Muslim chaplain reaches out to fellow Soldiers

Photo By Staff Sgt. Engels Tejeda | Capt. Ibraheem A. Raheem (left), one of the Army's six Muslim chaplains, and his assistant, Spc. Lloyd Penn, visited troops in Kuwait and Iraq in early March to provide support for Muslim Soldiers and to promote understanding of Muslim culture.  

04.06.2006

Courtesy Story

207th Public Affairs Detachment

Capt. Ibraheem A. Raheem, one of the Army's six Muslim chaplains, visited troops in Kuwait and Iraq in early March to help Muslim Soldiers practice their faith and to promote understanding of the Muslim culture.

"I am basically here to provide ministry to Soldiers who can't do that for themselves," Raheem said during his stop at Logistical Support Area Adder. "Because we are a minority faith group, a lot of times services are not offered for [Muslim] Soldiers and they either just kind of pray on their own, or kind of fall into a hiatus until somebody like myself gets here. So that's my main goal and also to educate other people about what our beliefs are."

Raheem visited troops in Baghdad, Balad, Taji, and Adder, leading small worship groups of five to 15 Soldiers who follow the Islamic faith.

"There was a great support network with the local chaplains. They organized the services and notified Muslim Soldiers that I was coming," Raheem said. "Unfortunately, the information didn't always trickle down to the lowest levels or Soldiers were on missions and so we had mostly small groups. But we had a group at every place we visited."

Raheem and his assistant, Sgt. Lloyd Penn, also held cultural briefings during which they gave a short presentation on Islamic culture and answered questions about Islam.

"One of the most popular questions was, "What is that on your hat?" It's a crescent moon and that's our symbol, equivalent to the cross," Raheem said. "It's really a new moon. The Islamic calendar is based on the lunar system and so you know when to start the pilgrimage based on the moon [for example]."

He also aimed to tackle some of the biggest misunderstandings about Islam.

"The biggest misconceptions are that [Islam is] a religion of violence and that we believe in a different god," Raheem said. "The term "Allah" means the same thing as "Jehovah" or "Yahweh" or 'the Lord." It's all different languages meaning the same thing."

As for violence, he said that "anything that has to do with politics, war, things of that nature, has nothing to do with religion. It has more to do with individuals using the religion for their interest. And that has happened with other religions, but particularly now with Islam. The violence has nothing to do with the faith."

Though he found that most Soldiers were receptive to his message, he said there is still much work to be done so that troops of all faiths can practice their beliefs freely.

He said that Muslim servicemembers, who number at about four percent of the U.S. military, may not feel comfortable in practicing their faith for fear of retribution during a time when the enemy is misrepresenting Islam.

"I think [Muslim servicemembers] are struggling in a lot of situations because once they are open with their faith people look at them differently," Raheem said. "Once they show that they want to practice, they have to work harder to get the same recognition and the same success that the average person does because now people kind push them out to a distance. So it's a struggle in that regard. Unfortunately, it shouldn't be but in a lot of cases it is."

Raheem said that his tours - he plans to conduct another one within six months " aim at helping create more tolerable environments. He said that most troops find it easier to practice Islam freely once their units understand the basics of the faith. Accordingly, he suggests Muslim Soldiers should take time to educate themselves and their unit about Islamic culture.

"If all a person has done is read a book that slanders the faith or watched the news, then [he] would have a very poor vision of what Islam is about," Raheem said. "I'm talking to individual Muslim Soldiers now: you have to take the initiative and educate people about the truth of your faith."

Educating does not mean converting, Raheem points out. Rather, he hopes Soldiers of differing beliefs will learn the basics of each other's faiths and begin to work closer together. Penn, a Baptist who has been protecting and assisting Raheem for more than a month, explained that the two get along "great" because they understand and respect each other.

"He doesn't try to convert me and I don't try to convert him," Penn said. "It works out great."

Raheem served a one year deployment to Iraq in 2004 with the 82nd Airborne Division. He and Penn are currently serving out of Qatar with the U.S. Central Command.

He said Soldiers with questions about Islam or Islamic culture may e-mail him at [e-mail].

• Date Taken: 04.06.2006
• Date Posted: 04.06.2006 08:17
• Story ID: 5970