Tag Archives: koran

US Military Apologizes for Offending Afghan Muslims. Again.

The US military apparently conducted a leaflet drop in Afghanistan recently that offended just about everyone:

The leaflets dropped Monday night, which encouraged Afghans to cooperate with security forces, included an image of a dog carrying the Taliban flag, said Shah Wali Shahid, the deputy governor of Parwan province.

The problem, such that it is, is the Islamic verses of the Quran are venerated in Islam — and there are Islamic verses on the Taliban flag. Dogs are viewed as filthy.

So, despite the evil the Taliban represents, seeing a Taliban flag in the mouth of a dog is worse.

The Taliban subsequently Read more

Eglin AFB Removes Bible from Waiting Room. Leaves People Magazine.

In a shocking capitulation to an anti-Christian activist, the US Air Force removed a Bible from the pile of reading material in a medical waiting room because Michael “Mikey” Weinstein was offended over its mere presence:

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A Bible has been removed from the waiting room of Eglin Air Force Base Allergy and Immunization Clinic after a military retiree contacted the Military Religious Freedom Foundation and expressed concern.

Faced with the apparently unsolvable legal conundrum about what to do with a Bible in public, the Eglin AFB leadership declined to make the decision themselves:  Read more

MRFF Focuses Bible Attack on Display, Accommodation

Former Assembly of God pastor Joan Slish, an advisory board member of Michael “Mikey” Weinstein’s MRFF, is a constant source of delightful insight into the MRFF’s sometimes opaque logic. Most recently, she responded to an MRFF detractor, as she often does, with a 1,000-word post that was nearly identical to every other post she makes. There were a couple of notable deviations, however.

Referencing the recent accusation by Mikey Weinstein that USAF Major Steve Lewis should be punished for having a Bible on his desk, Slish said [emphasis added]

To place the opened, highlighted, underlined Christian Bible on a military desk 24/7 for other service members to see elevates the Christian God above all others and is in violation of the Constitution, Separation of Church and State under the Establishment Clause, Reynolds v. U.S., Lemon v. Kurtzman, the Lemon Test, Parker v. Levy and AFI 1-1, Section 2.12.

Yes, the MRFF appears to believe that a Bible on a military member’s desk is the state establishing religion. Apparently ISIS is doing it wrong. Put a Koran on a desk and the caliphate is won, according to Mikey Weinstein.

We’ll ignore Slish’s ignorance regarding a citizen being in “violation” of court cases. (That’s not the branch of government that makes or enforces laws, Joan.)

The relevant issue is her contention that the Bible was, in Read more

US Air Force Removes Bible From Airman’s Desk

Michael “Mikey” Weinstein celebrated yesterday after his complaint resulted in a Peterson Air Force Base officer having a Bible removed from his desk. As cited by Fox News:

“[The Bible] is very obviously a statement of Christian preference, Christian primacy,” MRFF founder Mikey Weinstein told me. “Had that been the Book of Satan or the Koran there would be blood in the freaking streets.”

He accused Maj. Steve Lewis, a supervisor at the Reserve National Security Space Institute, of “harboring and encouraging a truly abhorrent example of First Amendment civil rights violations.”

To be fair, Mikey Weinstein has been after Bibles-on-desks for a long time. It’s just that for years the Air Force has been telling him to take a hike:

Sen. David Vitter, R-La., asked James if it’s acceptable for an airman to have a Bible on his desk…

James told Vitter: “Having a Bible on your desk, that doesn’t seem like it should be banned.”

Air Force spokeswoman LtCol Laura Tingley: “I can tell you that military members are allowed to have religious materials on their desks.”

(The Air Force issued some of these statements and Read more

Benghazi Report: DoD Called American Preacher over Conduct

As noted by Todd Starnes at FoxNews, the recently released report on the Benghazi incident revealed that the DoD was directed to contact Terry Jones — the controversial Florida preacher who had previously railed against Islam:

According to the report — the White House directed Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta and Martin Dempsey, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs to call Preacher Jones.

There were also discussions that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton might “issue another statement to distance the United States from the Pastor Jones video.”

While a revelation to Starnes, it was actually public news at the time. As Starnes Read more

Mikey Weinstein Threatens Lawsuit over Navy Bibles

Update: A variety of groups signed a letter to the Navy asking them to allow the Bibles to remain in the Navy lodges.

Riding the coattails of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, Michael “Mikey” Weinstein has threatened to sue the US Navy if it fails to remove Bibles from its lodging rooms:

If the Navy refuses to pull the Bibles “out of every single room,” said Mikey Weinstein of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, “we are looking to file a federal lawsuit.”

For the record, Weinstein threatens to sue someone at every turn.  It is likely this threat is as empty as virtually all the others.  (He lost the few lawsuits he filed many years ago, further undermining his threats.)

Weinstein’s apparent paranoia was on full display:  Read more

USAFA Cadets Lead “Righteous Rebellion”

The Family Research Council had high praise for cadets who “offered a teachable moment of their own” when they hung Bible (and Qur’an) verses on their doors after a Bible verse was pulled down:

Overnight, Scriptures from Philippians 4 to Psalm 28 started appearing up and down dorm hallways on whiteboards — a stealth operation to counter the growing culture of religious oppression.

The FRC notes Michael “Mikey” Weinstein “went into panic mode” when he fired off an email to Academy Superintendent LtGen Michelle Johnson:  Read more

Update: Mikey Weinstein Threatens Suit if USAFA Cadets Not Punished

Michael “Mikey” Weinstein, a self-described religious liberty advocate, is threatening to sue the US Air Force Academy if it fails to punish cadets who exercised their religious liberty.

As previously noted in the original discussion, a large group of cadets responded to the original story of Weinstein successfully getting a Bible verse erased from a cadet whiteboard by posting verses of their own — from the Bible, Qur’an, movies, the Helix, and even the Flying Spaghetti Monster. (One said “go atheists!”)

According to an update at TheBlaze, Weinstein wants everyone who posted verses punished, for some reason, though he didn’t mention Read more

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