Kabul (ANTARA News) – A US soldier in Afghanistan said he converted to Islam Monday at a ceremony in a remote area near the rugged border with Pakistan.
Sergeant Wallace Nelson, 31, told AFP his interaction with his interpreters and other Afghans had persuaded him that Islam “is pretty much the only religion that makes sense to me.”
They had explained that the extreme Taliban religious movement “takes things way out of proportion,” Nelson told AFP by telephone from his base in the eastern province of Kunar.
“I really wish everything would stop and we would be able to live together and be happy,” he said after the ceremony attended by district officials, including the area’s Afghan army commander, and tribal elders.
The US military base at Bagram, about 60 kilometres (40 miles) north of Kabul, said it did not know of the conversion but did not monitor such matters since religion was a personal choice.
Afghan media reported in July last year that two US soldiers had converted to Islam, which is rare among the tens of thousands of international troops in Afghanistan to fight the Taliban.
Afghanistan is deeply devout and foreigners converting receive extensive media coverage.