Many Americans are wondering about Muslims after the Paris attack and the more recent attack in San Bernardino, California. Many have never met a Muslim casually, socially or professionally.

In 1983 and 1984, my family and I lived in Pakistan where I attended the Pakistan Army Command and Staff College. In 1985, we traveled back to Pakistan where I served two years as an Army attache at the U.S. embassy in Islamabad.

I hope there is some interest in some of the stories I will share about the many Muslims I met and with whom I socialized and worked professionally. I must warn now that one should never generalize and therefore stereotype from anecdotal information. Otherwise, take this for what you will.

I employed three Muslims: Parkash, Sardar and Faisal. Parkash and Faisal were “salt-of-the earth.” I trusted them implicitly. Sardar was not trustworthy. I knew professionally, perhaps, 200 Muslims, fellow students for a year at the Command and Staff College. Most were extremely hard working — much harder working than most American officers with whom I worked. Some of these Muslim students were not Pakistanis but were from the Middle East.

Once again they were not uniformly one thing or another. One Turk, Nazmi Cora, was hard-working, honest and my friend. Others were amazingly lazy. They formed the “pajama brigade,” known by wearing pajamas after class rather than participating in after-school study groups. One Arab was Major Shedeh, from the PLO. He has the distinction of being the laziest officer I’ve ever met.

Some conversations revealed a lot about Islamic thinking. I spoke with one Pakistani major about women’s place in society. I asked him, “Do you think women are as intelligent and talented as men?”

He said yes.

“Then,” I asked, “how will Pakistan ever catch up with the west as long as half its population is kept out of the work force?”

His answer was simple: “It won’t.”

Pakistan was changing in 1983. President Muhammad Zia ul Haq was making Pakistan more Islamic. I would guess that Pakistan 30 years later is much less affected by its British legacy and more Islamic. There was the absolute conviction among most Muslims that Sharia law was preferable to western law.

If you are female, or if you believe women should be equal to men, you should oppose Sharia with all your heart. Since there is no separation between religion and government under Islam, any attempt to establish Islamic laws in this country must be opposed if equality and freedom is to be preserved. In case you think that couldn’t happen, consider that Sharia law already exists in some parts of Great Britain.

There is some freedom of religion in some Muslim countries and it is nonexistent in others. Generally, I would prefer to be a Muslim in a Christian country than a Christian in a Muslim country.

The LGBT community is discriminated against severely in almost all Muslim countries. A disturbing aspect of Pakistani law is that insulting the prophet, Muhammad, is a capital crime. Imagine such a law in the United States and the chilling effect it would have on freedom of speech.

I have a set of opinions about Islam and some knowledge gained from my military duties in Muslim countries. This set of opinions belongs to me. My advice to all Americans who know almost nothing about Islam would be to learn all you can about Muslims and their beliefs.

There is a huge chasm between Islam and all other religions. There are obviously fanatical Muslims who are a threat to freedom-loving people. But there is a much larger number of Muslims who only want to live in peace to raise their children. Political candidates are spouting nonsense about the threat from Muslims.

On the other hand, we’re getting bad leadership from the White House — very bad leadership.

I fear for my country.

 

Michael Waldron is a retired lieutenant colonel, U.S. Army, who was born and raised in Niles. He previously served on the Niles Community School Board of Education. He can be reached at ml.waldron@sbcglobal.net.