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.
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.
Yee is chaplain of the 700-member 29th Signal Battalion, which counts nearly a dozen Muslim soldiers in its ranks. 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.