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thedrifter
02-14-08, 01:19 PM
1st Bangladeshi chaplain in the US Marines
Thursday, 14 February 2008

Staff Correspondent

A man of Bangladeshi origin, who once was a student in the United States, has become the first Muslim chaplain (priest) in the US Marine Corps, who because of his love for God and humanity helps US military personnel of all faiths and backgrounds.

Abu Hena Saiful Islam, 45, joined the US Navy in September 1992 after receiving a Master's degree in business administration from the University of New Hampshire, said a release of the American Centre on Wednesday.

He went to the United States as a student in 1989 and received residency rights through the US government's immigration lottery. Working in the US Navy in the payroll and accounting department, he became an American citizen at the end of 1995 and then embarked on his quest to become a Muslim military chaplain.

'When I found out that they were looking for Muslim chaplains, I wanted to become one. I was already involved in religious activities inside the Pentagon [Defence Department's headquarters], leading Friday services and other such things,' said Abu Hena.

In 1996 the Defence Department and the Graduate School of Islamic and Social Sciences in Leesburg, Virginia, launched a programme to train Muslim military chaplains, and Abu Hena enrolled as the first student in the programme.

He completed the rigorous coursework in two years, was inducted into the chaplain candidate programme in 1998 and received his chaplain's commission the following year.

The Navy assigned him to the Marines, a subdivision of the Navy, as the corps' first Muslim chaplain. He represents the United States as Muslim military chaplain abroad and at home, helping American service people to understand Islam and counselling individual soldiers, most of whom are not Muslim.

'Ninety-nine per cent of the people who come to me for counselling are not Muslims,' he said. 'We, as chaplains, help everybody. When it comes to personal relationships, marriage, drugs, alcohol, stress or financial problems, religion doesn't play a role. We provide support, grieving in death, anything.'

When he counsels soldiers who are torn between their religious convictions, on the one hand, and going to war and possibly killing people, on the other, he said it does not matter whether they are Muslim. 'I counsel service members before they go to battle, and the majority of them are non-Muslims.

I counsel [people of all faiths] equally, in the same fashion,' said the chaplain. The US intervention in Iraq and Afghanistan is meant to rebuild those countries, he tells service people. 'If they are Muslims, I give them the perspective that they can be part of the rebuilding or they can help their comrades understand Muslim culture and Islam. I ask them, "Do you think that you can contribute?" Then they make the decision,' he said.

Abu Hena also teaches Muslims and non-Muslims to understand each another better. 'It's a two-way process. One is to let one group know that although there are some extremist Muslims, who happen to be criminals in my opinion, their faith is not really Islam. I'm a speaker at the National Defence University,' he said.

'When I was assigned to the naval station at Norfolk, Virginia, I travelled all over the country to train service people — mainly members of the National Guard and Army who were about to be deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan — on religious sensitivity.'

Ellie