c. 2003 Religion News Service

WASHINGTON _ The Department of Defense clarified its procedure for approving prospective chaplains Tuesday (Oct. 14), following a yearlong review and at a time when members of Congress have questioned how Muslim chaplains in particular are selected.

Charles S. Abell, principal deputy undersecretary of Defense, told a Senate subcommittee he has signed a memorandum putting the major aspects of the policy change into effect.

“This new guidance clarifies several (Department of) Defense policies concerning prospective chaplains and, in particular, ensures that the department stays out of the business of `approving’ religious organizations,” Abell told members of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Terrorism, Technology and Homeland Security.

Instead, he said, the defense department will use the Internal Revenue Service’s tax-exempt status designation as “one screen” for determining organizations that qualify to offer applicants for military chaplaincy. The department policy also calls for the organization to have a constituency of lay people and a qualified chaplain candidate.

Individuals applying for chaplaincy undergo thorough background checks and affirm the First Amendment rights of military members and their families regardless of their faith or the chaplain candidate’s own faith, he said.

“We do the due diligence on the individual when he or she comes forward, not the organization,” Abell told reporters after his appearance at the hearing.

Led by Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., the subcommittee held the hearing to examine the appointment of Muslim chaplains to the U.S. military as well as the nation’s prison system. Kyl and Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., have sought investigations into whether a radical form of Islam with links to terrorism has influenced the nation’s military and prisons.

The hearing came just days after a Muslim military chaplain was charged with violating military rules about classified materials.

Army Chaplain (Capt.) Yousef Yee, who had been on temporary duty at the naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, was detained Sept. 10. The Department of Defense’s Southern Command said the charges could be dismissed, referred to a special court-martial or spark a pretrial investigation. The Army said the overall investigation into Yee’s conduct continues and could lead to additional charges.

Although he declined to speak about the Yee case, Abell said of the military’s Muslim chaplains: “Right now, I don’t believe that there are any who are security threats.”

Yee was endorsed by the Virginia-based American Muslim Armed Forces and Veteran Affairs Council, military officials said.

The Defense Department cites that organization and the Indiana-based Islamic Society of North America as the two religious groups that are currently qualified to nominate Muslim clergy as chaplain candidates. Chaplains whose credentials have been certified by ISNA are often trained at the Graduate School of Islamic and Social Sciences in Virginia.

Asked by senators about how the military came to use those two endorsing agencies, Abell said the groups had sought that status and gained it.

He said the military is now seeking additional groups that might endorse Muslim chaplains besides the two current endorsing agencies. But he said the military would still consider candidates from the original groups unless the Justice Department or other federal agency said they were no longer “a valid agency.”

The military estimates that there are about 4,158 Muslims in the military.

Nancy Luque, a lawyer for the Graduate School of Islamic and Social Sciences, told reporters outside the hearing that suggestions that the school has links to terrorism are “absolutely false and scurrilous accusations.”

She said the school has trained nine of the 12 Muslim chaplains currently in the military and verified for the military that Yee’s transcript from an overseas school contained appropriate coursework.

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As for prison chaplains, Harley G. Lappin, director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons reported to the subcommittee that there are 231 full-time chaplains in the system, 10 of whom are imams. He said about 9,600 Muslim inmates (not including such “American adaptations of Islam” as the Nation of Islam) comprise 5.5 percent of the inmates.

Lappin said prison chaplains have to meet employment requirements including background checks and drug screening.

“The (Bureau of Prisons) is committed to providing inmates with the opportunity to practice their faith while at the same time ensuring that federal prisoners are not radicalized or recruited for terrorist causes,” he said in his written testimony.

Paul Rogers, president of the American Correctional Chaplains Association, said in written testimony that reports of terrorists infiltrating prisons via religious programs have been “blown way out of proportion. Yes, some relatively minor situations have been identified but they were stopped before escalating to dangerous levels.”

Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said the hearing, while focused on preventing people with questionable or violent backgrounds from becoming chaplains, illuminated a larger reality: “There is a very difficult and gray area here in terms of what is an acceptable religion in a country that tries to embrace diversity.”

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In an interview prior to the hearing, the president of the Association of Professional Chaplains said the current questions about chaplains fit into an evolution in pastoral care.

Chaplains who once were trained to provide for people of one particular denomination now should be certified to aid those of a variety of faiths and no faith, said the Rev. George Handzo, who directs clinical services for the HealthCare Chaplaincy in New York.

“This is something that people in the military, people in prison, people in hospitals need and want and deserve,” Handzo said.

“The debate is only how best do we get them this in the the way that is most useful to them.”

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