CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- On this Veterans Day, a group of Charlotte vets who are also Muslim sent their condolences to the victims and families of last week's shootings at Fort Hood, Texas.
The vets said they hope not all Muslims would be blamed for the actions of one man. The suspected shooter who killed 13 people is Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, an Army psychiatrist who is said to be a devout Muslim.
"I'm not a terrorist. I love America," said Salahuddin Hasan, a veteran of the Vietnam War.
Hasan and the other vets gathered at the Masjid Ash-Shaheed mosque on West Sugar Creek Road in Charlotte where Khalil Akbar is the Imam.
Akbar called the Fort Hood shootings "insane." He said, "No ideology, religious or political, could ever justify or excuse such a heinous and cowardly attack."
The vets say there are many Muslims in the service who are there because they love their country. Nasiff Majeed is a veteran pilot who said, "Muslims are those that fight for right, but fight for the good cause and that's for the benefit of humanity."
Asked if there was a contradiction for a Muslim to be in the military and fight other Muslims, Salahuddin Hasan said, "You are not fighting Muslims, you are fighting evil. Muslims, Christians, and Jews all have the same enemy -- evil."
The Muslim vets all served well before the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, and certainly well before Fort Hood. But Shani Rashid came to ask what she might tell her son, who is Muslim, and now serving in the Air Force and finding it more difficult than ever.
She said of her son, "You have to put your life on the line like everybody else, yet apologize for your existence or your belief in God."
The vets counseled her to tell her son that many Muslims have stood-up since 9/11 to say, "No, this is not in the name of Islam."
