Patriot, Soldier, Chaplain--Spy?

James Yee, a Chinese-American West Point graduate and convert to Islam, served as chaplain to more than 600 "enemy combatants" detained at the U.S. military base in Guantanamo Bay. His mandate was to serve the U.S. military mission as well as the religious needs of the prisoners. He says he found instead military leadership that encouraged suspicion of Muslims on either side of the prison wire, and soldiers who seemed eager to humiliate prisoners.

As Yee advocated for more humane treatment, suspicions against him mounted until he was arrested and detained. Held for 76 days in solitary confinement, Yee was falsely accused of mishandling classified information-and branded in the public's mind as a home-grown terrorist. Although the case against Yee eventually disintegrated, the military leadership refused to clear his name publicly, forcing Yee to surrender his dream of serving his country.

Released from a military gag order, Yee tells his story for the first time in his new book, 'For God and Country: Faith and Patriotism Under Fire'.

You were raised as a Lutheran. Were there aspects of the faith that you wanted to leave behind when you became Muslim?

No, I took pretty much all of it with me. I grew up believing in the virgin birth of Jesus Christ and his second coming, and that Jesus was a great teacher who taught his followers about God's oneness. Muslims believe in all of those things.

You spent five years studying Arabic and Islam in Syria, where you met and married your wife. Did you feel your experience as an American, and as an Asian-American, made you a different kind of Muslim?

No. When I went to Mecca and saw the vast diversity of Islam, I realized that Islam allows for people from different cultures. It doesn't apply to one particular ethnicity, or one way to dress. Being American didn't make me different. I was Muslim because I held the same belief in one God.

But often there is a gap between that ideal and the reality. Some Muslim Americans say that Muslims from other countries don't always accept their "American-ness."

I think it goes both ways. People have their own ethnocentric way of looking at things. I'm sure people from other cultures who come to America find that Americans want them to do things the way Americans do things. The beauty of Islam is that it accepts all cultures.

Faith in God and the military
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