TikTok-famous: Meet the Army’s first Muslim chaplain to reach full colonel

He thinks he should have died on the helicopter flight to the hospital. Six men had just “jumped him,” shooting him and beating him with a shovel.

Against all odds, Army Col. KhaLlid Shabazz survived — just like he had survived childhood sexual abuse.

It wasn’t an easy road that Shabazz took to join the Army, which he did in 1992. Now he serves as the command chaplain for U.S. Army Central, the three-star command responsible for land operations in the Middle East.

He’s the first Muslim chaplain in the U.S. military to reach the rank of colonel, according to Col. Armando Hernandez, an ARCENT spokesperson. Army Times spoke with Shabazz about his unique career as one of the military’s handful of Muslim chaplains throughout the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Shabazz, a 6-foot-4-inch former college football player who is built like a brick house, has become a TikTok microcelebrity in recent months. He mostly shares gym videos and motivational content with his nearly 23,000 followers, in addition to sparring occasionally with negative commenters.