Abdi Akgun joined the Marines in August of 2000, fresh out of high school and eager to serve his country. As a Muslim, the attacks of Sept. 11 only steeled his resolve to fight terrorism.
But two years later, when Mr. Akgun was deployed to Iraq with the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit, the thought of confronting Muslims in battle gave him pause.
He was haunted by the possibility that he might end up killing innocent civilians.
“It’s kind of like the Civil War, where brothers fought each other across the Mason-Dixon line,” Mr. Akgun, 28, of Lindenhurst, N.Y., who returned from Iraq without ever pulling the trigger. “I don’t want to stain my faith, I don’t want to stain my fellow Muslims, and I also don’t want to stain my country’s flag.”
“… my fellow Muslims”.
Imagine Christian soldiers sent to Bosnia expressing such scruples about “my fellow Christians”.
Imagine American Baptist soldiers describing Bosnian orthodox believers as Christians!
Sorry, “o” should have been “O” – makes more sense that way.
A lot of Italian-Americans fought in Italy, a lot of German-Americans fought in Germany (twice). It is an issue that has cropped up fairly often in our melting-pot army.