A clergyman in Gainesville, Florida, wants to burn the Koran on September 11, 2010.

 Attorney General Eric Holder and General David Petraeus rightly have pronounced themselves opposed to this event.  As an armed forces veteran of Iraq, and having had the privilege to visit and work in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and other Muslim nations, at this moment I am ashamed for having failed to express opposition to the Gainesville event sooner.

 I am confident that there are thousands of American armed forces veterans who feel the same way, and I presume to speak for them.

 For the vast majority of ordinary Americans, Islam remains a cipher, a caricature – even in good faith.  Sadly, two concepts undergird the general American understanding of this faith and philosophy:  the 9/11 attacks, and the Nation of Islam, headed by Minister Louis Farrakhan.  For obvious reasons this is unfortunate, yet it is nonetheless a fact.

 But for many American armed forces and civilian veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan, Islam is something quite different.  Islam is something experienced personally and up close.  Here are a few lines about my own experience.

 My interest in Islam was sparked initially by study.  The first text I read touching the subject was Alex Haley’s biography of Malcolm X.  In particular I recall the book’s description of Malcolm’s pilgrimage to Mecca, and how this experience changed his understanding of Islam.  This epiphany may have cost him his life.

 Later, the Pakistani uncle of one of my son’s schoolmates was kind enough to give me a copy of the Koran and an accompanying commentary in English, which I continue to read with great interest.  As I write, these treasured volumes are standing not ten feet away from me on the fireplace mantle, near my weekday Missal. 

 Not long after 9/11, a Senate staff colleague and I were privileged to visit Samarkand, Uzbekistan, a city steeped in the beauty and culture of historical Islam.  In Samarkand, we discovered the revered place in Islam of Amir Timur – Tamerlane –and the important role of the Samarkand/Bukhara school in Islamic thought.

 Later, on a visit to a remote desert border post between Somalia and Djibouti, I learned something more about Islam and devotion when I saw the reverence and care that Djiboutien soldiers bestowed upon small prayer-places, impeccable oases, amid the otherwise punishing squalor of each small border post.

 In 2006, while serving in Iraq in the US armed forces, I learned that even in the midst of carnage, Baghdad was a city that prayed.  The call to prayer was heard each and every day, even during the worst moments.  The piousness of the Iraqis with whom I served was neither contrived nor ostentatious.   It was humble and genuine and it inspired empathy, solidarity and respect among the Americans.

 The respect showed by Iraqi comrades likewise for the Christian faith was evident.  In fact, on my last day in Baghdad, this ancient seat of Islamic learning, my Iraqi Special Operations Force counterparts presented to me a small “Last Supper” carpet which they ferreted out in a Red Zone bazaar at enormous personal risk.  This is a treasured memento in my home and it is within view now as I write these lines.

The most important lesson I have learned about the place of Islam in America was learned at Arlington National Cemetery.   At Arlington, in Section 60 of the cemetery, one may visit many of the honored American dead of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

 For quite a few years, the cemetery administration has been permitting the placement of faith symbols on the headstones of the fallen.  Together with the Christian emblems, Stars of David, Buddhist wheels, and other symbols, there is no shortage of the Crescent of Islam.  In other words:  since 9/11, in Afghanistan and Iraq, American soldiers who are Muslims have given their lives in battle wearing the American uniform.

Thus, when I read about things like the planned Gainesville Koran-burning, I ask myself:  what do the families of these fallen soldiers think about this?  Are these fallen soldiers not our sons, too?

 I feel that it is the solemn duty of all Americans to put themselves into the shoes of these families.  The sacrifices of their children for our nation demand it.  Their anguish is our anguish – and we should not aggravate it blindly, callously, and without mercy with unfortunate events such as that apparently planned in Gainesville.

 My understanding of Islam is, at best, superficial.  And the lines you are reading were written before the “final chapter” of the Gainesville story.  I do not know how it will turn out.  But I would like to assure Muslim readers that this Christian American writer emphatically does not approve of what is threatened by the Gainesville clergyman.  And this writer feels confident that many thousands of Americans – many armed forces veterans – feel the same way.

 Attorney General Holder and General Petreaus:  you are correct about Gainesville.   Thank you for speaking up.  I apologize for arriving late.