Muslims in the Military

October 21, 2001

Source: Los Angeles Times

On October 21, 2001, the Los Angeles Times featured a story on a 38 year-old sailor in the US Navy named Fawaz, who is the Muslim lay leader of an aircraft carrier. The article reported that "these days, counseling and rallying the smattering of Muslim sailors are no simple tasks. It is a trying time to be Muslim, a draining time to be military and a wrenching time to be both...The United States is assaulting Afghanistan with a relentless string of bombing raids. The U.S. government has vowed, time and again, that the 'war on terrorism' is just that--and not a war on Islam. Nevertheless, some Muslims regard the U.S. campaign as a harbinger of a latter-day holy war."