Muslim Army chaplain recalls aftermath of Pentagon attack
“Unimaginable” was how Army Chaplain Abdul-Rasheed Muhammad described the carnage at the Pentagon after militant Islamic terrorists commandeered and crashed an American Airlines jet into the U.S. military complex on Sept. 11, 2001.
In 1994, he had become the first military chaplain of Muslim faith in the U.S. armed forces and was on duty at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center when the terrorist attack occurred.
Five-member teams of psychologists, social workers and chaplains were immediately dispatched to the Pentagon, assigned to work around the clock in eight-hour shifts.
For three weeks, Muhammad administered to first responders, search and rescue workers, law enforcement officers, Pentagon employees, medical personnel and anyone who sought pastoral counseling or stress debriefing as recovery operations took place and remains were removed from the crash site.
Within a day, a large U.S. flag was erected at what was left of the crumbled, scorched wall of the Pentagon where the plane had crashed, Muhammad recalls. The smell of jet fuel lingered for weeks.
Asked if his faith made him a target at that volatile time, he immediately responds: “Absolutely not. I was an Army officer and a chaplain — a chaplain who happened to be Muslim.”
At the 9/11 crash scene, he and his colleagues set up services in the parking area by the crash site.
“We talked to anyone who wanted to talk to us,” the Muslim chaplain recalls. “I did my Friday services there — one was inside the Pentagon; one was outside the Pentagon. Everybody was in shock. Everybody was dismayed,” says the father of seven.
He was glad to be standing by when people needed someone there to comfort them. “I was fulfilling a role. Everyone pulled together.”
It angered Muhammad that people of any faith could do a deed as terrible as this. He was upset that the al-Qaeda terrorists were identified with his religion. He knew their actions weren’t representative of Islamic teachings, “but I also knew they would be associated with Islam,” he says.
“For those of us in the Muslim community, there was a lot of fear and anxiety as to what the aftermath would be,” he says. “Mosques were desecrated. Some businesses were destroyed or burned. Muslim organizations in America had their offices ransacked by law enforcement. … There was a lot of chaos, confusion, anger.”
President George W. Bush helped soothe tempers by visiting a Washington, D.C., mosque and stressing that the terrorists were not practicing Islamic teachings.
“The Muslim community in America was very grateful for that,” Muhammad says.
He took part in a formal memorial service on Oct. 11, 2001, with Bush, members of the U.S. Cabinet, Joint Chiefs of Staff, legislators and thousands of onlookers.
“If I had my choice, I wouldn’t have done it,” Muhammad recalls, but the Army Chief of Chaplains had asked him to give a prayer.
He later told independent documentary maker David Washburn, who produced a video about his 9/11 experience, that while he did not want to take part, his participation “was in the best interest of everybody, including Muslims. It was really important for a Muslim to be there … a Muslim in uniform.”
The chaplain went on to serve in the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. He retired from the Army in 2012 as a lieutenant colonel after 23 years in the service. Today at 68, he does mental health and spiritual counseling at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in La Jolla, Calif.