Just so you know, it isn’t your job to go to Iraq and convert everyone to Christianity:
BAGHDAD, May 29 — The U.S. military suspended a Marine on Thursday for distributing coins quoting the Gospel to Sunni Muslims, an incident that has enraged Iraqis who view it as the latest example of American disrespect for Islam.
The Marine, stationed in the western city of Fallujah, handed out silver-colored coins this week that said in Arabic: “Where will you spend eternity? (John 3:36).” The other side read: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16).”
“We are sorry for this behavior,” said Mike Isho, a U.S. military spokesman in Anbar province, which includes Fallujah. He said the Marine, whom he did not identify, distributed only a few of the coins and that the episode was under investigation.
“This incident doesn’t represent the morals of the Marines,” he said.
Mohammed Amin Abdel-Hadi, the head of the Sunni Endowment in Fallujah, an institution responsible for overseeing the sect’s mosques, criticized U.S. troops, whom many in the city view as occupiers, for acting like Christian missionaries. He said the coins were part of a pattern of insensitivity toward Muslims, citing the outcry this month over a U.S. sniper in Baghdad who used a Koran, Islam’s holiest book, as a target for practice.
“We demand the Americans leave us alone and stop creating religious controversies,” Hadi said. “First, they shot the Koran, and now they come to proselytize inside Fallujah.”
Mohammed Jassim al-Dulaimi, 43, said a Marine forced one of the coins into his hand Tuesday morning as he passed through a checkpoint at the western entrance to Fallujah. He said he was shocked when he read it.
“The claims that the occupation is a Crusader War make sense now,” Dulaimi said.[
Some might call this an overreaction, but what if the situation were reversed ? What if an employee of a foreign government, which is precisely what a Marine is, came to your country and tried to convert you to whatever he or she thought was the “correct” religion ? What if that person wore a uniform and carried a rifle ?
How would you feel about it ?
Personally, I’d be pretty pissed off in that situation and I am right now. The United States military has no business concerning itself with the religious views of foreign citizens, and this solider stepped over the time.
I know this may be a foreign concept for you, but the idea of “God, family, country” still holds for many, and if a Marine feels this strongly for his country, then God no doubt is extremely important in his life. And the Bible does explicitly say “to go out and make disciples of the world”.
Personally, I would not be offended by someone who tried to convert me if it were in a method like this. And I’m sorry, but these people seem to know how to play the PC card and I have a hard time finding it any more reasonable from Iraqis than I would from Americans.
He’s a Marine, not a Pastor, and at least one version of the story I’ve read indicates that he was ORDERED not to do it.
If he disagrees with the order, he can leave the Marines.
Otherwise, he should have complied with it.
CR,
And perhaps we do come from different perspectives. As a Catholic, I would be extremely offended if someone, whether another Christian or another faith entirely, tried to convert me.
That happened more than once when I first moved to Virginia when several evangelicals made rather insulting comments about the Church I grew up in. Since then, if someone I don’t know asks me about religious issues my standard response is none of your business.
He would have to work a little harder than that to “convert” someone. I think I would leave that out. Conversion takes longer than 10 short seconds.
Was this guy on duty or not. It never said, so knowing the washington post i would assume they left it out because he was off duty. And what exactly does it mean to be “suspended” anyway?