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Wassef Ali Hassoun was a deserter

According to an article in today’s New York Times (link), Marine Cpl. Wassef Ali Hassoun, who is being held hostage by Iraqi insurgents, was a deserter who was trying to make his way home to Lebanon.

According to the article, Hassoun, a Muslim and fluent Arabic speaker, befriended many of the Iraqis on base and they agreed to help sneak him off. Once off, instead of helping him, they turned him over to the bad guys.

I blogged two days ago about Wassef Ali Hassoun, and noted the fact that he is Muslim. Not only did the insurgents not care about about his religion, even his Iraqi “friends” on the base betrayed one of their Muslim brothers.

It may not be politically correct to say this, but this story has me wondering about whether his religion had anything to do with his deserting the Marines. In March, 2003 a Muslim-American soldier in Kuwait, Sgt. Asan Akbar, killed a fellow soldier with a grenade and wounded 15 others. (link to article at CNN.com) Muslim-American soldiers just don’t seem all that trustworthy to me.

Apostasy in Islam

Someone left a comment on my previous post pointing out that the insurgents would consider Hassoun a traitor, who should therefore be dealt with more harshly than an infidel. I think this is correct. In the Islamic world, the crime of apostasy, that is turning one’s back on Islam, is punishable by death. This is a much worse crime than never having been Muslim at all. The Hadith (the collected saying of Mohammed) says “Kill whoever changes his religion.”

Many Islamic nations punish the crime of apostasy with death, and that’s death by beheading if it’s in a country like Saudi Arabia, called by some the beheading capital of the world.

In my previous post, I expressed hope that by killing a Muslim brother the insurgents would lose support in the Islamic world. But that’s not likely if the Islamic world views Hassoun as an apostate for being in the United States military and fighting against Islam.

posted Wednesday, June 30, 2004