Muslim Marine questions shooter's motive

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- Maj. Nadal Malik Hasan's faith has come into the spotlight during the aftermath of the Fort Hood shootings.

Eyewitness News spoke to a local Marine -- who is Muslim -- to find out how he and fellow Marines dealt with his Islamic faith while he served in the Corp.

Corp. Babar Rizvi grew up in Tomball, TX. After serving in the military, his perspective of what happened at Fort Hood is unique.

Rizvi describes his time in the Marine Corp as awesome.

"Nobody ever judged me for being Muslim, because you are a Marine first," he said.

For four years, he served in Iraq, Kuwait, Egypt and Europe. During that time, he said the military accommodated him based on his Islamic faith.

"All the time at boot camp and when we were deployed, they made sure I got the non-pork MREs," he said.

He heard reports of Hasan being teased for his religion by comrades, but he doesn't believe it's what set Hasan off.

"You get upset by someone just teasing you over that, how will you keep your composure during battle," he said.

Rizvi thinks yesterday's massacre has less to do with religion and more to do with Hasan's upcoming deployment to Afghanistan.

"I was deployed to Iraq, and really, I don't ever want to go back over there," he said. "And I think that might have something to do with it."

While many questions still linger about how and why a soldier and a doctor could carry out such an atrocity, one thing stands out in Rizvi's mind on behalf of all Muslims.

"I hope that he recovers so that we can find out what's going through his head," he said. "And I really hope it's something else besides that he's Muslim."

Rizvi said he's disappointed that it was a Muslim that carried out these attacks, he feels that it was worse that it was a high-ranking military officer.

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