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Omid Safi, a Professor of Islamic Studies at UNC Chapel Hill, took issue with a recent story about Navy SEAL training and the realistic mock-ups they use — which included mosques and paper targets of hijab-wearing women.\u00a0 From the original article<\/a>:<\/p>\n When you’re a Navy SEAL on the front lines of urban combat, the bad guys might be anywhere: inside an elementary school classroom, behind a soda machine at the bus station, cowering next to a hospital-room bed. Scenarios include a mosque, bank, post office, market and residential compound. In one section, nine chairs painted in primary hues sit behind desks in an elementary school classroom. Other rooms are more sinister, like a torture chamber accessed through a bus station wall.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The design decisions were not arbitrary:<\/p>\n Many of the details were taken from actual raids over the past decade, said Capt. Tim Szymanski, the commodore of Naval Special Warfare Group Two.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Safi takes issue with the accompanying photo<\/a>, which seems to show a paper target of a woman in a hijab clearly pointing a weapon.\u00a0 He claims the military does not have<\/p>\n …enough concern to know that they are taking target practice shooting at Muslim women.<\/p>\n Yeah, we are not at war with Islam, they keep telling us. Actually, the military is training its SEALs to kill people who are a threat <\/em>—\u00a0unless Safi believes pointing a weapon is a characteristic of being Muslim.\u00a0 Whether that person is a white male or hijab-wearing woman is irrelevant.\u00a0 The article makes clear the intent of the training scenarios is the otherwise benign nature <\/em>of the threat.<\/p>\n Safi apparently never saw the recruiting scene from the original Men in Black<\/em>.\u00a0 He continues:<\/p>\n It\u2019s not so much that this looks bad. Can the folks in charge at the NAVY not see how this contributes to the dehumanizing of Muslims, not just Muslim women, not just Muslim civilians, but all Muslims?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n His ALL CAPS notwithstanding, “this” doesn’t contribute to the dehumanizing of “all Muslims” or anyone else, for that matter.\u00a0 What his reaction <\/em>contributes to is the narrative that some <\/em>Muslims (and those looking to malign the US military’s treatment of Islam) will criticize virtually everything the US military does with regard to its treatment of anything remotely related to Islam — even if that treatment is confined to extremism or those engaged in violence against the US military.<\/p>\n Members of the US military — particularly those in the special forces fields — have faced a wide variety of adversaries over the past several years.\u00a0 Based on that history, it is not unreasonable to have them see a cardboard cutout of a woman in a hijab and be forced to discern whether or not she is a threat — and then react appropriately.<\/p>\n
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\nThey might even hide in the bathroom.
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\nAnything is possible, which is why the Navy special warfare community is excited about the $11.5 million training range …<\/p>\n
\nWe just train our most skilled soldiers to kill Muslim women.
\nGod have mercy on us.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\nThis is bad. It\u2019s rotten to the core.<\/p>\n