Muslim Woman in U.S. Military Says She Won’t Fight Muslims

The video went viral on Wednesday: a well-fed, hijabed Muslim woman in a U.S. military uniform, smiling happily, affirmed that she would not obey orders if they involved her attacking people who were not Muslims. She is by no means the first Muslim to say this, and won’t be the last. Apparently it would be “Islamophobic” for the United States to keep disloyal soldiers out of the military.

Not The Bee reported Thursday that the soldier in the video is “Fariah Brewer, also known as Araiya Brewer.” Brewer “recorded the video on Monday, March 23” over the question of war with the Islamic Republic of Iran. She “states on social media that she ‘revert[ed] to Islam’ in December 2023,” and “reportedly laughed about joining the Army for the benefits.” Not The Bee adds the startling fact that “Brewer’s father is reportedly in prison for murdering a veteran in 2011.”

So what’s next for Fariah/Araiya Brewer? Will she be drummed out of the military? Will she face any military discipline at all? The question is larger than just her case, because we have seen this kind of thing before, and more than once. In April 2005, a Muslim serving in the U.S. Army, Hasan Akbar, was convicted of murder for killing two American soldiers and wounding fourteen in a grenade attack in Kuwait. In the midst of his grenade and small-arms attack on March 22, 2003, he yelled: “You guys are coming into our countries, and you’re going to rape our women and kill our children.”

Akbar was not Iraqi or Kuwaiti. He was an American, raised in Los Angeles. But when he became a Muslim, any allegiance he may have had to America was gone. His allegiance lay solely with the umma, the global Muslim community.

On November 5, 2009 in Fort Hood, an army psychiatrist, Major Nidal Malik Hasan, murdered thirteen unarmed soldiers and wounded over forty others while screaming “Allahu akbar.” Before his murderous jihad rampage, Hasan had raised eyebrows with his Islamic proselytizing, which he carried on even when he was supposed to be conducting medical briefings. Yet he kept on being promoted and coddled, as the army brass was so happy to have a Muslim soldier they could show off to demonstrate that they weren’t “Islamophobic.” Anyone who might have questioned Hasan’s loyalty would have been under suspicion himself.

In July 2011, another Muslim soldier, Pfc. Naser Jason Abdo, was arrested for plotting to explode a bomb at a restaurant near Fort Hood frequented by military personnel. As he was led out of a federal courtroom a day after his arrest, Abdo shouted out the name of his hero and role model: “Nidal Hasan Fort Hood 2009!”

In March 2014, Hasan inspired a copycat: John Thomas Booker, a convert to Islam who now goes by the name Muhammad Abdullah Hassan. According to the alert that the FBI and U.S. military distributed, Hassan was “recruited by the U.S. Army in Kansas City, Mo., in February 2014 and was scheduled to report for basic training on April 7. But he was discharged last week, apparently after law enforcement authorities learned of his alleged plan.” His plan involved staging a Fort Hood-style jihad massacre of his own. He wrote on Facebook: “Oh those of the ummah of the Prophet Muhammad(S)j. I will soon be leaving you forever so goodbye! I am going to wage jihad and hopes that i die.”

Another military jihadist, Ased Abdur-Raheem, formerly Nicholas Teausant, was a member of the Army National Guard who called for respect for the military uniform just three days before he was arrested, and almost a year after he wrote on Instagram: “don’t get me wrong I despise america and want its down fall but yeah haha. Lol I been a part of the army for two years now and I would love to join Allah’s army but I don’t even know how to start.”

It is mainstream Islam that loyalty to the umma supersedes all other loyalties. In light of that, it is extremely foolish to recruit Muslims into the U.S. military. Yes, some will serve loyally and well, but those who do so will do so in defiance of the clear Islamic imperative to put Islam and Muslims first. “Muhammad is the apostle of Allah,” says the Qur’an; “those who follow him are ruthless to unbelievers, merciful to one another.” (48:29) How many more Muslim members of the U.S. military must be “ruthless to unbelievers” before military leaders begin to account for this possibility and deal with it realistically?