Army’s Only Muslim Cleric Says Lack Of Respect Has Cost Us Lives
Toby Harnden, Telegraph, 2/13/05
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/02/13/wirq13.xml
The US Army’s only Muslim chaplain in Iraq has described his struggle to “educate” soldiers to respect Muslims and how he helped free an innocent Iraqi from American custody after he had been framed by the coalition’s Kurdish allies.
Captain Abdullah Hulwe, a Syrian-born Sunni who also said that his wife had experienced discrimination at military bases in America, told The Telegraph that US troops had made many mistakes and were only slowly learning how to put things right.
The army’s failure to shift from its war-fighting mentality had led to American deaths, he said. “The better you act, the safer this area will be. If nothing else you’ll not give a reason for someone who is neutral to go and join the insurgents.”
As he sat in a hut surrounded by sandbags in a ramshackle base on the outskirts of Hawija, Capt Hulwe, 42, who joined the US Army as a mechanic, condemned what he saw as unnecessarily heavy-handed tactics by some American troops.
His remarks will make uncomfortable reading in the Pentagon. “You don’t force people off the road when you are driving,” he said. “If you’re saying you’re a guest you have to behave like a guest. There is no need to cuss people out. We’ve never had any problem with women so we should not search and harass them.
He said his own family had been mistreated after the September 11 attacks. His wife, who wears a traditional Muslim hijab, was searched every time she entered the base in Texas where he was stationed. “The soldier stopping her said he was only searching every 15th car,” Capt Hulwe said. “I said, ‘That’s baloney. Are you telling me my wife is unlucky every time?’ “
Capt Hulwe, who is being posted back to the US with his battalion this month, is uncertain of long-term success in Iraq. “When we came a year ago it was maybe minus 17 degrees and now it’s minus five. Is it a bit less cold? Yes. But it’s going to take a long time to achieve a warm embrace.”
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