{"id":4084,"date":"2010-03-19T00:25:58","date_gmt":"2010-03-19T08:25:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/?p=4084"},"modified":"2010-03-18T20:40:07","modified_gmt":"2010-03-19T04:40:07","slug":"muslim-soldier-seeks-to-help-become-chaplain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/2010\/03\/19\/muslim-soldier-seeks-to-help-become-chaplain\/","title":{"rendered":"Muslim Soldier Seeks to Help, Become Chaplain"},"content":{"rendered":"

An official Army.mil article<\/a> introduces Army Spc Mikail Lawal, a Muslim soldier (pictured below, reading the Koran) who is living out his faith and considering a career as a Chaplain.<\/p>\n

\"DoD

DoD Photo (Sgt Ben Hutto)<\/p><\/div>\n

His current job is essentially a customer service representative at a FOB in Iraq, making sure passengers get on the correct helicopter.\u00a0 He goes out of his way to be respectful and helpful, a spirit attributed to his “deep faith in Islam.”<\/p>\n

In explaining why he wanted to become a Chaplain, he said:<\/p>\n

“There are a small number of Muslim chaplains,” he said. “There are a lot of wrong misconceptions about the faith. It is a very noble faith. It requires a person to put everything in the hands of their creator. It requires total submission to the will of God. It is not what many people think.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

He currently leads an Islamic service with a congregation of American Soldiers, TCNs<\/a>, and contractors.\u00a0 The unassuming and gentle-speaking Soldier conveys an attitude of caring for his fellow man.\u00a0 Sometimes, he seems to say, all you need is company:<\/p>\n

To be in the presence of godly people makes someone stronger.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

While Lawal’s amiable spirit makes his job that much easier, it is notable that he\u00a0leads a religious service of his choosing (in the apparent absence of a military Chaplain), with a congregation of people of varying nationalities and affiliations–military and civilian, American and foreign national.\u00a0 He\u00a0even has the freedom\u00a0to be photographed in uniform<\/a> reading a religious text (the Koran).\u00a0 These are all\u00a0excellent indicators of the religious freedom and spiritual support structure provided within the US military for any<\/em> religious belief.<\/p>\n

Even in a combat area and separated from many support resources, the military both allows and accommodates the free exercise of religion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An official Army.mil article introduces Army Spc Mikail Lawal, a Muslim soldier (pictured below, reading the Koran) who is living out his faith and considering a career as a Chaplain. His current job is essentially a customer service representative at a FOB in Iraq, making sure passengers get on the correct helicopter.\u00a0 He goes out of his way to be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[88,5284,4,52,44,252,2,17,10],"class_list":["post-4084","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-government-and-religion","tag-army","tag-chaplain","tag-churchandstate","tag-iraq","tag-islam","tag-mikail-lawal","tag-military","tag-religious-expression","tag-religion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4084","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4084"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4084\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4084"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4084"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4084"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}