Religious Leaders
There are a few moments from my life that are ingrained in my memory. This is one of those times: when my knowledge of the Middle East and Islam helped create meaningful connections and build trust.
That was until one day when a young Lance Corporal in full battle-rattle—bullet-proof vest, rifle, and helmet—busted into our office huffing and puffing with the urgency of a man at war,
“Is there an Alexs Thompson in here?”
“uh…yeah. That’s me.”
I immediately stood up and was infected by this guy’s energy.
“We need you right now!”
He didn’t show any of the normal courtesy to the Captain in the office so I could tell it was urgent.
“Why? What’s going on?”
“There’s a bunch of religious leaders getting together and we heard you know about that shit.”
It is still one of the most important moments of my life. I felt like Indiana Jones. A nerdy adventurer called into action. I grabbed my helmet and bullet-proof vest and ran through Camp Fallujah to a Humvee that whisked me off to the Iraqi countryside.
The imāms at that meeting were from across the area and had taken it upon themselves to figure out how they could work together to fight the insurgency. I recognized their names from the reports I had been writing and tried to insert myself in the conversation when they started talking about religion. They were all surprised that I knew about the Qur’an and religious law and by the end of the meeting I had passed out my phone number to all of the attendees and promised to visit them in their communities if they were interested.
From that day on the religious leader engagement program was a success. Once or twice a week I found myself discussing Islamic theology on my cellphone or at the home of religious leaders in and around Fallujah. I wrote regular reports that were shown to the Colonel and his staff and helped them understand which leaders they should engage when they were making plans in the communities around Fallujah. They finally realized that religious leaders were an integral part of the Iraqi cultural fabric.
I had only been in Iraq for three months when I realized that I was having an impact on how the Marines conducted their operations. Things were better than my wildest expectations until one week in June 2008 when my world shattered.