in early 2004, the conversation turned to the
shahada, the one-line statement of faith that marks the single requirement for converting to Islam
("There is no God but God and Muhammad is his prophet"). Holdbrooks pushed a pen and an
index card through the mesh, and asked Errachidi to write out the shahada in English and
transliterated Arabic. He then uttered the words aloud and, there on the floor
of Guantánamo's Camp Delta, became a Muslim.When historians look back on Guantánamo,
the harsh treatment of detainees and the trampling of due process will likely dominate the narrative.
Holdbrooks, who left the military in 2005, saw his share. In interviews over recent weeks, he
and another former guard told NEWSWEEK about degrading and sometimes sadistic acts
against prisoners committed by soldiers, medics and interrogators who wanted revenge for
the 9/11 attacks on America. But as the fog of secrecy slowly lifts from Guantánamo, other
scenes are starting to emerge as well, including surprising interactions between guards and detainees
on subjects like politics, religion and even music. The exchanges reveal curiosity on both
sides-sometimes even empathy. "The detainees used to have conversations with the guards
who showed some common respect toward them," says Errachidi, who spent five years in
Guantánamo and was released in 2007. "We talked about everything, normal things, and things
[we had] in common," he wrote to NEWSWEEK in an e-mail from his home in Morocco.

Holdbrooks's level of identification with the other side was exceptional. No other guard has
volunteered that he embraced Islam at the prison (though Errachidi says others expressed interest).
His experience runs counter to academic studies, which show that guards and inmates at ordinary
prisons tend to develop mutual hostility. But then, Holdbrooks is a contrarian by nature.
He can also be conspiratorial. When his company visited the site of the 9/11 attacks in New
York, Holdbrooks remembers thinking there had to be a broader explanation,
and that the Bush administration must have colluded somehow in the plot.
But his misgivings about Guantánamo-including doubts that the detainees were the
"worst of the worst"-were shared by other guards as early as 2002. A few such guards are
coming forward for the first time. Specialist Brandon Neely, who was at Guantánamo when the
first detainees arrived that year, says his enthusiasm for the mission soured quickly. "There were
a couple of us guards who asked ourselves why these guys are being treated so badly and
if they're actually terrorists at all," he told NEWSWEEK. Neely remembers having long
conversations with detainee Ruhal Ahmed, who loved Eminem and James Bond and would
often rap or sing to the other prisoners. Another former guard, Christopher Arendt, went on
a speaking tour with former detainees in Europe earlier this year to talk critically about the prison.
Holdbrooks says growing up hard in Phoenix-his parents were junkies and he himself was a
heavy drinker before joining the military in 2002-helps explain what he calls his
"anti-everything views." He has holes the size of quarters in both earlobes, stretched-out
piercings that he plugs with wooden discs. At his Phoenix apartment, bedecked with horror-film
memorabilia, he rolls up both sleeves to reveal wrist-to-shoulder tattoos. He describes the ink
work as a narrative of his mistakes and addictions. They include religious symbols and
Nazi SS bolts, track marks and, in large letters, the words BY DEMONS BE DRIVEN.
He says the line, from a heavy-metal song, reminds him to be a better person.