Muslim man who joined U.S. Army after 9/11 says he never needed to choose between faith, service

A United States Army intelligence officer from New Jersey says he has never felt like he needed to choose between his Muslim faith and his service.

First Lt. Tawheed Peters remembers watching the deadliest act of terrorism in modern American history as a teenager in New Jersey on Sept. 11, 2001.

"I did see the towers fall when I left school, unfortunately," he said.

He joined the Army after the 9/11 terror attacks that were carried out by extremists who claimed to be acting in the name of Islam, something Peters strongly denounces.

"One of the things that we're taught from the Quran is to respond to a bad word or a bad instance with a good word," he said.

He says he enlisted because he wanted to protect America, bring meaning to his life and counter the Islamophobia that was spreading across the country.

"I knew what I was doing before I enlisted. I prayed on it. I ultimately decided that was the best move for me and my family," he said.

Peters has spent eight years and counting in the Army as a military intelligence officer with previous deployments to Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.

He says he's encountered people who saw the religion before the person, even as a soldier.

"There are people who would look at me differently. I've come across that a lot throughout my eight years, but that's par for the course," he said. "They have no knowledge what Islam is."

His response is not confrontation; it's representation guided by faith.

"If someone were to wrong me, I wouldn't go around and wrong them in return," Peters said. "It's just like, I'd turn the other cheek or do something to give a better perception of myself and my religion."

He's on a mission to reshape how the world sees Muslims.

"Although people don't see Islam for what it really is, if I can affect at least one person so they can see what Islam is in action, then that's a victory for me," he said.

His Muslim identity, he says, has never been something he needed to compromise.

"It feels normal. I mean, I've been Muslim my whole life, and the military wouldn't change who I am as a person," he said. "I would only probably, hopefully, make the military better or the military would make me better."

A quarter of a century after 9/11, Peters says he's proud to be a Muslim man, serving America, not hiding his faith, not apologizing for it and not allowing others' perception to determine his own sense of belonging.

"Gotta be the best me. It's like, I can't affect another's person's feelings or how they react to a situation, I can only control myself," Peters said.