US Soldier Uses the Quran for Target Practice

US Soldier Uses the Quran for Target Practice

www.cnn.com

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- A soldier used the Quran -- Islam's holy book -- for target practice, forcing the chief U.S. commander in Baghdad to issue a formal apology on Saturday.

Maj. Gen. Jeffery Hammond apologizes after a soldier admitted using the Quran for target practice.

Maj. Gen. Jeffrey Hammond, commander of U.S. forces in Baghdad, flanked by leaders from Radhwaniya in the western outskirts of Baghdad, apologized for the staff sergeant . . .

(visit the link for the full news article)

In a war already fraught with cultural difference and misunderstanding this certainly has done us no good. For Islam, the Quran is entirely holy. It is the Word of God incarnate on Earth. In other words...it's massively important to Muslims world wide.

This soldier must have at least known how important the Quran is to Muslims. The question is then begged: Why? It is my assumption that this soldier behaved this way because he knew it would be a dramatic slap in the face for Iraqi Muslims. Perhaps it was his way to assert his Christianity over Islam? Perhaps he was driven to do something so petty yet so ideologically devastating to Muslims because he feels superior.

Either this soldier is uniquely dumb or the Army has failed miserably to educate our soldiers on the cultural etiquette of the Middle East. I'm sure it slipped his mind while he was shooting off his aggressions that Islam is the third largest religion in the world and as such, has adherents all across the globe. If he wasn't a target to begin with, he certainly is now.

Edit for Clarity.

www.cnn.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

[edit on 18/5/08 by WickedStar]

its a flippin book get over it already. its not like its the last copy. if that soldier was trying to make a point by doing this shouldn't his right to express himself be protected under first amendment. i do understand we are over there illegally to limit oil production to keep profits high for oil companies. and no i am not a muslim hater. but its a book last year they wanted to kill a teacher because she picked up a klids backpack that contained supposedly a quran. in my opinion to many people bend over backwards trying to appease muslims. true soldier had poor taste in targets but at least he wasn't using iraqi civilians

While I disagree with his actions, he has freedom of speech and expression as protected by the First Amendment. As long as he actually owned it, he was within those rights to destroy that Quran, no matter how short sighted or counterproductive his actions may have been. I would imagine that the military was also well within its rights to discipline him for taking an action which could foster resentment and hatred against US troops.

reply to post by WickedStar


If you were getting shot at by the peaceful Muslims everyday do you think you would give two craps about their satanic book?

I would burn every copy I got my hands on because it is a work of the devil.

If the tables were turned around and a muslim desecrated the bible would the US make him apologize? would we even hear of it?

www.theaustralian.news.com.au...

www.worldnetdaily.com...

blogcritics.org...

Originally posted by Sky watcher
reply to post by WickedStar

 

If you were getting shot at by the peaceful Muslims everyday do you think you would give two craps about their satanic book?

I would burn every copy I got my hands on because it is a work of the devil.

Are you kidding me?

Can you please cite your sources for this information?

Originally posted by Sky watcher
reply to post by WickedStar

 

If you were getting shot at by the peaceful Muslims everyday do you think you would give two craps about their satanic book?

I would burn every copy I got my hands on because it is a work of the devil.

Give your head a shake. Why must it always be that since soldiers are getting shot at by Muslims, that all Muslims are bad? If we use your well thought out argument, it is justifiable that they hate Western people. These Christian soldiers are shooting at us, therefore all Christians are warmongers.

BTW, their book is every bit as satanic as the bible. Maybe you should actually read a copy of it before you go around shooting off your mouth. I am getting pretty tired of the intolerance that goes on display here. If you have no clue what you are talking about, it would be best not to display your complete ignorance of the subject.

Originally posted by Rook1545

Give your head a shake. Why must it always be that since soldiers are getting shot at by Muslims, that all Muslims are bad?

Now you do the head shake. Why is it than when anyone brings up something to do with what a group of muslims do, that some people automatically start ranting about being unfair to all muslims?

Once again, no one said all muslims. And it is OK to point out the barbaric actions of some muslims whe they occur.



And I took a little different take on this story. I believe the soldier was just attempting to make the koran into a "hole-y" book.

Originally posted by Sky watcher
I would burn every copy I got my hands on because it is a work of the devil.

Before you burn a copy you get your hands on, try reading it. Until you have read it and compared it to every other major religion and realized that they are the same damn thing with different wording, then kindly shut up.

Being an ignorant hypocrite is no way to go through life.

You see, the same people saying there's no problem with this soldier doing this are the same people that get outraged when people around the world burn our flag.

Now give me one good reason why we can shoot up their Quran, but they can't burn our flag.

Please, I'm BEGGING you, give me just ONE good reason.

Stop being hypocrites.

Originally posted by NovusOrdoMundi

Originally posted by Sky watcher
I would burn every copy I got my hands on because it is a work of the devil.

Now give me one good reason why we can shoot up their Quran, but they can't burn our flag.

Please, I'm BEGGING you, give me just ONE good reason.

But they do burn our flag and even hang our leaders and burn them in effigy. They also decapitate and burn our citizens.

Please, I'm BEGGING you, stop bending over backwards (or is it frontwards in your case) to give these people a pass - it looks a lot like appeasement when people do that.


[edit on 5/18/2008 by centurion1211]

Originally posted by centurion1211
Please, I'm BEGGING you, stop bending over backwards (or is it frontwards in your case) to give these people a pass

Whats the problem? Can't deal with the fact that you people can't look at both sides of an issue? Can't possibly justify what those big bad Arabs do?

I think its a pride issue.

Originally posted by centurion1211
it looks a lot like appeasement when people do that.

I know you all have learned a new word from your hero recently but there's no need to flaunt it like its something great.

[edit on 5/18/08 by NovusOrdoMundi]

I honestly don't think, for the most part, that our First Amendment Rights are applicable, while invading a foreign land. They do not want us there. Why must more disrespect and hated be forced upon those people??
The utter lack of respect forced against Muslims is making me sick.


But at the same time, I find it highly funny, and would say so if that happened here. No more funny than if someone was using a Christian bible, though, and had Christians screaming out in anger.

EDIT typo

[edit on 18-5-2008 by LostNemesis]

reply to post by NovusOrdoMundi


No, just don't like it when people to try to defend the radical muslims while putting down the U.S. And you so badly miss the point when you try to equate koran shooting with flag burning. To help you try and understand, just compare what the U.S. does to flag burners (anything?) to what muslims do to people they feel desicrate the koran (kill them). Because we are civilized and they are still barbarians.

Start to get it yet??????

And no again. I was using the word appeasment way before Bush. I think he even owes me royalties.



[edit on 5/18/2008 by centurion1211]

I am not trying to defend the soldier's actions. They were clearly inappropriate. These types of actions should be expected, however, from soldiers who are actively engaged in combat with an "enemy."

For the most part, people that join militaries from all over the world are decent people. They are not serial killers, nor are they sociopaths. Militaries do expect these people, however, to take on the behavior of sociopaths and become killing machines. One way to turn a decent person into a killing machine is to convince the decent person that the people he is killing are not truly human, but are demons or vermin.

In the case of US soldiers in Iraq, the US military has to convince US soldiers the people they are fighting against are sub-human. I do not know if there is truly an appropriate way to teach US solders that the Iraqis they are fighting against are sub-human. (It may be impossible to appropriately convince soldiers the people they are fighting against are sub-human whe the war the soldiers is itself unjust.) However, there are clearly inappropriate ways for the US military to condition US soldiers to believe the Iraqis they are fighting against are sub-human.

One such way is for the soldiers to be conditioned to believe all Iraqis, all Muslims, or all Arabs are bad. It is wrong for the military to impart this belief onto US soldiers for many reasons. In this case it seems that this particularly soldier got the idea that all Muslims were an enemy and sub-human. Therefore, it would be appropriate for him to shoot up their holy book.

reply to post by vor78


I don't to know to what extent his rights to protest are protected seeing how he did this on Iraqi soil at an Iraqi police station.

Soldiers don't have first amendment rights while in the military. They're government property.

And your numbers are off centurion.

a very few people were kidnapped and decapitated by a very few muslims. If that's your case for judgment then lets burn the bible for the people the Klan hanged and burned in it's name. For that matter, lets burn the constitution in response to any atrocity committed by an American citizen.

Personally, I think this soldier needs at the least some "Cultural Diversity" training along with the rest of his squad/platoon so that this never happens again. At the most, his behind should get kicked out with a dishonorable discharge for ignorance beyond belief. He is a soldier for the reason of defending American freedoms, such as "Freedom of Religion" yet he turns around and take a great big steaming turd on someone else's relgion.

Muslim's Are Not The Problem, You Are!!!

A World At War With Itself

A Nation At War - Racism

Thought I'd share three threads of Mine that are of relevant types with this thread.

This kind of ignorance isn't supposed to be done by the common soldier.

[edit on 18-5-2008 by SpartanKingLeonidas]

And here's one of mine. It's based on a Gallop Poll done on the worlds Muslim population. It's the most accurate poll of modern Islam to date and has some pretty interesting results. The topics range from radical Islam to women's rights, to their take on the Western world.

What a billion Muslims really think

And to ignore the facts is to embrace ignorance.

I love how people are trying to justify this guy's actions by law.
How exactly does the constitutional rights of the US apply to soldiers in a foreign land?

Obviously the military has been skimping on the "ethics" classes it seems. The sheer lack of respect and tolerance displayed by US forces to the Iraqi people just goes to add that extra little bit of fuel onto the fire and sow the seeds for more hatred agains the West.
Incidents like these give the Islamic Fundamentalists ammunition for their attacks.

And don't give me that "it's a freakin' book" line either.
If a Muslim shot up a Bible for target practice it'd be replayed endlessly on the 6 o'clock news as a smear campaign against Islam. I could see Bill O'Reily going "He shot our Holy Book!".

To them it's more than a text, it's a symbol of the entire religion. Within it, is outlined all the adherences that every Muslim must make to live their lives according to the word of Allah.
Yes it may seem a little extreme or otherworldly, but that's how they've lived for over 1,500 years. Just respect it for god's sake.

Don't rack your brains out struggling to compute why they live so differently. Difference is inevitable. It's not a reason to hate and kill one another.
Open your minds people sheesh.