Article Here
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Check out the above article, which is basically an interview with an imam who is in the US military stationed in Iraq. He talks about the "complexities" of being, at once, a muslim and American soldier.
I think there is some revealing content in here about whether or not we should consider the Islamic ideology, as such and not just some elements, hostile to America. After all, if there is anyone in the world who is both Muslim and who should be sympathetic to America it's gotta be this guy.
The first part of the article is, I guess, meant to be some kind of human interest story focusing on the difficulty a muslim has serving in the military, since muslims, the imam (who is a major) insists, have a hard time with killing people. I'll leave that one alone. It's the second half of the article that I find most revealing.
When asked whether or not he would label the insurgents with the presumably morally defensible title of
mujahedeen, he says he wouldn't. They are not morally defensible in his eyes, but the revealing answer is his reasons for why?
"I wouldn't call them mujahedeen because they kill muslims, which is haram, forbidden in the Quran," he explains, and later, "I ask my brothers to take a look. Eight to ten million muslims live in the United States."
I think this is pretty revealing. The implication is that the primary reason their actions are not justified is because they kill some other Muslims. In other words, the reference he makes to explain the political validity/invalidity of act is not his own Constitution or the Bill of Rights he has sworn to defend, it is the Quran. And the question begged: if they did not kill any muslims, and went out of their way not to target muslims in America, what would he think of it then? After all, I'm pretty sure it is not
haram to kill infidels who refuse to convert or be subjugated.
And this, from a major in the US Army. It would seem that you are going to get about as pro-American an interpretation of Islam from him as from .
I think his constant reference to the Quran as the moral authority on what most in the West would be a violation of political rights indicates the unity of religion and politics in that part of the world as well.