American Guard Converts to Islam

[Revan 411]

Source

When US soldier Terry Brooks was sent to join military guards at the infamous Guantanamo prison that houses Moslem militants from Taliban and Al-Qaeda, he had not thought he would embrace the religion of those prisoners. After a few chats with a Moroccan inmate, he converted to Islam in 2003.

A simple counter-part to the "Osama is dead" thread.

[Liverandbacon]

While I don't doubt that this could've happened, I can only find one source for this, and saying that someone was "fired" from the army seems a bit fishy.

I'd assume that they mean either an 'other than honorable', bad conduct, or dishonorable discharge, but those don't get handed out lightly, certainly not for an ordinary religious conversion. Either the story's bunk, or Brooks did something dubious during or after his conversion.

I don't care who or what a soldier prays to as long as he'll pull the trigger when the time comes. Unfortunately, given this specific guy's words, I'm not certain he would.

[jawathehutt]

Good thing they fired him, wouldnt want him converting other good Christian boys against God's chosen nation in this great war we have against the Islams of the Middle East.

[Hallucination]

No wonder they fired him, he stopped torturing long enough to talk to the prisoners.

[Tommycat]

1) Never trust a site that can't even get the NAME right.
Terry Holdbrooks was the guard.
2) nobody gets "fired" from the military without serious due process. He got an honorable discharge for a "General Personality Disorder." In order for that to happen a base psychiatrist has to get involved. It's not something that can be just thrown out there.
3) There are quite a few Muslim soldiers in our armed forces. Some of them are actually serving at Gitmo.
4) Muslim terrorists are the one fighting a religious war. WE are not. If we were it would actually be a lot simpler, with less worries about offending the perpetually offended Muslims.

Get your facts straight before you rage against the armed forces. Better yet, go ask a soldier if he cares that the guy next to him is a buddhist/muslim/jew/christian, or would he rather just know that he's got his back.

Ugh... and reading up on him... He's a 9/11 truther too... Born from drug addict parents, raised by hippies, yeah... Okay... I'm starting to see why the military gave him a GPD Discharge...

source

[Darth Avlectus]

^^^ Emirates 24/7? You mean like the United Arab Emirates? The same UAE housing Dubai that tried to buy out our (USA's) national port security under our noses, from George Dubya and would have succeded had the American media not informed us? (One case where I can actually say the American media is the lesser of two evils because it acted in the favor of American people. Just saying.)

Oh no, they aren't slanted. At all. Certainly not like that extremistfairly moderateAmericanized Yahoo! news. Though I am pleased they use the older spelling of "moslem".

Brooks said he had first concealed his decision to convert to Islam from other US guards at Guantanamo, adding that when the officer learned about it, he and the other soldiers began to treat him cruelly and accused him of betraying America. Around two years before the end of his contract, he was fired from the army.

Fired? I thought it was discharged without honor when they essentially kick you out of the military? A simple religious conversion would not warrant that. And even in the case that this were true, why have we not heard more about it? I would have thought all the rights activists and groups would be up in arms about this? The American media Fuux Noose and PMSDNC certainly would never miss an opportunity to rile up their audiences. That tells me that maybe there is evidence Mr. Brooks may have done something else to warrant the discharge.

Originally Posted by Liverandbacon

While I don't doubt that this could've happened, I can only find one source for this, and saying that someone was "fired" from the army seems a bit fishy.

I'd assume that they mean either an 'other than honorable', bad conduct, or dishonorable discharge, but those don't get handed out lightly, certainly not for an ordinary religious conversion. Either the story's bunk, or Brooks did something dubious during or after his conversion.

I don't care who or what a soldier prays to as long as he'll pull the trigger when the time comes. Unfortunately, given this specific guy's words, I'm not certain he would.

Seconded because I don't think most military people (nor citizens) care what you believe so long as it doesn't impede you from doing your job and duty to America.

I may be of the crowd who thinks the whole OBL death thing smells fishy, but that doesn't mean I'm turning tail and putting down our military for it.

[mimartin]

According to Newsweek he was not released from the military until after his time at Guantanamo. When he was released he was stationed at Fort Leonard Wood, Mo. He was also given a honorable discharge.

Newsweek

Looks like facts are being rewritten to support a book deal to me.

[Liverandbacon]

Originally Posted by Tommycat

1) Never trust a site that can't even get the NAME right.
Terry Holdbrooks was the guard.

I guess that explains why I couldn't find any other sources, only various Muslim organization sites linking to the same article. I was searching with the guy's name.

Originally Posted by Tommycat

2) nobody gets "fired" from the military without serious due process. He got an honorable discharge for a "General Personality Disorder." In order for that to happen a base psychiatrist has to get involved. It's not something that can be just thrown out there.

Since the word 'fired' has negative connotations, I assumed he had at least gotten an OTH. The article's author calling an honorable discharge 'getting fired' is at best ignorant, at not-so-good an attempt to rewrite history to promote a book, and at worst an attempt to inflame anger where none is needed.

Originally Posted by Tommycat

3) There are quite a few Muslim soldiers in our armed forces. Some of them are actually serving at Gitmo.

And the vast majority of them are smart enough to realize that we aren't the ones fighting a religious war, and do their jobs well.

Originally Posted by Tommycat

4) Muslim terrorists are the one fighting a religious war. WE are not. If we were it would actually be a lot simpler, with less worries about offending the perpetually offended Muslims.

So true. A war against Islam itself would be easier, cheaper (many weapons we use have cheaper and more effective alternatives that we don't use because we want to avoid civilian casualties), and far less complicated. The US isn't at war with Islam, nor is it evil. If we were (at war with Islam OR evil), we'd have won by now. However, we'd also be evil, which would suck.

Originally Posted by Tommycat

Ugh... and reading up on him... He's a 9/11 truther too... Born from drug addict parents, raised by hippies, yeah... Okay... I'm starting to see why the military gave him a GPD Discharge...

Why would anyone who thinks the government orchestrated 9/11 join the military? I can't comprehend the thought process that would lead to such a decision.

Anyway, I'm not really a huge fan of religion (I'm cool with others having it as long as they don't try to force me into it), but maybe getting religion will provide him with the guidance he needs to sort his life out.
Maybe.

[Tommycat]

Funny thing is, he even says that he never witnessed any torture. Just humiliation... Which while not exactly something that makes us look good(it would be nice if we could do away with it, and that the terrorists would be forthcoming with information), it is still just this side of the legal aspect. He claims to have knowledge of this or that, but when questioned, it becomes what he heard from so-and-so.

As far as I'm concerned he can convert to whatever religion he wants. It's not really surprising that someone who is around a religion all day might come to see it as not as bad as portrayed(especially since Islam is portrayed so poorly now a days). Heck he may even have found that part of himself that was missing in Islam.

I think the facts are being twisted by him to make it seem as though he was treated unfairly because of the choice of religion. But the fact that there have been and still is a Muslim chaplain on base should clue some of us in that it isn't some taboo in the military to be Muslim.

Quite frankly IF we were fighting a war against Islam, ask yourself two questions... What is the most sacred place for Muslims? How long do you think it would take to get a massive bomb over Mecca?

[Totenkopf]

Originally Posted by Tommycat

Funny thing is, he even says that he never witnessed any torture. Just humiliation... Which while not exactly something that makes us look good(it would be nice if we could do away with it, and that the terrorists would be forthcoming with information), it is still just this side of the legal aspect. He claims to have knowledge of this or that, but when questioned, it becomes what he heard from so-and-so.

As far as I'm concerned he can convert to whatever religion he wants. It's not really surprising that someone who is around a religion all day might come to see it as not as bad as portrayed(especially since Islam is portrayed so poorly now a days). Heck he may even have found that part of himself that was missing in Islam.

I think the facts are being twisted by him to make it seem as though he was treated unfairly because of the choice of religion. But the fact that there have been and still is a Muslim chaplain on base should clue some of us in that it isn't some taboo in the military to be Muslim.

Quite frankly IF we were fighting a war against Islam, ask yourself two questions... What is the most sacred place for Muslims? How long do you think it would take to get a massive bomb over Mecca?

Guess it would depend on how far a war escalated. Given that most of the European nations in WW2 were at least nominally Christian, it didn't stop churches from being destroyed. My guess is either unlikely or how far away is the ship parked that nukes Mecca?

[Tommycat]

Point is, IF it were a religious war, I don't think we would have any trouble dropping big bombs on religious sites. And we have a LOT of big bombs. And they are actually cheaper than the small bombs we use against strategic targets. Heck there are some pretty massive conventional bombs that would do the trick. Do like the Muslims did during their expansion, blow up a religious site and place your own on top of it.

But that's assuming we threw away all our morals, and went hog wild against Islam... No pun intended... If we were to become sadistic and highly anti-Islam... You know... in short, like Michael Savage would have us prosecute the war.

[Totenkopf]

Originally Posted by Tommycat

Point is, IF it were a religious war, I don't think we would have any trouble dropping big bombs on religious sites. And we have a LOT of big bombs. And they are actually cheaper than the small bombs we use against strategic targets. Heck there are some pretty massive conventional bombs that would do the trick. Do like the Muslims did during their expansion, blow up a religious site and place your own on top of it.

But that's assuming we threw away all our morals, and went hog wild against Islam... No pun intended... If we were to become sadistic and highly anti-Islam... You know... in short, like Michael Savage would have us prosecute the war.

I imagine if we end up in a conflict with a bunch of muslim nations, it won't be in the current politically correct style. More likely like WW2, in that it'll be total war all over again....Curtis Lemay/ "Bomber Harris" style (ie virtually no restrictions on targeting). IF that happens, we'll have another 50 or more years of desconstructionists wearing hair shirts, screeching about how amorally/immorally the US behaved.....yet again.

As to OP, meh....so he converted, big deal. As to the motive behind his complaints....it reeks of opportunism.