Muslim Army vet who served in Iraq finds “raghead” and “terrorist” scrawled on locker

32-year-old Mohammad Abbas is of Palestinian heritage, was born in the UAE, and immigrated to the United States in 2000.

When Abbas joined the US Army in 2007, he says he did it because he wanted a better life. He served 400 days in Iraq for his adopted country and returned home with some health issues, including PTSD. In 2010, he retired from active service.

As a high school student, Abbas says he was taunted by ignorant kids who accused him of having ties to terrorism. Now, years later he deals with accusations from members of the military that are not all that different.

Abbas says on Sept 1, he found the words “terrorist” and “raghead” scrawled on his locker at the Marine Corps Logistics Base in Barstow, Calif., where he works as a tools and parts attendant.

The incident brought back memories of times in the Army when he felt like an outsider. Abbas recalls hearing members of the 101st Airborne say things like, “Look at that Muslim bitch” and “they smell like goats” — as they drove around during missions in Iraq.

Abbas would interject and say: “Hey, I’m a Muslim too…You’re talking about a whole religion.” He says things got worse later on, when he started working as an Arabic translator. His fellow soldiers started calling him “terrorist,” “raghead” and “anti-American,” according to the Huffington Post.

Again, he would be called a ‘raghead’ when walking into the base at Barstow. “In early 2011, I was told I was a foreigner and I needed to go back to my country,” Abbas said.

After the San Bernardino attack in December 2015, he says co-workers accused him of threatening to blow up the base or shoot everyone there. The Marine Corps Police and Bomb Squad raided his desk, but found no evidence to confirm the allegations. He was allowed back on base in February and no action was taken against the person who made the false accusations, the Post reported.

When Abbas discovered the words “terrorist” and “raghead” on his locker this month he says, he wasn’t really that surprised ― just hurt.

“You go to this country, you serve the country…then you work on a military base, still serving the country, providing tools for the military. And you still get this,” he said.

Abbas has reportedly filed two cases with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).

The local chapter of the Council on American–Islamic Relations has reached out to a detective at the Barstow Marine Corps Police Department.  The detective says the investigation is ongoing and it’s undecided whether the case will be treated as a hate crime.

Meantime, Abbas continues to go to work, but says he feels paranoid going onto the base these days. “I don’t trust nobody right here, to be honest with you,” he says. “You feel like at any minute you could be accused of something.”

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