Tag Archives: Islam

US Troops Revel in Role of Infidels

While stories of political insensitivity or incorrectness sometimes shock the public (or political) conscience, those within the military often find such displays far less offensive — or rare.

A few years ago, US Air Force F-15 pilot 1Lt Ali Jivanjee was killed in an F-15 training accident.  He was a Muslim fighter pilot who took it upon himself to sign his name “Jihad” — apparently because he’d been “teased” (hazed? bullied?) about his first and middle names being “Ali Akbar” (similar to “Allahu akbar,” a phrase often connected to “jihadists,” for those that don’t make the connection).

His F-15 peers eventually named him “Danny Boy,” because he “needed a good Irish name.”

A fighter squadron is definitely not a bastion of political correctness, or cultural sensitivity.

A recent Military.com article notes the same theme throughout much of the rest of the military.  Makers of accoutrements — including unofficial military uniform patches — with variations of “American infidel” on them are doing gangbuster business:  Read more

The US Military Rabbi of Camp Phoenix and Kabul

The Jewish online magazine Tablet covers the story of US Army Chaplain (LtCol) Larry Bazer, who recently returned from a deployment as the “only Jewish chaplain in Afghanistan.”

The article contains some interesting commentaries on the chaplaincy in general, as well as some specifics related to life as a Jewish chaplain:

The [Camp Phoenix] chapel, said Bazer, “was a cozy little place”: a small, nondescript room built of plywood. During the day it was devoid of any religious symbols, but during the evenings a few crosses would turn it into a Protestant chapel, or some icons into a Catholic church. On Friday nights, candles and challah—sent each month by the “challah lady,” a Long Island Jewish woman—made it a synagogue.

Chaplain Bazer’s congregations varied from none to nearly 20 as he traveled Afghanistan as the only Jewish Read more

Retired Admiral: US Military Forced to Submit to Islam

Admiral James A. Lyons (Retired) served as the commander of the US Navy’s Pacific fleet when he retired in 1987.  Since then, he has frequently spoken on the military and foreign policy issues, mincing few words when he has done so.  He is an associate in the production of Sharia: The Threat to America, which includes James Woolsey and LtGen (Ret) Jerry Boykin among its contributors.

Most recently, Adm Lyons took President Obama to task for forcing the US military to submit to Islam:

The recent contrived uproar over the inadvertent burning of the Koran…should be seen for what it is: a power-play tactic to make our military forces more submissive to the dictates of Islam, Read more

Army Atheist Concert Emphasizes Controversial Song in Lineup

Rock Beyond Belief, the atheist event billed as a counter to the previous Christian Rock the Fort, has clearly announced a previously controversial song will be featured in its lineup.

In January, FoxNews carried the story of Aiden’s Hysteria, whose music video showed burning churches while the lyrics said religion “distorts the truth” and called for its “death.”

At the time, the lead organizer of the event, Justin Griffith, was quoted in the FoxNews article saying this was a faux controversy — though the public reaction, and Fort Bragg’s, seemed to differ.  While the FoxNews piece focused on ‘images of burning churches,’ the issue has always been Aiden’s lyrics that criticized religion.  Now, Griffith makes a point of stating Aiden will perform Hysteria [emphasis original]:  Read more

Column: Use Koran to Control Afghan Anger

In a fascinating but brief column, Dr. Tawfik Hamid of the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies suggests the US military should use the Quran to influence the Islamic population’s reaction to their conduct [emphasis added]:

The Koranic text can actually be used in such situations to control the Afghan anger and prevent its spread. In fact, the religiosity of people in these parts of the world makes the use of religious text more effective in controlling people’s anger than using formal apologetic approaches.

(Dr. Hamid joins a chorus of other resources who have written on the issues of “apologies” in the Iraqi and Afghan cultures.  They are not viewed the same way a Western citizen would view an apology.)

Dr. Hamid suggests several Quranic texts that might be used to “defend” Read more

Weinstein Calls for Court-Martial of Koran Burning Christians

As he has with every public controversy in the US military, perennial religious freedom critic Michael Weinstein claims Christians are to blame for the burning of Qurans at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan.

[The Koran burning] once again reveals a noxious undercurrent of fundamentalist Christian supremacist exceptionalism…This culture of religious bigotry is fueled by militant, unchecked Christian fundamentalism.

Weinstein pontificates for another thousand words (most of them adjectives, as is his tradition) without really saying anything more of substance.  He does make some fairly ridiculous Read more

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