“Tarik, whose service dates back to 1981, had a positive experience being an American Muslim stationed in a remote part of Afghanistan where he was able to connect with local soldiers. The experience was different for Aaron who was often not able to go on rounds with his unit in Iraq because it conflicted with his prayer routine.”
-Iowa Public Radio producer, and co-host of “Weekend America: Iowa Edition,” Kyle Gassiott
[Download the MP3 for this week]
Ever wonder what sorts of local stories and features your fellow public radio listeners are getting to hear in the other 49 states of the Union? The NPR Station Showcase with PRX is a weekly window onto just these sorts of local productions. My name is Aaron Henkin, I’m your host and curator, and each week here on the Station Showcase we give a little extra attention to an outstanding story from one of the hundreds of public radio stations across the country. This week we travel to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where Kyle Gassiott produces for, and co-hosts, the program “Weekend America: Iowa Edition” at Iowa Public Radio. We’re taking a listen to a story that Kyle recently put together about the history of Muslim soldiers in the US Army, from World War II to the present.
What was it that put this story on your radar, and what got you interested in pursuing it?
I am currently a graduate student in the journalism program at the University of Iowa. One of the required courses is a media project during which 10 or so graduate students pick at topic to explore for a semester and then publish/broadcast the resulting stories. For our project my colleagues and I chose Islam in Iowa, as there are around 700 Muslim families in the eastern part of the state. In May we published the stories in our school paper, broadcast radio pieces, and posted all of our work on a website www.islaminiowa.org.
When I was initially picking my story, I was very interested in the Mother Mosque in Cedar Rapids. Not only is this the oldest mosque in the country–it was founded in 1934 by a group of Lebanese immigrant families–there was also a record of U.S. Military service dating back to WWII. At that time sixteen Muslim men from the community enlisted to serve their adopted country overseas. After learning about this and about Abdullah Igram who petitioned President Eisenhower to have dog tags reflect Muslim identity, I knew I had a great story.
You’ve got a great cross-section of Muslim patriots past and present in your story… how you did you go about finding these folks and choosing which ones would end up in the piece?
I was very fortunate early on in my reporting to get in touch with Taha Tawil the Imam at the Mother Mosque. He has been in the community for a number of years and worked with many different reporters writing stories about Cedar Rapids. One afternoon he assembled four generations of Muslim soldiers for me to interview including Ace Aossey, Tarik Beloach, and Aaron Robinson. Over the course of three hours–including two Marantz outages–I was able to record the bulk of my story just by talking with these men.
After my interview that day in March I knew the chronology of the story was going to be important. Ace Aossey would represent the experience of soldiers from WWII and Korea, a time that was very different for Muslim soldiers than it is today. According to Ace, being Muslim in the military meant not eating pork, not drinking and not much more beyond that. Soldiers were stationed in largely Buddhist countries like Korea where there were no mosques around to attend for Friday prayers. Today it is very different for soldiers like Tarik Beloach and Aaron Robinson who served in Afghanistan and Iraq respectively. They are sent to the Middle East to fight with and against other Muslims. Tarik, whose service dates back to 1981, had a positive experience being an American Muslim stationed in a remote part of Afghanistan where he was able to connect with local soldiers. The experience was different for Aaron, who was often not able to go on rounds with his unit in Iraq because it conflicted with his prayer routine.
It’s really interesting to hear that clip of the Eisenhower speech from 1957 – it seems like quite a poignant contrast to the political rhetoric of today, don’t you think?
Definitely! I think at the time the speech was made, Muslim citizens of the United States–like Abdullah Igram–were particularly valued for their contributions to the business community. In this very public speech at the National Islamic Center in Washington, Eisenhower recognized the growing influence of the Islamic community in the US and the impact it was going to have in the future not only in business but in other areas as well. President Bush made a similar speech but for a different reason when he spoke at the Center in the days after the September 11th attacks. In contrast to Eisenhower, his speech was for non-Muslim Americans, assuring them that the vast majority of the world’s Islamic population is peaceful.
The case of Aaron Robinson is really fascinating… did he talk much with you about why he converted and how his fellow soldiers reacted to his religious conversion?
I talked at length with Aaron about his reasons for conversion and the reactions from his family, friends, and fellow soldiers. He said it was a confluence of events that lead him to convert. First he had friends who he admired that are part of a local hip-hop group and who are Muslim. In their apartment after a concert one night he picked up a Koran and stayed up reading all night long. At that time Aaron was also having problems with the family of his girlfriend who had recently become pregnant with his child. Aaron says that at this time he was called to Islam by Allah in order to prepare him for future hardships.
When Aaron was in Iraq he forged very strong bonds with other members of his unit. He told me about one soldier named Hatcher whose belief in Catholicism matched his own in Islam. Aaron said that during one of their talks one night this soldier broke down in tears because he believes that Aaron will go to hell for his beliefs. I have to believe that conversations like this take place on a regular basis in units stationed across the Middle East.
Tell us a little bit about your own radio background and the sort of work you’re doing for Iowa Public Radio these days…
I actually have been a student radio producer and journalist for about two years now. I started out in August of 2005 producing music reviews and interviews for “Weekend America: Iowa Edition” and eventually became the program’s co-host. In addition to features for IPR–which is a great place to start in radio–I also do some stories for the national version of Weekend America. I’ve done pieces on the mumps epidemic, a butter cow sculptor, the Lincoln Highway, a retiring jazz DJ, and an artist who painted the entire Sistine Chapel in spray paint. This July 7 I just aired a feature on Weekend America about the low attendance at the George W. Bush Childhood Home museum in my hometown of Midland, Texas.
Have you got any other big stories on the horizon that you’re working on currently?
I’ve got about three stories I’m juggling right now. Two of them are rather “diminutive” as one is about a man who lives in and is a proponent of tiny houses and the other is about the University of Iowa’s collection of miniature books. The third is about the baked chain letter known as Amish Friendship Bread. Oh and recently I found out that Iowa is fast becoming a center for the study of the pre-historic sloth, so I possibly see hairy creatures in my future.
Kyle Gassiott is a producer and co-host of “Weekend America: Iowa Edition” at WSUI/KSUI Iowa Public Radio. You can hear more stories from Kyle and the folks at Iowa Public Radio online at The Public Radio Exchange. That’s where producers from around the world share their work. Log on, write your own reviews, and have a say in what ends up on the radio at www.prx.org.
[...] Public Radio’s Kyle Gassiott is the newest addition to the NPR/PRX Station Showcase, a growing collection of the best reports from producers across the [...]