Reenactors portraying Muslim soldiers.

Although, according to my DNA. I am over 95% percent English or Scottish, However, I have dark brown hair and brown eyes. This would have made it difficult for me to portray a typical WASP Civil War soldier. Pretending to be a Civil War soldier with light hair and light colored eyes was not really possible. Dye my hair? I guess from a distance I could pass for a typical Civil War soldier, but perhaps not up close. I was 6 feet tall with broad shoulders and a muscular chest. When I compared my self with Civil War images, I just could not look the part. I simply could not be 5 feet 7 inches tall and weight 120-140 pounds. How many soldiers had a 32 or 34 inch waist and a 44 inch chest? The friend who wanted me to join up with him was of Christian Lebanese heritage. Come on how many Lebanese Americans fought in the Civil War? Totally silly for either of us to even consider Civil War reenacting.
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[Newark Advocate]​
The tallest Confederate was even taller: Henry K. Thruston , 4th Mo. Cavalry, was 7' 7-1/2" (his poor horse!!!)
Both men spent time as POWs.

They were exceptional, of course, but there were a good many ACW soldiers over 6 feet tall.
 
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The US Navy was always a more diverse place than the Army. It would be interesting to see if you could find a Muslim presence there.
I do believe the Navy had some Indonesians and many Indonesians were Muslims. Because there were a fair number of Chinese living in Indonesia there is probably no way to verify if any of these were Muslims and not ethnic Chinese or perhaps Christians. It would appear that the names of the Naval recruits from Indonesia will not be an acceptable method of deciding ethnicity.
 
The moon was not seen over Mecca last night, so the Holy Month of Ramadan will start tomorrow. So some of our family, friends, neighbors, and co workers will participate in the month long Sawm (fasting). No food, drink (even water) no sex, or smoking during daylight hours.

This is always a good time to reflect on Muslim influence on the American Civil War.
 
It appears that there is a mistaken belief that many slaves in the US were Muslim because they were captured in Muslim territories. Islam might have been the religion of the rulers but it does NOT mean that the slaves followed that faith. My guess is that most were animists. I see nothing wrong with a correct portrayal of different faiths in re-enactments if the portrayals are presented IN CONTEXT. Muslims under normal circumstances would pray 5 times a day facing Mecca but Islamic soldiers would not have stopped fighting to pray. And giving up pork rations might have happened only if alternative food sources were available. Any meat coming from animals not butchered properly is also haram (حَرَام) - forbidden - but Muslim soldiers would have done whatever was necessary to survive.
 
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It appears that there is a mistaken belief that many slaves in the US were Muslim because they were captured in Muslim territories. Islam might have been the religion of the rulers but it does NOT mean that the slaves followed that faith. My guess is that most were animists. I see nothing wrong with a correct portrayal of different faiths in re-enactments if the portrayals are present IN CONTEXT. Muslims under normal circumstances would pray 5 times a day facing Mecca but Islamic soldiers would not have stopped fighting to pray. And giving up pork rations might have happened only if alternative food sources were available. Any meat coming from animals not butchered properly is also haram (حَرَام) - forbidden - but Muslim soldiers would have done whatever was necessary to survive.
I assume that Jewish soldiers during the Civil War had the same issues. Even in the modern military I had trouble getting Kosher MREs in a combat zone for my Jewish soldiers. I had but one Muslim soldier in my company and he was fine with what ever food I could get for him. The US Army during the First Gulf War was not real good getting MREs for Muslim US soldiers. I fed thousands of Muslim POWs regular US Army MREs, we had a list of MREs that had pork in them and substituted tuna for pork dishes. The beef in the US Army MREs was not properly butchered, but the hungry Muslim POWs were not all that particular. We did have one small riot over meat not properly butchered meat. I would not allow my tower guard to start shooting rioting POWs, but it was a close call on my part.
 
It is important to remember that muslims, today just as back then are not all the same.

I went to school with some muslims, and like half my coworkes are Muslims. (work in eldercare. like it more and it got job security)

And I only ever had any contact in that context with one guy, who prayed during "work" hours. He did it by fitting it into the break between lessons at university.

A few of the women cover their hair, but more don't.
Some don't eat during the Ramadan, and some do. And when they don't eat they only stick to it as long as it is safe at the same time. Plenty of them who do not pray daily.
(we talked about the topic a number of times)

And all of them handle pork on a weekly basis, since we serve it for our citizens.

And for all of them, fully accept that they need to fit their religion into Danish work culture.


Now people where generally more religious 160 years ago than today. But the need to fit in was a big factor then as it is today.
Surviving and following the rules of local society do overrule the need to follow the religious rules.
 
It is important to remember that muslims, today just as back then are not all the same.

I went to school with some muslims, and like half my coworkes are Muslims. (work in eldercare. like it more and it got job security)

And I only ever had any contact in that context with one guy, who prayed during "work" hours. He did it by fitting it into the break between lessons at university.

A few of the women cover their hair, but more don't.
Some don't eat during the Ramadan, and some do. And when they don't eat they only stick to it as long as it is safe at the same time. Plenty of them who do not pray daily.
(we talked about the topic a number of times)

And all of them handle pork on a weekly basis, since we serve it for our citizens.

And for all of them, fully accept that they need to fit their religion into Danish work culture.


Now people where generally more religious 160 years ago than today. But the need to fit in was a big factor then as it is today.
Surviving and following the rules of local society do overrule the need to follow the religious rules.
It's bizarre we seem to celebrate people creating a scene being different nowadays, but many if not most are not looking to create a scene even today.

Much less 150 years ago when society was far less tolerant.
 
It appears that there is a mistaken belief that many slaves in the US were Muslim because they were captured in Muslim territories. Islam might have been the religion of the rulers but it does NOT mean that the slaves followed that faith. My guess is that most were animists. I see nothing wrong with a correct portrayal of different faiths in re-enactments if the portrayals are present IN CONTEXT. Muslims under normal circumstances would pray 5 times a day facing Mecca but Islamic soldiers would not have stopped fighting to pray. And giving up pork rations might have happened only if alternative food sources were available. Any meat coming from animals not butchered properly is also haram (حَرَام) - forbidden - but Muslim soldiers would have done whatever was necessary to survive.
Admittedly, the spirituality of enslaved African-Americans is not really my specialty, but really everything I do know tends to point toward your guess being correct. The Br´er Rabbit and Br´er Fox stories, though bowlderized, point toward the animist tradition. Mixed with the Christianity that filtered down and over and you get the roots of African American church tradition. I don´t really see much Islamic influence until the black pride movement of the 1960s.
 
I remember seeing the strangest thing one day when I was attending college back in the early nineties. A group of Muslim students had gathered in a circle in the student lounge and a man was speaking to them. I believe he was a local Mullah because they were paying close attention to him. After he finished speaking, they went outside into the courtyard and separated into two groups. Then the two groups proceeded to throw punches and rocks at each other! Campus security was quick to respond before there was any major bloodshed and there were no arrests as far as I know but I was wondering what in the world could have caused that disturbance for some time afterwards.

I did have one good Muslim friend in college who was a gregarious fellow and had a very outgoing personality. Everyone called him Big Papa and he was a character. He drove a old Cadillac funeral hearse and loved to watch and talk about professional wrestling. He was from Iran originally and I'm sure he was not one of the more orthodox Muslims concerning his faith.
 
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