Thank You Gen. Colin Powell ...

As it appeared in Yahoo News - http://news.yahoo.com/s/mcclatchy/20081021/pl_mcclatchy/3078971

Muslim soldier fought for America and his faith

WASHINGTON — "Joe the Plumber" was only one of two Americans injected into the presidential election this past week. The other was Kareem Rashad Sultan Khan , whom former Secretary of State Colin Powell invoked in his endorsement Sunday of Barack Obama .
Khan was a 20-year-old soldier from Manahawkin, N.J. , who wanted to enlist in the Army from the time he was 10. He was an all-American boy who visited Disney World after he completed his training at Fort Benning, Ga. , and made his comrades in Iraq watch "Saving Private Ryan" every week.

He was also a Muslim who joined the military, his father said, in part to show his countrymen that not all Muslims are terrorists.

"He was an American soldier first," said his father, Feroze Khan . "But he also looked at fighting in this war as fighting for his faith. He was fighting radicalism."

Khan was killed by an improvised explosive device in August 2007 along with four other soldiers and an Iraqi interpreter while searching a house in Baqouba, Iraq . He's one of four Muslims who served in Iraq or Afghanistan and are buried in Arlington National Cemetery , where 512 troops from those wars now rest.

About 3,700 of the U.S. military's 1.4 million troops are Muslims, according to Defense Department estimates.

Khan, a child of immigrant parents from Trinidad , was 14 when the Sept. 11 attacks happened. Feroze Khan said he remembered his son watching in stunned silence: "I could tell that inside a lot of things were going through his head."

Three years later, Feroze honored his son's request and allowed him to enlist him in the Army . "I told him: 'You are going to the Army .' I never said there is a war going on in a Muslim country. I didn't want him to get any ideas that he was fighting (against) his religion."
Feroze kept his fears for his son's safety to himself.

His son was assigned to the Stryker Brigade Combat Team out of Fort Lewis, Wash. , deployed to Iraq in 2006 and fought on Baghdad's Haifa Street , a Sunni insurgent stronghold.
His tour was extended as part of the surge of additional U.S. forces to Iraq , and he called or messaged home often until he was deployed to restive Diyala province, where he was under fire too often to contact home regularly.

But he prayed every day, his father said.

One Sunday morning, his son sent an instant message: "Hey Dad. Are you there?" Feroze Khan was out, and he saw the message when he returned.
A few hours later, his ex-wife called. Soldiers had knocked on her door in Maryland . Their only child was dead.

A few minutes later, soldiers appeared at Khan's door. "I guess it helped that I knew beforehand," he said. "There are no words to describe it."

Kareem Khan was a month from finishing his tour when he was killed.

On Sunday, Powell said that Khan's sacrifice and service had swayed him to discuss the way that Muslims have been portrayed in the presidential campaign, and the contention that Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama is a Muslim.

Obama "is a Christian," Powell said. "He has always been a Christian. But the really right answer is, 'What if he is?' Is there something wrong with being Muslim in this country? The answer is no. That is not America." He added: "I am troubled that within the (Republican) Party we have these kinds of expressions" suggesting that Obama is a Muslim, and that if he is, he likely associates with terrorists.

Powell said that he felt strongly about the issue after he saw a photo of Khan's tombstone in the New Yorker magazine . In the black-and-white picture, Khan's mother is resting her head on her son's tombstone. On each side of the stone are flowers, and in between is a copy of the Quran. On the face of the tombstone is a crescent and star, indicating that the soldier buried there is a Muslim.

"He was an American," Powell said.

Hard Times ...

If misfortune befalls you, it is the consequence of your own actions. Yet God forgives much. On this earth you can not escape God; and there is no one apart from God who can protect or help you.

-Qur'an (42:30-31)

I haven't written much lately and for that I apologize to the few readers (if you're still out there) that I have. I have befallen on some emotionally rough times and it is hard to write positively when you're feeling bitter.

Our country is in the middle of a "presidential operation" aka a war. I've established in my writings that I grew up in Texas, which is a state full of wonderful people who have a deep relationship with honor & duty. The state has some of the largest bases in the armed services and I have had the priveledge to call many of those, who serve our country, friends.

However, their jobs can be dangerous. I've lost 3 friends in the uniformed services in the past 5 years. I still have a few more that are still in Iraq and one headed to Afghanistan shortly. Please pray for their safe returns.

I thought about the verse above and it is our actions that directly place us or remove us from harms way. As much as I, or other friends, or their family wish and try to protect them, we cannot. God truly is the only protector.

While I find their sacrifice for their country honorable, noble, and admirable it is no secret that I oppose this war. And for those who might be on the "right" side of the political spectrum - you can believe both. You can support your troops, but oppose with the war. You can respect those who serve and fight for their return at home. You can be patriotic and disagree with your government.

I apologize, as this blog is supposed to help educate people on Islam and religion in general ... I have been trying to stay away from politics here ... but today ... I just cannot.

Please, do what you can, to get our troops home safely while still assisting the Iraqi's to re-build their war-torn country. Please pray for all involved in this conflict and pray for peace. If we start to act like the ideal human being it might just rub off on others until we actually live in an ideal world instead of this mess we've made on God's Earth.

Salaam/Shalom/Peace,
Broken-Hearted Human Being