A week ago, Iraqi militiamen made a shocking discovery: a Quran (Koran) used for target practice, riddled with bullets, and the words “F*** yeah” scrawled inside. U.S. officials are scrambling to make amends in fear of a major backlash across Iraq.
The Fourth Division’s investigation has identified a staff sergeant in a sniper section of the 64th Armor Regiment as the primary suspect. A
Maj. Gen. Jeffery Hammond, commander of the 4th Infantry Division, did show considerable courage and tact in facing any angry mob in the area and asking for their forgiveness.
For the full story, click here.
This was dumb. If they only had used a Bible, MSNBC & the left in America would have given the soldiers an award.
Just wondering why there was all this hoopla over Huckabee’s “CROSS” bookcase in a video when Obama can put out a FLYER and advertisement that shows him at a pulpit with a REAL CROSS in the background.
Let it never be said there is consistency in the left wing hate rhetoric.
They shot up a book. Oooo… I wonder why there isn’t this kind of outcry when they shoot up something important, LIKE A LIVING HUMAN BEING!
By the way, love the blog.
Yes, one of our soldiers disrespected their Quran. Now, if only the muslims killed less and worshiped more, maybe there could be peace among them? Probably not!
My God, Jonathan, after reading the above responses, can there be any question why America is so hated. What hubris.
Defendant soldiers knew or should have known that their actions would place their fellow soldiers at increased risk….
The JAG should throw the book at them; and do so publicly so as to quell the mob and rumors.
Bob,
You have this exactly correct. This action did not take place in a civilian context. Frankly I don’t care if someone wishes to exercise their second amendments rights to the first amendment by shooting up a koran, bible, upanishads or the big book of atheism. In a military occupation/situation this action put fellow soldiers at risk. That is unacceptable.
Jill
Bob/Jill:
Without getting into too much stereotyping, does anyone think it significant that the 4th Infantry Division is based in Fort Hood, Texas? Exporting cultural “rednecks” to war zones, should be our last priority..er, on second thought, maybe it should be our first.
—
R. Theroux
My God, Jonathan, after reading the above responses, can there be any question why America is so hated. What hubris.
—
Hubris has nothing to do with it. The fact that we’re still living in the moral stone ages where it is acceptable to kill another human being for ANY reason has.
This shot up book is just that, a book. Pieces of paper bound together by an adhesive. Yet these same people who would kill the person who shot it, if they could, seem to think it’s fine and dandy to murder another living breathing person.
This is not hubris.
This is insanity plain and simple.
user0x7d:
The Qur’an may be merely a book to you, but the point is that it is much more to Muslims. Attaching a value to an object more than the sum of its constituent parts is nothing new, nor limited to the religious. Look at the flag burning controversy, or the attachment we feel for family relics, or our documents founding our liberties. The point is that deeply antagonizing those who fundamentally disagree with us is counterproductive and truly insane.
As usual, Niblick missed the point. Can you imagine the froth-mouthed outrage in the US Army, rampant with evangelicals, Faux Noise, every right wing pundit and religioso if a Bible had been shot up by Muslims? But then, that isn’t what happened, is it?. It was US soldiers (Christians?) who deliberately defaced another culture’s relgious work. If shooting up “just a (Christian) book” would create an international religious furor—and it most certainly would, then shooting up a Qur’an is equally provacative and should be condemned. The military has done the right thing on this–thus far. I fear once the uber-Christian military brass gets hold of this it’ll wash away without any action.
This just shows the intolerance people have towards Islam. More education maybe? Couldn’t they use any NON holy book to shoot up? I’m disgusted!
Wow. This is surely a good way to win the hearts and minds of the Iraqi people, and the Muslim world in general. Just what kind of jerk-offs do we have running our military these days?
Matthew:
I think they are the same guys who handled ‘Nam. We just love recycling our screw ups.
It’s funny how we never see Muslims dissing the Bible or desecrating it physically or insulting Jesus.
Crazed Man-I think its funny that you think its funny that you don’t SEE Muslims doing the same thing. Thats a very good point. I’m sure the most violent religion in the world has the utmost respect for Christianity (even though they torture and slaughter Christians every day in Eritrea and other Muslim countries)
Have any of those who made the above comments the courage to serve in a war? I respect peace-loving for its own sake, but many are peace-loving because they are cowards. It is very easy to bash soldiers in a war you don’t agree with (which, being a veteran of that war, I don’t necessarily agree with either), but have you done anything besides complain to your friends and make anti-Bush jokes? What those soldiers did was idiotic, wrong, and should be punished. But, seeing your friends blasted by people who hide bombs under their clothes tends to make you less aware of consequences or ethics.
Live comfortably, watch CNN, and make anti-Bush potshots–the world will thank you later.
Clint
Well, everyone is entitled to their own moronic, ill-considered, baseless, irrelevant and bone-headed opinion and you’ve certainly been given the opportunity on this site to express yours.
Clint,
I get what you’re saying but I think you aren’t accurate about several things. First, if you look at the three religions of the book: christianity, judaism and the muslim religion I just don’t understand how you can say the latter has been the most violent. Historically, each of these religions has engaged in extreme creulty and violence. You are absolutely right to say muslims torture and kill christians, they do. It is equally true that christians have tortured and killed muslims. Neither religion has the moral high ground on the willingness to torture and kill.
I do understand that a battlefield is a place nearly completely removed from civilian life ethics. You have to do things and see things that make you crazy. It is difficult to hold onto any shred of your humanity. That is the same for every person in a war, no matter what side they are on. And maybe sometimes it just isn’t possible, but I feel every person needs to try with all their being to hold onto their humanity. It’s the only way out. So yes, I understand why those soldiers shot up the quran, but it was still a stupid and dangerous thing to do.
I’ve worked in enough anti-war groups to know that many people in those groups are completely insincere a-holes. They think it’s really cool to get arrested. I have no respect or tolerance for that crap. I also know that there are many of us who try as hard as we can to end this war. Don’t discount us with cheap shots about watching CNN, that isn’t right.
Jill
You are right Jill. My comments were out of line and immature and I apologize. I need to abstain from giving emotional responses.
It is frustrating to experience the war firsthand and then hear people flippantly offering their own opinions on it, even though I may agree with them in some ways.
I agree with you that many things have been done in the name of Christianity. I do not think that being transformed by trust in His sacrifice and following the teachings of Christ would allow any of the violence that has been historically done in His name. So, in that regard, I would say that many wear the jersey but few play the game.
Thank you for your gentle rebuke Jill, I probably deserved it to be harsher.
—
mespo727272
user0x7d:
The Qur’an may be merely a book to you, but the point is that it is much more to Muslims. Attaching a value to an object more than the sum of its constituent parts is nothing new, nor limited to the religious. Look at the flag burning controversy, or the attachment we feel for family relics, or our documents founding our liberties. The point is that deeply antagonizing those who fundamentally disagree with us is counterproductive and truly insane.
—
Anyone that attaches ANYTHING with value greater than human life is insane plain and simple. I don’t care what religion, what country, whatEVER they want to use to justify it with. There is NOTHING in this world more important than a human life.
Clint:
“So, in that regard, I would say that many wear the jersey but few play the game.”
********************
Your mature answer to Jill obviously means you are a thoughtful person. Your sentiment that somehow Christian and Muslim violence does not find at least some support in their respective Holy Texts is somewhat naive however. The Qu’ran, Hadith & Bible contain many prescriptions for wanton violence against infidels and apostates, and those following these divine commands rest assured in their righteousness. I would add one more concept to your metaphor: while many wear the jersey, and few play the game, it is clear that both playbooks contain the justifications for good and evil done in the name of the team.
user0x7d:
“Anyone that attaches ANYTHING with value greater than human life is insane plain and simple.”
*********************
You would get an argument from Mrs. Nathan Hale, every Christian I know, and a lot of people with their names carved in Arlington National Cemetery.
Mespo- Where in the Bible does it prescribe for Christians to be violent?
Clint:
If you need all chapters and verses I’ll send it to you privately, but here’s some tidbits for your consideration: “the Lord allows for no redemptions.” Note also that any one of his possessions which a man vows as doomed to the “Lord, whether it is a human being or an animal, or a hereditary field, shall be neither sold nor ransomed; everything that is thus doomed becomes most sacred to the Lord. All human beings that are doomed lose the right to be redeemed; they must be put to death.”(Leviticus 27:28-29 NLT).
Here’s a little ditty about burning non-believers:
“Suppose you hear in one of the towns the LORD your God is giving you that some worthless rabble among you have led their fellow citizens astray by encouraging them to worship foreign gods. In such cases, you must examine the facts carefully. If you find it is true and can prove that such a detestable act has occurred among you, you must attack that town and completely destroy all its inhabitants, as well as all the livestock. Then you must pile all the plunder in the middle of the street and burn it. Put the entire town to the torch as a burnt offering to the LORD your God. That town must remain a ruin forever; it may never be rebuilt. Keep none of the plunder that has been set apart for destruction. Then the LORD will turn from his fierce anger and be merciful to you. He will have compassion on you and make you a great nation, just as he solemnly promised your ancestors. “The LORD your God will be merciful only if you obey him and keep all the commands I am giving you today, doing what is pleasing to him.” (Deuteronomy 13:13-19 NLT).
I’ll even throw in the Bible’s express support of human and even sexual slavery too:
“When a man sells his daughter as a slave, she will not be freed at the end of six years as the men are. If she does not please the man who bought her, he may allow her to be bought back again. But he is not allowed to sell her to foreigners, since he is the one who broke the contract with her. And if the slave girl’s owner arranges for her to marry his son, he may no longer treat her as a slave girl, but he must treat her as his daughter. If he himself marries her and then takes another wife, he may not reduce her food or clothing or fail to sleep with her as his wife. If he fails in any of these three ways, she may leave as a free woman without making any payment.” (Exodus 21:7-11 NLT)
I thought you guys actually read the Bible, and lest you think that Jesus came to change the law of the Old Testament, I give you Jesus’ own words: “Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill. For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until all is accomplished.” (Matthew 5:17,18).
Jefferson was right: “The whole history of these books [the Gospels] is so defective and doubtful that it seems vain to attempt minute enquiry into it: and such tricks have been played with their text, and with the texts of other books relating to them, that we have a right, from that cause, to entertain much doubt what parts of them are genuine. In the New Testament there is internal evidence that parts of it have proceeded from an extraordinary man; and that other parts are of the fabric of very inferior minds. It is as easy to separate those parts, as to pick out diamonds from dunghills.”
(Thomas Jefferson, letter to John Adams, January 24, 1814)
Where in the Bible does it prescribe for CHRISTIANS (you might have to look in the New Testament) to be violent? Please answer that question and then I’ll answer all the verses you quoted out of context.
If you’d like, I could quote Darwin out of context for my argument for irreducible complexity- “To suppose that the human eye…”
Clint:
I guess you didn’t read my response, or you somehow make the distinction between the law of the Old and New Testaments despite Jesus’ specifically statement that here was here to fulfill the Old Testament. (Jesus was Christian, wasn’t he?) Or maybe you just don’t like what you have read. Like most of the religious you adopt a cafeteria-style theology that allows you to pick and choose the passages you believe or wish to follow. To be fair, I would adopt that position too, if I was saddled with Iron Age wisdom that I had to wedge into modern life. Saying something is quoted “out of context” is the trite evasion of many of the religious and all corrupt politicians. Those bedfellows haven’t changed much over the years, I see. I guess your next response is where you start calling me godless or unable to see or some other sanctimonious invective that likewise evades the point.
I do however thank you for posting my response on your blog. That at least tells me you are willing to tolerate rational thought uncluttered by superstition, which places you above many of your brethren.