Akil
Esteemed Member
- Messages
- 137
- Reaction score
- 23
I may not be unique but there are probably few people around here like me. For starters I am non-Muslim; second, I am a soldier in the US Army National Guard. After 9/11 I had an ignorant knee jerk reaction and began spewing hatful epitaphs like rag head, etc. etc. and so forth. I was 19 years old and had just joined the Army and my response was similar to those around me.
I was never deployed to Afghanistan or Iraq, but my eyes were opened about four and a half years later when I was deployed to the Arab Republic of Egypt. I lived in Egypt for one year and everything from hearing the call of Adzan (spelling?) to meeting Muslim Egyptians, Muslim Bedouins and partying with secular Arabs, Arab people and Muslims became less of an abstract idea and more of a reality.
Since then in many forums ( actualy, mostly Muslim Unit on myspace.com ) I have been learning and discussing Islam with Muslims and non-Muslims, mainly because I think someone should know. There is a lot of ignorance among soldiers about Muslims and Islam, a lot of repeated propaganda and rhetoric. I have rarely backed down from someone espousing this hateful and dangerous nonsense from my superiors to my peers. For this, some of my fellow service members have called me a traitor and similar names.
I have also been rejected by some Muslims because of my connections to the US military ( For example I was told never to return to #Islam on irc.undernet.org, so I haven’t ), some casualty and some more specifically ( ie calling me a murderer, a demon etc. ) but for the most part I have had good experiences speaking with Muslims.
I look forward to many interesting discussions
I was never deployed to Afghanistan or Iraq, but my eyes were opened about four and a half years later when I was deployed to the Arab Republic of Egypt. I lived in Egypt for one year and everything from hearing the call of Adzan (spelling?) to meeting Muslim Egyptians, Muslim Bedouins and partying with secular Arabs, Arab people and Muslims became less of an abstract idea and more of a reality.
Since then in many forums ( actualy, mostly Muslim Unit on myspace.com ) I have been learning and discussing Islam with Muslims and non-Muslims, mainly because I think someone should know. There is a lot of ignorance among soldiers about Muslims and Islam, a lot of repeated propaganda and rhetoric. I have rarely backed down from someone espousing this hateful and dangerous nonsense from my superiors to my peers. For this, some of my fellow service members have called me a traitor and similar names.
I have also been rejected by some Muslims because of my connections to the US military ( For example I was told never to return to #Islam on irc.undernet.org, so I haven’t ), some casualty and some more specifically ( ie calling me a murderer, a demon etc. ) but for the most part I have had good experiences speaking with Muslims.
I look forward to many interesting discussions
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