When Nader Alsafari of Dearborn was sent to Fallujah, Iraq, in 2006 to fight with the U.S. Marines, some of his fellow Muslims at a local mosque weren't pleased because they felt it was an unjust war.
"Most of them didn't like it," Alsafari, 23, recalled last week. "They'd be like, 'You should try to get out.' ... They were thinking, we were just going to go and kill innocent people."
But Alsafari -- like other Muslims -- saw himself performing his duty as an American. There are some 3,500 declared Muslims in the U.S. military. And they're in the spotlight after the Nov. 5 shootings at a military base in Ft. Hood, Texas. The suspect, Army Maj. Nidal Hasan, is an Arab-American Muslim.
Caught between two worlds, they're trying to carve out their own identity during a time of war when some are questioning their loyalty.
A director with a conservative Christian group says Muslims should be banned from serving. And amid the many Muslim leaders who denounced the Ft. Hood shootings were a few who praised Hasan, saying his actions were Islamic.
But Muslim veterans strongly reject the extremists on both sides.
"We love this country," said Shelton Hasan, 54, of Detroit, an Army veteran, "and want to protect it like anyone else."
Muslim troops aim to build trust in U.S. military
When Jamal Baadani, a native of Dearborn and U.S. Marine, was visiting his nephew a few years ago, he noticed the 5-year-old boy didn't want to play with him as usual.
"What's the matter?" Baadani said he remembers asking him.
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9:45 PM
Moderate Islamist here
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