U.S. soldiers’ heavy-handed policy with Iraqis fanned anti-U.S. sentiments

By Aws Al-Sharqy, IOL Correspondent

BAGHDAD, August 13 (IslamOnline.net) – Discovering an Islam that is totally different from the one smeared in their media, a number of American servicemen and women were said to have embraced Islam and married Iraqis.

"After daily interactions with Iraqi citizens and a first-hand experience in dealing with Muslims in the war-ravaged country, many U.S. soldiers willingly accepted Islam, " Sheikh Mahmoud el-Samydaei, member of Iraq’s Muslim Scholars Society, told IslamONline.net Wednesday, August 13.

"The soldiers came to realize that the teachings of Islam are absolutely different from fabricated information propagated by the western media," he added.

The Iraqi scholar recalled crying Christian-turned-Muslim American army officer who lamented that his folks died without knowing anything about Islam.

Not First

A U.S. officer visited the Civil Affairs Court in the Baghdad district of el-Karkh earlier this week to declare:  "I bear witness that there is no God but Allah and that Muhammad is His messenger."

The man later married Iraqi doctor Samar Ahmed whom we met while standing guard in Medicine City Hospital.

The American officer confirmed that he embraced Islam out of absolute conviction and not just to marry the Iraqi woman he fell in love with.

According to Islamic teachings, a none-Muslim man is not allowed to marry a Muslim woman.

Judge Abd el-Azeim Mohammad Gawad el-Rasafi blessed the marriage, asserting it was the "first time an Iraqi girl would marry an American soldier who accepted Islam."

He told IOL he found no religious ground to obstruct the marriage, which was opposed by several Iraqi citizens.

"The assertion of the American soldier that he embraced Islam of his free will and not just to marry the Iraqi doctor convinced us to approve the marriage," said Judge el-Rasafi.

Convinced

Although Samar declined to be interviewed, her colleague Doctor Bayda’a Mohammad Ahmed told IOL she had hard times with Iraqis who knew about the proposed marriage.

They accused her of marrying the American officer just to have a chance of going to the U.S. with him, said Bayda’a.

Defending her friend Samar, Bayda’a asserted she was the one who introduced him to Islam and encourage him to accept it.

She found he was a good husband and did not have in min traveling to the States, said the fellow doctor.

No

Fayez Qadouri, one of several opponents, said the opposition had nothing to do with the fact that the officer was American but rather because he was "an occupier of our land."

"He should renounce his country’s occupation of Iraq and either leave the country to desert the army for us to approve the marriage," he said.

There are some 145,000 U.S. and 11,000 British soldiers deployed across Iraq.