The New York Times has a long and interesting article (thanks to Nux2 on the News Tab) on a subject that seems to have been largely neglected in the years since the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq began: how do Muslim Americans who have returned from the war deal with the fact that they are returning to a community that is at best unsupportive and at worst hostile to their service?
It has been 20 months since he returned from Iraq after a roadside explosion shattered his left foot. He never expected a hero’s welcome, and it never came –none of the balloons or hand-written signs that greeted another man from his unit who lived blocks away.
Mr. Althaibani, 23, was the last of five young marines to come home to an extended family of Yemeni immigrants in Brooklyn. Like the others, he grew accustomed to the uneasy stares and prying questions. He learned not to talk about his service in the company of Muslim neighbors and relatives.
“I try not to let people know I’m in the military,” said Mr. Althaibani, a lance corporal in the Marine Corps Reserve. [Link]
Two of the most common reasons why people join the military is 1) it is a way to get out of a small town or an urban area with few economic opportunities; and 2) to see the world. It must be hard to be viewed as a traitor, sometimes by both sides, even though you are just doing your job and don’t necessarily agree with the policy behind it. Of course, the same can be said for many soldiers who aren’t Muslim.
But for Muslim Americans like Mr. Althaibani, the experience has been especially fraught.
They were called upon to fight a Muslim enemy, alongside comrades who sometimes questioned their loyalty. They returned home to neighborhoods where the occupation is commonly dismissed as an imperialist crusade, and where Muslims who serve in Iraq are often disparaged as traitors.
Some 3,500 Muslims have been deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan with the United States armed forces, military figures show. Seven of them have been killed, and 212 have been awarded Combat Action Ribbons.
More than half these troops are African-American. But little else is known about Muslims in the military. There is no count of those who are immigrants or of Middle Eastern descent. There is no full measure of their honors or injuries, their struggle overseas and at home.[Link]
My cousin was a Devil Doc near the frontlines in the opening weeks of the war in Iraq. He mentioned to me how in the midst of battle, even treating the enemy wounded (which is of course a duty) would sometimes engender looks or comments of disapproval from some Marines. Having brown skin probably made it worse. This article is specifically about Arab American Muslims but we know that there are South Asian American Muslims serving as well (see here).
Of course you would expect these soldiers to go a bit more out of their way in Iraq than the average soldier might (and thanks for that):
He recalled the evening he tried to calm a bleeding woman as her children lay dying several feet away. He crouched next to her, near a bridge in Nasiriya, talking softly in Arabic.
Ismile Althaibani, Abe’s younger brother, remembers insisting that a mentally disabled prisoner be allowed to ride in the passenger seat of a truck, without a sandbag over his head, when a group of men were transported from Abu Ghraib to another prison.
Their cousins Abdulbasset Montaser and Khalil Almontaser were stationed in Babylon. There, Mr. Montaser befriended Iraqi workers. “I tried to look out for them a little more, help them a little more than the average soldier,” he said.[Link]
In addition to the article there is a good multimedia presentation on the NY Times website (pictures and audio commentary) that you can click on.
Well it’s a tough life. i’m a peace activist but when I meet soldiers it’s hardly for me to take it out on them – actually i’d say it’s the other way around, i tend to feel sorry for people having to go off to fight – it’s not their fault, they’re just ordinary folk who generally have an unpleasant job, and even when the country as a whole supports war – what happens to veterans? Never mind the Muslim ones – this has been an ongoing problem from the vietnam days, and korean war before that – you get home, and you’ve been traumatized by what you’ve had to go through, no one else at home understands, your goverment doesn’t really look after you – it’s all pretty shit really .
who’d be a soldier at this rate.
I think if the government are a bunch of war hawks, the very least they could do is sort out the benefits for these guys.
Great article!
Question: can’t soldiers get a pass on missions that presents a legit conflict of interest? If so, did these guys go despite?
I feel the answer should change the story a tad.. but I can’t figure out how or, even, why.
Anyway, fascinating read! Anything that chips away at the Myth of the Muslim Monolith is much apppreciated by me!
I’ve got an even better and cheaper option for ya, Kristen: the US Military. You fly for free. You just have to enlist, of course. Registration is free. More the merrier.
Great post! I have met one Muslims marine who was posted in Iraq and my problem with him was his reliance on silly Bush platitudes like ‘freedom is on the march’. I think he was of Pakistani origin. Of course he did not speak for the other 3,500 Muslim soldiers. Omar G is another American Muslim marine who has served in the military/Iraq and also maintains a blog. Omar has a nice and thoughtful blog. The interesting thing about Omar is that he joined the marines after he saw the ‘impotence’ of the ‘Ummah’ in the Bosnia conflict.
abhi: love the title
Echoes back to the Japanese Americans who served in the US military in WW II Link.
Unfortunately incidents like Sergeant Hasan Akbar’s grenade attack on his officers during deployment in Kuwait or his comments in his diary stating “”My life will not be complete unless America is destroyed.” do nothing to help his fellow Muslim comrades in the US military. Link
I saw the documentary The War Tapes a few weeks ago. It’s an amazing film shot by five soldiers of the national guard who were deployed to Iraq for a year. One of the most articulate of these soldier is Zack Bazzi, a Lebanese born soldier who immigrated to the US with his mother. He speaks Arabic and often talks to the children he meets in Iraq. In the film he mentions the questioning stares he receives from his peers.
Amazing film. It shows soldiers in this war as people who can be intelligent, articulate and sensitive, people who are just doing their jobs because they like being soldiers and NOT because they like Bush or his ways.
When I was called up (out of the Individual Ready Reserves) for the 1991 Gulf War/Operation Desert Storm/Liberation of Kuwait/whatever you want to call it, there was a another soldier who claimed to be related to somebody in Lebanon or Iraq, (I forget which) and so basically claimed contientious objector status, since we didn’t know where exactly we were going to be off to. (We ended up in Germany).
They made him do most of the training that the rest of us did, although I seem to recall that he didn’t get issued a weapon. These days, CO status isn’t something you can really claim anymore. All those guys are either out already or given up on that.
But, from what I can see in the article, it isn’t really that the lance Corporal or any of the others that has the problem here.
His neighbors need to realize that they’re in America now. My ancestors shucked off allegiance to the old country, and they need to as well.
Sonia: Nice points on veterans. While in service the pay isn’t pretty and when out, many continue to suffer from visible/invisible wounds. Though we’re doing a better job today than Vietnam times, it still isn’t enough. If there is one group that has earned good (VA is underfunded/staffed) universal healthcare they are veterans of wars.
Abhi – Why does every topic in the general media (books, magazines, web, whatever), when it comes to troops, start by framing it with:
Not that these are inaccurate statements (not most common, but more common) but there always seems to be a caveat as to why people would want to join the military. It sets the tone that those in military ranks are there because society somewhat forced them there as a last ditch resort. It sets the tone that military service is something that normal people wouldn’t partake in unless they’re poor, looking for a way out, or have a need (like seeing the world) that only the military can satisfy.
I know some that joined because they were poor, but still saw military service as something good and positive. I know some who joined and served because their family had a strong tradition of service. Some told me they just didn’t know any better and wanted to experience life, but overall have good things to say about it. I recently had a discussion with a friend who has strong opinions on policy, foreign affairs, etc. yet had a totally skewed vision of the military – The usual stereotype of a kid straight out of high school from a poor community, not very intelligent, and once in the military a brainwashed robot. How can we even make rational foreign policy discussions when so many are grossly misinformed about the military or those who serve in it?
People don’t reflect on character development that young citizens go through while in uniform. They aren’t automatons, rather individuals who have incredible leadership responsibilities on them. In an age where many young men particularly have lived in single family homes with no male/father figure to mentor them, military service seems appealing, too. Such mentorship (and them becoming mentors) has helped plenty grow into good people.
It gets a bit tiresome when every discussion on troops starts with acknowledging that the profession of their choice was a result of poverty or other motives without even mentioning the diversity of reasons for serving in uniform. The media (not just news, but opinion commentary) never seems to emphasize those who joined because they wanted to serve, those despite their college degrees who decided to enlist, some who gave up their spots in the elite academies to enlist and so on. Patriotism is seen as a bad thing and confused with nationlistic jingoism. On the flipside, there are those that even refuse to admit that anything other than unwavering patriotism could be a reason.
I’m not necessarily directing this tangent at you, but more so at the overall unconscious undercurrent in the media that has framed military service as a last resort/dirty profession – a necessary evil or a bastard child.
When we stop treating military affairs as a necessary burden, those who have served and paid some price will probably get treated better, too. We’ve come a long way from Vietnam/post Vietnam days where signs in Norfolk Virginia would say,”Sailors and dogs keep off the lawns”. People in uniform aren’t demigods nor mindless blood thirsty robots. They’re just like all of us.
Rant over.
I can only go by my experience. Of all of the people that I have personally known in my life that served in the military, it was for one of the above two reasons or because they were ROTC in college (like my college roomate who did it to pay for medschool). The only exception to my experience is the kid that sat next to me in gym class for roughly five years. Pat Tillman.
I understand that. As a matter of fact, before working for the government, the sample of people I had met was probably similar to yours. Like I said, this wasn’t necessarily directed at you as much as seeing a recurring theme everywhere, despite data points showing significantly more diversity. You’re not a journalist or decision maker so I’m not expecting one to provide more research in their analysis. Personal experiences cannot be invalidated, but they aren’t the complete picture, either.
Pat Tillman is definitely an exception when compared to his peers at the level of achievement earned as a pro-athlete, in this day and age. He reminds me more of a Ted Williams or others pros of the WWII generation. Ranger Tillman and his brother are honorable role models, worthy of being respected for their decisions, not “You have everything, are you stupid?”, which some newspapers and people unfortunately voiced. I didn’t know him personally, so I can only speak from what I’ve read. Which goes back to what I was saying – the economic motives of joining may be a component for many, but it is exaggerated as THE sole reason. More often than not, it seems to be a complementary reason among a host of others that the media seems to fixate on.
After college did I only recognize that ROTC or Officers weren’t the only military, or even ‘above’ those enlisted. I bought into the whole “why would anyone want to enlist or not become an officer, isn’t it better?” Good officers are stewards and leaders of their troops, many of which will learn/listen to their NCOs for good lessons on future assignments. After meeting people, discussing and reading quite a bit, today I see NCOs and enlisted troops in a different light.
By the way, I work for Uncle Sam also and my boss and many of my co-workers are ex-military. They were mostly test-pilots though which I don’t count in the same pool as my three reasons above. All most all of these folks join the military for totally different reasons. I was considering mostly the Army and Marines.
Hey, not everyone can be a rocket scientist for NASA 🙂 but I work with the other end of the spectrum – Marines, Army, and some Navy. A good portion of the folks I work with are retired/former military (Officers and many enlisted). The nature of the job (ammunition) results in many with skills that relate to ammo being here. My immediate cube neighbor is a Marine reservist who deployed in 2003 to Iraq with her spouse. Her husband is in Iraq right now as an active duty NCO and they seem very happy with the Corps. They have history of family military commitments. Another couple of folks are people who’ve left the Marines recently after tours in Iraq and some retired from service before I was even born. Since I work in a DOD organization, my exposure to veterans is probably higher. Hell, just living around Camp Pendleton, you’re bound to run into someone blindly.
As an exercise, lets say the sole motivation is economic. Even then, the tone popular media likes to take is one of pity and kinda ‘looking down’ on the choice, rather than see it as a postive (or neutral) that helps many improve their life conditions by either becoming a lifer or doing their job happily and moving on (GI Bill, education, whatever). There seems to be something deeper other than,”I don’t have not way out” for joining the military even if socio-economics are the primary reason. In college, I got bombarded with emails from Navy recruiters looking for engineers. Back then, I laughed them away arrogantly. Time and exposure to people has helped change perceptions.
Also, profiles for people in different jobs would naturally be a bit different from service to service and within each service, too (Infantry, special operations, Medics, support staff, engineering, intelligence, transport…). If anything, the Navy and Airforce enlisted, in my opinion probably have more of those joining for learning skills and/or economic benefits. Lots of technical support duty (running and maintaining ships/aircraft) that would attract those not looking to sleep in dirt, yet contribute, learn, and earn similar post military benefits. I can’t say definitively though.
Fact – An overwhelming majority of the Muslims killed in strife are killed by their co-religionists.
The journo seems to be implying that these gents would have had a merry old time, If they had been fighting Indians [Hindus] or christians. I wonder if the times ran a similar piece, highlighting the eastern orhodox christian soldiers during the Serbian war?
Kritic above seems to have a point.
My overwhelming feeling after reading the report was that it’s ok for Muslims to kill non-Muslims but not ok for them to kill each other (historical evidence notwithstanding). Am I the only one who feels uncomfortable with talk like that?
When the reporter talks about the kind acts that these young men performed on duty in Iraq, or the fact that they couldn’t “dehumanize” their enemy unlike their other presumably non-Muslim (or non-Arab) co-fighters, it does seem to imply that Muslims can only treat other Muslims humanely. No? And from what these young men and their families talk about in the article, is it really surprising that their comrades “question their loyalty”? (Not that I want to justify either way).
I wonder if the article doesn’t end up harming Arab-Americans rather than empathising with their predicament, which seems to be the reason the article was written in the first place.