 Hello, this is the Open Minded Thinker Show. I sincerely appreciate your time today. Well, it's a very great time again, and it's all about the U.S. soldiers converted to Islam. The U.S. is a diverse country, a country that harbors a lot of other religion, apart from Christianity. You know, Islam is one of those religion that people who are in the military profess. But the quantum scale of the people might be limited. So, that's the reason why, oftentimes people would say that the U.S. military cannot be said or it's inaccurate to say that U.S. military, our soldiers are becoming Muslims en masse. But all the same, there are reasons why people chose to become a part of a particular religion. Or it has to do with the experiences over time. Or, I think, personal belief and conviction. For example, people who are deployed in Muslim-majority countries, especially in Southeast Asia or the Middle East, would actually have this contact with the local culture and decide to be part of the religion. Many of the soldiers that have become apparently Muslims had all that to point to ask a possible trigger to their decision to become Muslims. But today, we want to know why are there increasing number of soldiers, American soldiers, who are converted to Islam? What is really going on that we have to answer that? Okay, let's watch this video. I'll be right back. Hello everyone. I'm C.J. Werleman. Don't forget to click the subscribe button below and we kindly ask you please help keep our show going and growing by supporting my journalism at patreon.com slash cjwerleman. Now let's get into it. In a moment, we will reveal why more American soldiers are converting to Islam. But I want to set this episode up with some important historical context, specifically in relation to the history of military warfare. You see, when Western historians talk about the greatest military leaders of all time, they point to Napoleon, Julius Caesar, and Alexander the Great, because these figures align with European-centric versions of history. But when you speak to modern-day military leaders and strategists, however, they will invoke a name most people in the Western world have never heard of. Khalid ibn al-Walid, a 7th-century warrior whose accomplishments placed him among the three greatest military records of all time. Having led the Arab Muslim army in victory in more than 50 battles with one dozen of them being described as decisive or pivotal in the rise of Islamic religion. Khalid ibn al-Walid. Al-Walid was a companion of the Prophet Muhammad and one of the Islamic Empire's most capable military commanders. His leadership united Arabia under a single leader for the first time in history. He's known for commanding the forces of the Rashidin army under Muhammad and his successors of the Rashidin caliphate. It's rumored that he fought in over 100 conflicts and skirmishes, but he's best remembered for 14 significant battles in which he remained undefeated against the Byzantine Empire and the Sassan inversions and helped spread Islam to the greater Middle East. But what's most fascinating about Khalid is he once hated and killed Muslims and in fact fought alongside the pagan Meccans against Prophet Muhammad's Muslims during the famous Battle of the Trench in the year 625. Two years later however, Khalid switches sides and converts to Islam and he would lead the Muslim army to unifying Arabia for the first time in human history, a feat that neither the Romans, Persians, nor Ethiopians were able to accomplish. Admittedly, I only learned about Khalid recently after a supporter on Patreon sent me his biography. But now I encourage every non-Muslim to learn about the life and times of Khalid al-Wailid. Anyway, his biography got me thinking. It got me thinking about my career covering a so-called war on terror as a journalist. And it got me thinking about the many interviews I have conducted with victims of the US torture program in Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay and the American military personnel who watched over them. It makes me remember a guy named Terry Hobrooks. He became a Muslim in 2008. Six years after he joined the US military to exact misplace vengeance against Muslims for 9-11. We flew to ground zero so we could see ground zero that day. It was the last thing we saw of America before we left was ground zero. I mean, they really drilled this intense necessity of hate and anger towards these people. He was deployed to Guantanamo Bay where the worst kinds of torture were inflicted upon more than 500 innocent Muslims who had nothing to do with al-Qaeda or 9-11. But it was here that he found Islam. And obviously as time has shown we've sent 550 of them home now so they weren't guilty to begin with. They were always smiling. There must be something in your faith or in your life that's lacking in mine because I'm here and I'm not smiling every day but you are, that's amazing. What do you have that I don't? You see, the thing about Islamophobia is it's rooted in unfamiliarity and geographical distance. But simply, we are easily made afraid of things we have no personal experience with. So when the warrantier had gone under way it was easy for the US government and media to whip up fear about the Muslim world. Given the overwhelming majority of Americans don't even know a solitary Muslim person. This was certainly the case for Miles, a former US Marine who converted to Islam after serving two tours in Afghanistan. Well, then another perception is, you know, what Muslims are terrorists, that sort of deal. Well, people fear what they don't know. The majority of Americans don't have Muslim friends. They don't know anything about Ramadhan or Noruz or praying five times a day or whatever. What Americans see is in the news, is in the CNN. And they see, you know, this terrorist attack, this Muslim terrorist attack, this Muslim extremist, this, that and the other thing. Islam makes up a billion people in the world, all right. So one sixth, one seventh of the world is Muslim and you're going to call that entire population terrorist. Before I continue with this, I would love to art to these Americans. And listen to me, if it's not about Americans, you know, watching just the CNN or the BBC or whatever, you know, I think it all, you know, trickles down to Americans not willing. This curriculum in America, of course, most of you understand that teaches history, history is part of the curriculum. So an average American reads about American history, American civil war, the founding of America. Those who founded America founded it on the value of Christianity, to be honest. When America existed as a country, as, I mean, a democratic country at that time, fought over the British and from it and country started to thrive. People still regarded their leaders in Germany as the Holy Roman Emperor. So that's to tell you, you know, all this. Americans have history in the curriculum in school. They study this history. What they do not have is the history of Islam in the curriculum. And they're not, no, we're not trying to read it. It's a matter of not something, not being their business. They believe, oh, Islam is not really the business. There's no need to study Islam. And there's no need to read about Islam. The only time Islam came to the mainstream was when the 9-11 crisis happened. There are literally dozens, more likely hundreds of stories about American soldiers converting to Islam after being sent to Afghanistan. Echoing the conversion story of the great Islamic warrior Khalid al-Waleed. Put simply, being exposed to the Muslim world, even in a heat of battle, is the fastest and surest way to unpack every single lie you've been fed about Islam in the media. So then I ended up joining the military. And once I joined the military, I was in the US Army for a number of years and ended up deploying to Afghanistan to where I kind of learned a lot more about the culture of a Muslim. Didn't really dive into the Quran at all, but really learned what a Muslim was all about, their general lifestyle, at least out in the parts of Kandahar Afghanistan. And found some of the most peaceful people that I've ever met in my life. Definitely gave me a different view than what I had seen here in the West when it comes to different news channels and different things that are thought and stereotypes of Muslims. So learned that they were not exactly what I was taught. Okay, so what stands out from this testimony is the word peace. So let's think about that for a moment. He was sent to a Muslim country by an invading military force to kill what he had been told were threatening and violent locals, but only to discover they lived peacefully and in accordance with their religious faith, while his country was invading and bombing countries all around the world. It's this realization that has drawn so many current and former American servicemen and women to Islam. The very religion had been convinced the United States was at war against, like this U.S. Marine Sergeant who converted to Islam while serving in Iraq. Sean Blackwell is a former Sergeant in the U.S. Army. In May 2003, a few months after the U.S. invasion of Iraq, he was on guard duty outside the health ministry in Baghdad. A young Iraqi woman approached him. She was looking for work. They got to talking. So I was like, hey, do you have a girlfriend? Doesn't mean like I want it to be a girlfriend or anything. I was just curious. And he said, no, but if I'm going to be marrying some, I'll be marrying you. They kept meeting. Three months later, they decided to get married. Sean converted to Islam against his commander's wishes. Converting to Islam while fighting a war against a Muslim population on behalf of your imperialistic government is a paradox that could not be more stunning. When Islam rightfully claims to be the religion of peace, then these conversion stories must count as its best advertisement. But if you're looking for a story that will literally knock you down in amazement, then the story about Richard McKinney, a former U.S. Marine who served in Somalia and Afghanistan, promises to leave you speechless. You see, he was so radicalized by anti-Muslim hate that he planned to bomb an Islamic center in Indiana. I had devised a plan, create my own IED, homemade bomb, and I was going to set it off right outside the Monty Islamic Center. 200 plus killed or injured, that was the plan. I saw an opportunity to do one last thing for my country. This was my rationale. I knew I would end up in a federal prison with a needle in my arm. I didn't care my hatred of Islam. It was the only thing that was keeping me alive. But a moment he shared with his young daughter made him rethink his plan. So we decided to give the local Muslim community one chance to prove that Islam isn't the violent religion he had been led to believe. So we visited a mosque he intended to bomb. So I went to the Islamic Center, see a gentleman in the shoe room taking off his shoes. He looks at me and he smiles. He said, can I help you? And I said, yeah, I want you to teach me about Islam. So he went and he gave me a crumb. Read this, come back when you have questions. So I did. And I would see things in the book. I'd be like, there it is. I got him right there. He's playing that to me. And they would. This was a kind of awakening. Long story short, eight weeks after that first day I stepped into the Islamic Center, I became a Muslim. Now here comes the kicker. Three years after converting to Islam, he became the president of the very same Islamic Center he had planned to attack in 2009. Now if you're thinking I've cherry-picked a few select stories to paint a broader picture, then you'd be wrong. The internet is literally filled with similar convert stories and across multiple nationalities. You'll find British soldiers, Australian soldiers, and French soldiers converting to Islam during and after their deployments to Muslim lands. We have to be very careful when we react to videos like this because we have to be careful so that we do not pass out to be like people who are not facing reality. People who are not facing reality. People who are adverse to the reality on ground. We understand that there are some Muslims who misinterpret the Quran and behave in a very unsavory way, to be honest. I recall that I read the news yesterday that a mob in Pakistan sent someone ablaze because he was accused of blasphemy. The same thing happened in Africa where a lady was accused of blasphemy and she was immediately. Some of these guys that do this are people who really believe that Islam is a peaceful religion, a very quiet religion, they shouldn't. So why don't they allow authorities or laws to take the real cause? When somebody does something or accuses of something, a group of mob will come together and then set the person ablaze and kill him or kill her. It's apparently not charitable to just conclude that the criticism of Islam has no place here. It's the ordinary people in Islam, the normal people, Muslims. Most times these guys are divided members of Islam that really have Islam very close to their heart. At the end of the day, they act accordingly.