Richard McKinney, a former US marine who deeply hated Islam during the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, became angry when he saw the growth of Muslims in his hometown of Muncie, Indiana, upon his return.
He became even angrier upon seeing Muslim children sitting next to his daughter in elementary school. The former navy sergeant was no longer physically on the battlefield, but he still was mentally, and Islam was his enemy.
During his time in the military, McKinney became sensitive to killing and started getting small teardrop tattoos on his chest for every killing he had done. He said he saw things he would never discuss with anyone.
“I didn’t hate Islam at the time, but many things I saw were reasons why I felt that way later on.”
After his tour of duty was over, he returned to US and struggled to come to terms with what he had seen and done. McKinney turned to alcohol and hatred towards Muslims. He said his hatred was so strong that he wanted all Muslims dead.
“I don’t think I could hate Muslims any more, I mean, I really had true hatred, I thought by bombing a mosque, I would be doing something good for my country. I was messed up at that time.”
McKinney planned to make his own bomb and after conducting reconnaissance, selected an appropriate location to hide the bomb and to gather information that would substantiate his assumption that Islam is a “murderous ideology”. He planned to plant it at the Islamic Center in his area.
He hoped his action would kill at least 200 people. He knew he would face the death penalty, but he didn’t care.
“Children are not born with prejudice, racism, or hatred,” said McKinney. “Children will grow up with the same way of thinking as us. I couldn’t continue to hold onto it, that’s my daughter, I don’t want her to have hatred in her heart. So, I wanted to find a way to confront this hatred in a better way.”
Despite his anger towards the Muslim community, McKinney proceeded with his plan to go to the Islamic Center of Muncie in 2009, which he saw as his final mission.
On that day, he said, “I told people that Islam is cancer and I’m the surgeon to cure it.”
On that day, which happened to be a Friday, the Islamic Center in Muncie, Indiana was filled with people who came to pray the Asr prayer. As an outsider with a USMC tattoo on his right arm and a skull tattoo on his left hand, McKinney stood out.
McKinney entered the mosque armed, but he faced an unexpected resistance, a form of resistance he had not planned for, and something happened that day, which turned out to successfully change the direction of his life.
Instead, contrary to the murder scenario he had envisioned, a number of congregants approached him and disarmed him. Then, a Muslim of Afghan descent named Muhammad Bahrami, one of the founders of the Islamic Center, stepped forward and hugged him while crying.
“By the end of the night, I thought they were going to take me to the basement with a sword to my neck,” he said. McKinney thought that the Friday afternoon visit would end with his death.McKinney said to CNN, “To this day, it still doesn’t make sense to me!”
McKinney met with several people at the Islamic Center who helped him to calm his anger and guilt. One of them is Jomo Williams, an African-American who lived in hatred like McKinney after white ”colonizers” executed and castrated his great-grandfather, and he resented white people until he converted to Islam. Williams was one of the first people who saw McKinney walking towards the mosque, looking agitated and angry.
“When I saw him, he was walking somewhat quickly, his head slightly down, and his face somewhat red,” said Williams. “I knew something was wrong.”
McKinney also later met with a woman whom he called “Mother Teresa” from the Muslim community in Muncie, the wife of Muhammad Bahrami, who greeted McKinney with a hug for the first time.
Mother Teresa also knew the damage that had been caused by war. Her family fled Afghanistan when the Soviet Union invaded the country in 1979. She left her country and lived for six years in a refugee camp in Pakistan before she got married and moved to the United States.
The hospitality of the Bahrami family is remarkable considering that many Muslim Americans are still treated as outsiders in their own country. Hate crimes against Muslims in the US surged by 500% from 2000 to 2009, according to a Brown University study, reflecting an increase in anti-Muslim sentiment after the 9/11 attacks.
Many Muslims still face hostility, surveillance, and questioning of their patriotism.
Some members of the Muncie Islamic Center stopped visiting the mosque because they were afraid of the muscular and tattooed Marine.
But Bahrami expanded his circle of kindness by always including McKinney. He invited him to his home and prepared a dinner of chicken, rice, eggplant dish, and green yogurt sauce seasoned with cilantro and lime juice.
McKinney devoured his food.
Food became another bridge to McKinney. He continued to visit Bahrami and others at the Islamic Center. He read the Quran. He formed friendships. He talked about his deployment in Afghanistan and they accepted him.
Eight months after McKinney’s first visit to the mosque, he converted to Islam. After reciting the Shahada, he was greeted with what he called a “big hug” from the people he once wanted to harm.
Finally, McKinney served as the president of Islamic Center in Muncie for two years and became a preacher.
The story of Richard McKinney has been featured in a short documentary film, Stranger at the Gate. The film, which won the Special Jury Prize at the 2022 Tribeca Film Festival, tells the story of how McKinney abandoned his plans and eventually converted to Islam, even taking on a surprising role in the mosque.
The film tells the remarkable story of Muhammad Bahrami, an Afghan-American Muslim who embraced Richard and then broke down in tears.
The film was featured in the video series “Secret Lives of Muslims” on the internet, and the director Joshua Seiftel said that Richard McKinney's story gave him hope that he could bridge some of the deepest divides in the United States.
