9/11…The day I became a Muslim

9/11 is a day of reflection for me for several reasons. On 9/11 I found out that:

1: I really was a Marine

2: I was willing to die for my country

3: Islam is infact not only a religion of peace, but the truth

Most people have no problem with 1 and 2 when I ordinarily re-tell this story, but number 3 is always met with hostility. Without going into the story again as I have a thousand times, I just want to cover the main points

1: When I joined the Marine Corps in 1998 it was a different world per se. Most of my peers joined the military as an alternative to staying home or not going to college. Many like me joined the Marine Corps simply to be part of the best miliatary organization on the planet (sorry Army). However, that was it in a nutshell. There were no dreams of war and combat no matter how much warrior training I had. It was good stuff to know, it felt good to know I could if I wanted to, but I was content behind my desk and flying with President Clinton to the Harley David factory in Pennsylvania or to South Beach, Miami. That was the extent of my career until 9/11. That day, I found out that I truly was a Marine, that day the warrior in me came alive and I wanted nothing more than to fight the scum that dared attack the USA the greatest nation on Earth!. That day I found out that even a bunch of spoiled, Presidential, airwingers, were still Marines and we were ready to go and do what Marines do. That day that Eagle, Globe, and Anchor took over and the true warrior that I didn’t even know existed came alive. That day more than any other day, I was a Marine!

2: Given the gravity of the day, I knew something had to be done. I didn’t know what, but I knew it had to be something. I began to think of all the medal of honor winners who gave their lives in the service of others. I never truly understood that, but on 9/11 something came over me. I knew that if fanatical killers were willing to do this, than I had to be equally willing to do whatever it took to defeat them. I didn’t know what to think, but I knew one thing, if I had to die, I wanted it to be in the service of my country. I never felt that way before, on 9/10 I wore a uniform, but it was just a “job” to a degree, but on 9/11 I swore by that uniform and what Marines have lived and died for and was ready to join their ranks if need be. I remember around 10 am before the base phones shut down calling my mother and she answered crying, the most I could muster was “Mom I love you, tell everyone I love them, but now I have to do what I get paid to do” right there out of no where in one line I told my mother that our conversation may have been the last, and in that moment of clarity there was peace. I knew what had to be done and I truly didn’t care about the costs, as long as America won.

3. This has always been the most difficult thing to explain and it still is. On 9/11 we were on “standby” for more than 14hrs. We didn’t see any “action” and we just hurried up and waited, and waited, and waited, and then it was 9/12. As things started to develop and get sorted out after that horrible day, I began to reflect. Mostly about 1 and 2 but then I began to ask myself questions: Who were these people that did this? Why would they do this? Are their beliefs that crazy that they are willing to kill themselves and many others for it? I asked myself these questions over and over. My only solution was research. I wanted to know my enemy so that I may be better prepared to kill them. As a devout Christian, lay leader, bible study leader, etc. I wanted to see this murderous book for myself so that I may be able to inform my friends, group, and congregation. I never met a Muslim in my life all I knew was the church, so I decided to go straight to the horses mouth…the Quran.

As things were eased on the base in the following days, I decided to go to the bookstore and I bought it a Koran. My first one it was in complete English no arabic in sight. So with a scornful look and disdain in my heart I began to read…The very first thing I read was:

“The Opening

1:1 In the name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful:

Bismillāhi r-raḥmāni r-raḥīm

1:2 Praise be to God, the Lord of the Universe.

Al ḥamdu lillāhi rabbi l-’ālamīn

1:3 The Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.

Ar raḥmāni r-raḥīm

1:4 King of the Day of Judgment.

Māliki yawmi d-dīn

1:5 You alone we worship, and You alone we ask for help

Iyyāka na’budu wa iyyāka nasta’īn

1:6 Guide us to the straight way;

Ihdinā ṣ-ṣirāṭ al mustaqīm

1:7 The way of those whom you have blessed, not of those who have deserved anger, nor of those who stray.

Ṣirāṭ al-laḏīna an’amta ‘alayhim ġayril maġḍūbi ‘alayhim walāḍ ḍāllīn “

In the name of God, the Most Gracious and Merciful! What in the world! I thought I’m supposed to be reading about killing Christians in the name of some other god or something. Where’s all the violence and advocation of such against America? This opening, sounded much like my prayers, so I began to read on…

As I read on I learned many things like God is One, fighting is only ordained in self-defense against oppression, respect for others religions and places of worship, Muslims believed in the Prophets of the Bible and in Jesus albeit a little differently, but heh there were Christians that believed the same things about Jesus too! In other words I found none of what I expected, I found no smoking gun, what little so-called violence I did find was nothing more than historical happenings, that didn’t shape the larger context of the books call for patience, prayer, and balance. It didn’t read purely as a historical book although there was history in it, it didn’t read purely as a book of dogma, although there was dogma in it, to me the most remarkable thing to me was that the author seemed to be speaking directly to me and not through 3rd and 4th parties. For every question I asked there was an answer, for every answer given, the text itself asked me a question. The book forced me to think, challenged me, and reasoned with me. This was a book of reason, this was a book of discussion, this book made me stronger in my desire for God. Any book that could do that in of itself, without the aid of a person reading it to me had to have divine Origins!

Of course, this began to baffle me. Emotions began to be confounded at times, I didn’t know what to think, but I knew one think, I believed in this text and I wanted to be part of those who did. Obviously those murders couldn’t have read the same book! We must be reading two different things.

I began to care less and less about the murderers and what they got out of the text and more and more about what I got out of the text. Somehow they got murder and intollerance, I got love for God, man, and peace. No more did I have to believe that those who didn’t believe as I did were bound to hell, now I could believe in the unity of faith, I could believe that all of mankind was destined to God and God loved everyone not just an elect group!

Naturally, all of this shook me at my foundation my core, so the best I could do was share these thoughts with my mentor and pastor, my grandfather. I expected him to chastize me and tell me satan was confusing me, but instead, he said he believes Islam to be on the same path as Judaism and Christianity, he believed that they all have a central Origin and a central destination. He believed that while the family of Abraham (pbuh) didn’t always agree on many points, they are still family nonetheless. At that point, slack jawed, I realized that my new ways weren’t a hinderance or some kind of satanic confusion, but another path and journey God had put me on, He knows what he is up to.

This all happened within weeks of 9/11. Imagine the surprise to all those I knew when I told them I was converting to Islam. Imagine the surprise when I had my dog tags and records changed from “Christian” to “Muslim”. Many didn’t take it well, and many don’t today. But faith is like that. We don’t often have as much control as we would like to believe. If we truly believe then we will be able to carry our cross no matter what.

And talk about a cross to carry! I have been called it all: Naive, Traitor, fake, etc. I have been told that I never was a Christian or good Christian to begin with and that’s how I left so “easily” as if they know! I have been asked how I could change to the enemies religion while my country was under attack, my service has been questioned, my loyalty, etc. etc.

The problem is many can’t or won’t seperate the religion from the people, unless of course the religion is Christianity or Judaism!

Nevermind that I served another 3 years honorably in the Marine Corps as a Muslim. Nevermind that I have worked for this nations highest office as a Muslim, nevermind that since the Marine Corps I have worked and served in agencies many other Americans only dream about, can only see on the outside, and in many instances don’t even know where they exist! All this as a Muslim.

But I digress…Here it is 6 years later and not much has changed. Many still hate Islam and Muslims, many Muslims still defend their faith and themselves, and many Muslims still commit the actions that help fuel the flames of this hate. I just pray on this day of reflection, that we as Americans, that we as humanity began to reflect more on our similarities then our differences. I pray that we overcome our prejudices and ignorance and learn to work together. I pray that we come together to destroy radicalism and extremism in all it’s forms. I pray that we realize that it is our differences that not only make God Great, but gives us a reason and drive to want to get to know one another.

49:13 O men! Behold, We have created you all out of a male and a female, and have made you into nations and tribes, so that you might come to know one another. Verily, the noblest of you in the sight of God is the one who is most deeply conscious of Him. Behold, God is all-knowing, all-aware.

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First Russian-Muslim Partnership Conf.

MOSCOW — Moscow will host the first ever high-profile conference that seeks deepening strategic ties between Russia and its sizable Muslim community with the Muslim world. "It gives a new drive to Arab and Islamic relations with Russia, following remarkable improvements already achieved over the past few years," Ahmed Sakhratullah, one of the organizers, told IslamOnline.

Titled "Russia and the Islamic world: Partnership for the Sake of Stability", the conference will be held from September 24-26 at the Pillar Hall of Unions in the Russian capital.

It is sponsored by Russia Mufties Council, the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) and Russia’s Foreign Ministry.

The gathering, to be launched by a speech from Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, will have high profile attendance representing Russia and Islamic countries.

Organizers affirm that the conference, which comes as part of celebrating five years on Russia's joining to the OIC as observer, would mark a breakthrough for the flourishing ties between Russia and the Muslim world.

It will discuss enhancing of international cooperation between Russia and the Muslim countries as well as the Muslim communities of Europe and America

Other key issues to be tackled include Russian-Muslim partnership in the fields of Islamic Finance, science, culture and education.

Russian Muslims

Organizers say that the international conference would also highlight the evolving role of Muslims in the Russian Federation.

"Russia Mufties Council, which sponsors the conference, wants to assert Russian Muslims’s role in establishing closer ties with the Islamic world," asserts Sakhratullah

The conference will be the largest event held by the Muslim society of Russia in the new millennium.

Part of the conference will focus on the role of Russia’s Muslim groups and organizations in developing and strengthening the ties with co-believers from other countries.

Other than the Mufties Council, official partners of the gathering include the Islamic Cultural Centre of Russia and the Russian Fund for Support of Islamic culture, science and education.

The Russian Federation is home to some 23 million Muslims in the north of the Caucasus and southern republics of Chechnya, Ingushetia and Dagestan.

Islam is Russia's second-largest religion representing roughly 15 percent of its 145 million predominantly Orthodox population.

Source: IslamOnline

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More Americans Nonreligious: Study

CAIRO — Americans who don't identify with any religion have turned from a fringe group to a national trend as their number continues to climb and their presence spreads among the America’s diverse population landscape, a new US study has found. “The growth of the Nones is a national phenomenon,” the study, “American Nones: The Profile of the No Religion Population”, released by Trinity College on Tuesday, September 22, affirmed, referring to Americans who say they subscribe to no religion.

“They are the only group that increased in every state and region of the country during the past 18 years.”

Answering atheists Concerning God Faith and Trust in Allah The researchers found that it had grown from 8.2 percent in 1990 to 14.2 percent in 2001 and to 15 percent in 2008. They affirmed that in the future, the US can expect to have even more Nones and that would mark a new age of “nonreligious boom” as the 1990s was the decade of the “secular boom.”

“If current trends continue, the likely outcome is that in two decades, the Nones could account for about one-quarter of the US population.” Professor Ryan Cragun of the University of Tampa who co-conducted the study said.

The Unites States has a population of more than 301 million.

According to the CIA Fact Book, Protestant make up 52 percent, Roman Catholic 24, Mormon 2, Jewish 1, Muslim 1, other 10 and none 10 percent.

Experts have affirmed that atheist movements are mushrooming and gathering new followers across the United States.

Some believe that atheist organizations have flourished in recent years fed by outrage over the former George W. Bush administration’s embrace of the religious right and its religion-colored policies.

Others refer the phenomenon to a spate of anti-religion books which flooded the market during the former administration.

Diverse

Identifying the “Nones”, the study says that they should not be misunderstood as the small minority of atheists.

“They are the irreligious, the unreligious, the anti-religious, and the anti-clerical. Some believe in God; some do not. Some may participate occasionally in religious rituals; others never will.”

The study also noted that the most significant finding is that “Nones” Largely mirror mainstream America.

“Today, there is not a single demographic group in the U.S. that does not include Nones,” it says.

“They exist among the married, widowed, divorced, and never married. Nones are Democrats, Republicans and independents.

“They are among the least educated and the most educated. They are among the rich and the poor. They can be white, black, Latino or Asian.”

Most Nones are first generation as only 32 percent of current Nones report they had no religion at age 12.

Trinity Professor Barry Kosmin says that the most important and statistically significant finding was the relatively large gender gap, as American women remain more religious than men.

“The overall trend is being pushed by men and the young but slowed down by women’s greater religiosity.”

Source: IslamOnline

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Indonesia's Feminist Islamic Schools

CAIRO — When her husband died, Nyai Yu Masriyah Amva did not think twice before stepping into the place of the respected Muslim scholar and run the Islamic madrasah of their village in Indonesia’s Java. “Why do I have to find someone else to run it?” Nyai told Time magazine on Wednesday, September 23.

“I know that I can do it."

Status of Woman in Islam Nyai, who has been running the Islamic school, known locally as pesantren, for two years now, recalls how most people in the village expected her to close the school with the death of her husband or find a new male head. But the 48-year-old, whose father was also a renowned Muslim scholar, decided that she would run the school and she has even won the villagers support.

"My grandfather and parents always hoped someday I'd become a respected scholar," she said.

"But since my husband died, people say I have become a superstar."

Nyai’s pesantren is one of many in Indonesia which have more female friendly recently.

While pesantrens in Indonesia face the dilemma of a much-stereotyped image that relates them to suicide bombers and extremists, the schools have seen a growing trend of more female kyais, teachers in Islamic schools.

In many schools, women scholars who teach religion and recitation of the Noble Qur’an are growing in numbers.

Indonesian feminist groups, male and female alike, have also worked with pesantrans to develop women-friendly interpretations of shari`ah.

There are some 14,000 Islamic boarding schools in Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation with a population of 220 million.

More than three million students are registered in these pesantrens which fill the vacuum of state schools in the poorest, remotest parts of the archipelago nation.

Feminist Movement

The growing female power in Islamic schools mirrors a wider phenomenon of feminism in the Asian Muslim nation.

“Feminism has found fertile soil in Indonesia,” says the Time.

The newspaper noted that the movement is fast growing due to Indonesia’s Islamic-based culture and indigenous traditions that favor gender equality.

Indonesia’s “traditional agricultural culture often had men and women working together in the fields.”

Social activists and Muslim leaders in Indonesia have further helped the trend.

Indonesia's two largest Muslim political parties — the Nahdlatul Ulama and Muhammadiyah — have intricate campaigns promoting women's rights.

In Northern Java, Indonesia's most prominent male scholar Kyai Husein Muhammad Marcoes-Natsir has joined hands with Jakarta-based feminist activist Lies Marcoes-Natsir to develop a course for teaching gender equality in Islam. For Nyai, the pesantren woman head, it’s not only the role of feminist activists and politicians to enlighten the society on women rights.

Indonesian women also should have more faith in themselves and in their capabilities, she explains.

"If men can do it, then why can't I?"

Source: IslamOnline

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Hussein’s Mideast Summit Hopeful or Hopeless?

CAIRO — Barack Hussein Obama’s first high-profile summit that forayed into the Middle East peace has left analysts at odds whether it raises hopes for a breakthrough, signaled by Hussein Obama’s blunt approach in contrast to his predecessor, or it was nothing but a "back to square one" meeting. "It’s a positive step," Ziad Asali, head of the Washington-based American Task Force on Palestine, told the New York Times on Wednesday, September 23.

Hussein Obama gathered Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas on Tuesday in New York for a three-way summit, the first since the suspension of peace talks last December.

He scolded both leaders and said final status talks on forming a Palestinian state "must begin, and begin soon."

"It is past time to talk about starting negotiations," a clearly frustrated Hussein Obama told Netanyahu and Abbas.

"My message to these two leaders is clear. Despite all the obstacles, despite all the history, despite all the mistrust, we have to find a way forward."

Asali believes that Hussein Obama has blocked off escape hatches in the face of Israelis by saying that if they remained unwilling to resolve the interim issues, including a settlement freeze, they will be pushed to the final status negotiations.

"This is something the Palestinians definitely want."

Aluf Benn, political analyst and diplomatic editor of the Israeli daily Haaretz, underlined Hussein Obama’s stern language at the meeting, which stands at sharp contrast with that of ex-President George W. Bush.

"The Bush administration put an emphasis on synchronizing statements and agreements between the two sides. As soon as the summits were over, the Israelis and Palestinians were sent on their way to hold talks on their own," Benn said.

"However, Hussein Obama does it differently.

"He read his statement as a command directed at the two sides, and not as a joint statement."

Unlike Bush, Hussein Obama has vowed to engage in the Middle East early in his presidency.

Square One

Other experts, however, see Hussein Obama’s three-way summit differently. "The trilateral was a key to an empty room," Aaron David Miller, an analyst at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, told Agence France Presse (AFP).

Miller, who served as adviser on Mideast peacemaking in previous US administrations, says the meeting fell short of reviving a brief peace process.

Hussein Obama may have managed to get the Israeli and Palestinian leaders together in the same room, yet they remained as far apart as ever, he explained. "The administration doesn't have many good options to start and sustain negotiations that will be productive."

Hussein Obama and his Secretary of State Hillary Clinton have repeatedly asked Israel for a full freeze on Jewish settlements building in the occupiped West Bank and Al-Quds (east Jerusalem), including the so-called natural growth.

But US envoy George Mitchell was unable to convince the Israeli government, whose coalition has a strong pro-settler wing, to agree to such freeze.

Daniel Kurtzer, a former ambassador to both Israel and Egypt, says that even in the summit, the US apparently failed to get key elements like settlements resolved.

"That is a dangerous roll of the dice. Mitchell now has to go back to the same people to talk about the same issues."

Elie Podeh, a professor in the department of Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies in the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, says Hussein Obama’s efforts are unlikely to have a chance to succeed with the hawkish Netanyahu government.

"Netanyahu has his own agenda," Podeh contends.

"It seems we are back to square one."

Source: IslamOnline

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