Muslim American Military Personnel: Experiences of Faith and Culture in the American Military

Operations Enduring Freedom, Iraqi Freedom, and New Dawn, combined with the prior military actions in Kuwait (Operation Desert Storm/Shield), illuminated the minority of Muslim Americans who are or have engaged in combat in Muslim countries. Previous research on the experiences of Asian American Vietnam veterans resulted in a race-related model of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD; Loo, 1994). In this study, I sought to extend the findings of past research and examine the impact of the recent military actions on Muslim American military personnel. Given the ability for in-depth analysis, combined with the paucity of research on this new cohort, a qualitative method of grounded theory was chosen. Thirteen Muslim American military personnel representing all branches of the military were interviewed. Twelve participants were male, ages ranging from 27 to 56 (M = 44). Four participants self-identified as Asian American, four as African American, two as Middle Eastern, two as other, and one as Caucasian. Four participants were officers, with the remaining nine being non-commissioned officers. Years in service ranged from 9 to 26 (M = 16). Following the chosen methodology, codes were created from the transcripts of the participants. Following this, 23 concepts (collections of codes) were identified. Examples of concepts included intolerance, fear, educate, identity, and acceptance. From these 23 concepts, eight categories were identified, including discrimination, burden, apprehension, complexity, doubts, responsibility, identity, and protective. Further, during the analysis of these concepts, three contexts in which these experiences were described were revealed, namely experiences within the American military, Muslim American civilian community, and American civilian community. Finally, the fourth stage in which a theory is derived from the data, revealed a relational theory embedded in a systems paradigm. Participants' descriptions were categorized into three relational levels of intrapersonal, interpersonal, and environmental. In addition to describing instances of discrimination, strengths and resilience factors were also noted. The findings of this study are compared and contrasted to Loo's (1994) race-related model of PTSD. From the data, a relational theory based in a systems paradigm emerged.