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Chapter 3: Islam in the American Military

Ayoub Saidi April 12, 2022

The United States military’s history of violence towards Muslims both at home and abroad is more often than not unwarranted. American Muslims have proven to be just as concerned with the safety of our nation and the liberty of its citizens as the rest of Americans and have been and remain in service to the protection of the country and its people.

For this chapter, I will be using the stories of American Muslim soldiers who fought in the nation’s most critical wars as examples of the American Muslim commitment to the protection of the state. I will also be discussing some of the issues that arose for these individuals and the realities that they had to face as a result of their service (were some American Muslim soldiers in early America slaves? Were they compelled to serve?). I will then compare these experiences and stories to contemporary ones of the same kind. To accomplish this, I will begin with interviews I plan to conduct with American Muslim military veterans and personnel to set the scene of the post 9/11 political climate that grossly encouraged a change in the American public’s perception and treatment of Muslims in addition to the Global War on Terror under the Bush administration. I will then backtrack to the earliest recorded instances of American Muslims fighting beside colonial troops in the Revolutionary War and beside their fellow Americans in the Civil War. The hope of this chapter is to paint a full picture of Muslim military service in the Unites States using both data from the ISPU and other sources along with anecdotal accounts of American Muslim service in the military.

For this chapter, I will be relying on the following sources (this remains an evolving list and may be subject to changes):

  • A History of Islam in America by Kambiz GhaneaBassiri
  • Muslim Americans in the Military: Centuries of Service by Edward E. Curtis IV
  • ISPU’s 2010 report Addressing Mental Health Issues Among American Muslims in the Military
  • Pew Research Center’s data on American Muslim veterans and soldiers
  • Personal testimonies from American Muslim soldiers and veterans

Acknowledgments

I would like to express special thanks and gratitude to my professor and mentor Dr. Nathan Walker as well as the Rutgers Honors College who have given me the opportunity and encouragement to do this meaningful and pertinent research. By engrossing myself in this subject matter, I honor myself and those who share and have shared with me in the American Muslim experience, such as my friends, family, and religious peers, to whom this research is also dedicated. I would also like to express my appreciation for organizations all around the country such as the ISPU who are committed to educating the public on the realities faced by American Muslims while strengthening interfaith dialogue and exploring new pathways for coexistence and unity.

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