The Quantico Sentry, the base paper for US Marine Corps Base Quantico, published a “Perspectives on Faith” article last week describing the upcoming Islamic month of Ramadan, which begins on Wednesday.

As with many articles in military papers on religious topics regardless of faith, it contains content explicitly stating Islamic beliefs as fact and without qualification.  The military as a whole benefits from an understanding of the various faiths not only of those that make up the military, but also of those in the cultures it experiences around the world.  In that regard, articles that speak to the tenets of various faiths — even if they do so explicitly, or in a supportive way — are a valuable contribution to the military culture.

Interestingly, the byline of this article was simply the “Quantico Islamic Community,” though a note at the end identified the local Islamic lay leader and gave the military chapel as a point of contact.  It would seem the article was written by a Muslim, given that it used the honorific “peace be upon him” when referring to Muhammad.