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Muslim Vets Fight Terrorism Ties

By Holly Lebowitz Ross, Religion News Service
The Salt Lake Tribune
Posted on Saturday November 9, 2002

They have fought in every American war since World War I, even fighting against other Arabs and Muslims at times, yet today many Muslim and Arab Americans find themselves having to prove their patriotism to the United States amid continuing associations with terrorism.

A number of groups and initiatives are trying to change that.

Founded in response to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the Association of Patriotic Arab Americans in Military (APAAM), for example, aims to organize the more than 3,500 Arabs who currently serve in the military, as well as the thousands of Arab and Muslim veterans who served their country long before a Muslim chaplaincy was established in 1993.

“Since World War I, Arabs have been fighting side by side with their fellow Americans, going through the same sacrifices as their fellow Americans,” said Jamal Baadani, a Muslim who is a gunnery sergeant in the Marine Corps and the director and founder of APAAM.

Baadani says that more than 10,000 Muslims currently serve in the U.S. military, and while exact numbers of Muslim and Arab veterans are difficult to track, more than 15,000 served during World War II, more than 2,500 of which were from New York alone.

“We salute the same flag as anyone else, and we’re willing to die for that flag,” said Baadani.

Baadani, who was born in Cairo, Egypt, to Yemeni parents, was serving in 1984 in Beirut, Lebanon, after the bombing of the Marine barracks there. He found himself in combat in a situation where Muslims were the enemy, but he says that his American patriotism came first.

“In my mind I wasn’t fighting my fellow Arabs, in my mind I was representing America, my home,” said Baadani, who came to the United States at age 10 and enlisted in the Marines at 17. He is currently based near Los Angeles.

Other initiatives are under way to show the contributions of Muslims and Arabs in America.

In Dearborn, Mich., the Arab American National Museum is preparing to open in spring 2004. An exhibit gallery will address contributions by Muslims in such fields as labor, sports, entertainment—and military service.

“That’s something we want to make sure we include,” said Sarah Blannett, curator of the $12.8 million project.

“We are not outsiders to this society,” said Anan Amari, who will be the director of the museum. “We have been part of this society from day one, and that is to be documented.”

APAAM leaders say this education mission is paramount, especially as some Americans are being introduced to Islam through the negative lens of terrorist attacks.

“We’re trying to educate Americans who have no real connection with the Arab or Muslim communities,” said Iyaad Hasan, a Muslim Palestinian American who is an officer with the U.S. Public Health Service and works with APAAM.

But some Muslim veterans say the current climate should not lead Muslims to change their activity level from what has been decades of patriotism and activism.

In other words, Muslim veterans have nothing new to prove.

“The window is open much wider than it was open before, but I don’t think there is a really great need for Muslims to do more than they have done in the past in terms of their efforts in the military and outside of the military,” said Imam Ghayth Nur Kashif, a Korean War veteran and former counselor for the Muslim American Military Association.

Kashif, an African American who converted to Islam after he left the military in 1955, was instrumental in working in the 1990s with the American Muslim Council to institute a Muslim chaplaincy in the military.

As the Gulf War took shape, Kashif says, he and his colleagues were concerned about how Muslim soldiers would be treated.

“We didn’t want Muslims to be discriminated against because they were Muslims fighting Muslims,” he said.

But today, with Muslim chaplains currently serving in the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines, Kashif says it would be counterproductive to mark this year’s Veterans Day any differently from past years.

“We don’t have to prove anything,” said Kashif, who leads a masjid, or Muslim congregation, in Washington, D.C. He says Muslims “have been principled in our citizenship in this country. Many of us were born here so it’s really kind of an insult for people to question are you an American.

“I just think what you do is enough for people to see you as you are,” said Kashif.