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Iraqis Claim Marines Are Pushing Christianity in Fallujah
FALLUJAH, Iraq - At the western entrance to the Iraqi city of Fallujah Tuesday, Muamar Anad handed his residence badge to the U.S. Marines guarding the city. They checked to be sure that he was a city resident, and when they were done, Anad said, a Marine slipped a coin out of his pocket and put it in his hand.
Out of fear, he accepted it, Anad said. When he was inside the city, the college student said, he looked at one side of the coin. "Where will you spend eternity?" it asked.
He flipped it over, and on the other side it 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."
"They are trying to convert us to Christianity," said Anad, a Sunni Muslim like most residents of this city in Anbar province. At home, he told his story, and his relatives echoed their disapproval: They'd been given the coins, too, he said.
Fallujah, the scene of a bloody U.S. offensive against Sunni insurgents in 2004, has calmed and grown less hostile to American troops since residents turned against al Qaida in Iraq, which had tried to force its brand of Islamist extremism on the population.
Now residents of the city are abuzz that some Americans whom they consider occupiers are also acting as Christian missionaries. Residents said some Marines at the western entrance to their city have been passing out the coins for two days in what they call a "humiliating" attempt to convert them to Christianity.
In the markets, people crowded around men with the coins, passing them to each other and asking in surprise, "Have you seen this?"
The head of the Sunni endowment in Fallujah, the organization that oversees Sunni places of worship and other religious establishments, demanded that the Marines stop.
"We say to the occupiers to stop this," said Sheikh Mohammed Amin Abdel Hadi. "This can cause strife between the Iraqis and especially between Muslim and Christians . ... Please stop these things and leave our homes because we are Muslims and we live in our homes in peace with other religions."
A spokesman said the U.S. military is investigating.
"Multi-National Force-Iraq is investigating a report that U.S. military personnel in Fallujah handed-out material that is religious and evangelical in nature," the spokesman, Rear Adm. Patrick Driscoll, said in a statement e-mailed to McClatchy. "Local commanders are investigating since the military prohibits proselytizing any religion, faith or practices."
Multi-National Force-Iraq is the formal name for coalition forces in Iraq.
In interviews, residents of Fallujah repeated two words - "humiliation" and "weakness".
"Because we are weak this is happening," said a shop owner who gave his name as Abu Abdullah. "Passing Christianity this way is disrespectful."
"The occupier is repeatedly trespassing on God and his religion," said Omar Delli, 23. "Now the occupier is planting seeds of strife between the Muslims and Christians. We demand the government in Fallujah have a new demonstration to let the occupier know that these things are humiliating Islam and the Quran."
The controversy over the coins that Iraqis said some Marines are passing out comes on the heels of a tempest triggered by a U.S. sniper who used the Quran, Islam's holy book, for target practice. The sniper was pulled out of Iraq after Iraqi police on May 11 found a Quran with 14 bullet holes and graffiti on the pages.
In Islam, the holy book is never to touch the floor, let alone be defaced. Iraqi leaders condemned the actions, U.S. generals apologized and President Bush offered a personal apology to Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki.
In Fallujah, Mohammed Jaber saw one of the coins and said he thought of the bullets lodged in the Quran, the torture of Iraqi men at the Abu Ghraib prison in 2004 and the rape of a 14-year-old girl and her murder and that of her family in Mahmoudiya.
"Now we have this missionary way by these coins," he said. "We feel the Muslims are weak and we hope that we will reach a point when we are strong to let them know what is wrong and what is right. "
Naji is a McClatchy special correspondent in Fallujah.
© McClatchy Newspapers 2008
92 Comments so far
Show AllSuffering from verbal diarreha(never could spell that word), full of crap. Otherwise known as a Tory.
My how far we've traveled from the start of this thread. I'm still torn by the idea that the marine who passed out these coins may have done it as an 'inspired' way to get the hell out of Iraq. Possible, but why does the media not mention who ordered the production of the coins?
I looked thru some other sites that blamed Iran for producing the coins as a way of making the occupiers look bad. Funny, (not ha ha funny either) as if blowing up babies with white phosphorus isn't going to make you look bad enough. As if torturing people makes you look good. As if launching an unnecessary war is a good thing. As if.
Duplicate post... Oops.
The marines aren't doing much to prevent an outbreak of more fighting if they're pushing fundy coins on the people they occupy.
It's more and more evident that this 'war' isn't; it's a crusade for christ! How does bush react to the fallen, the faithful soldier gets delivered to his creator; the enemy and the atheist in damned to hell presumably.
Giving out that sort of coin is a bit more stupid than most fundy's think. In Islam the guy the christians call god is a prophet, he's human, not a god. The muslims argue that the christian is a heritic because they worship a human being as if he were god. This sort of shit reminds people in the middle east of the things that King Richard's army did at Acre and Jerusalem.
2 FUN E
BUT WHERE IS THE JOURNALISM ON THE MODERN HISTORY OF FALLUJA
the 2003 demonstration by a school that violently put down by THE OCCUPATION
which is the catalyst for the BLACKWATER DEBACLE
Using the Koran for target practice, evangelical coins, what's next? The only offenses left for U.S. forces to make are, literally, raping and pillaging. Oh wait, didn't we make Iraqis rape each other at Abu Ghraib? Well, we have pillaging left, and I'm sure some half-witted company commander is figuring out how to make that work, too.
woundedduck;
Check out the stories about the treasures of Iraq being smuggled out of the country by US forces, the plunder of the Iraqi National Museam, the burning of their library - books which survived the Mongol invasion in the middle ages were burnt after the invasion... Your army has already being raping and pillaging...
This is not news. The US military has become a crusading force under the Bush regime, just like the crusaders of the dark ages.
This article failed to mention that most Christians living in Saddam's secular Iraq left Iraq after the US occupation started.
Do you notice whenever Iraqis refer to the US it's "occupiers". Funny how that never seems to make it into the MSM.
And of course this once again has nothing to do with religion....right.
This is really stupid and if it is investigated and proves true, the responsible parties should be arrested, removed to the US and do some time at the minimum.
"i do not like your christians. they are so unlike your christ."
---m.k. gandhi
Believe it or not, United States Army Instructions for American Servicemen in Iraq during World War II actually stresses treating Iraqis with respect and due consideration-- and in no uncertain terms, explicitly cautions servicemen against spontaneously pursuing religious matters.
Boy, the military sure was dumb and chickenshit back then, eh?
The CRUSADES continue! No surprise...soldiers for Christ and of course the holiest of substances..OIL.
Military men are brainwashed by the clergy that infiltrates their ranks as well. How can you be a clergyman or woman and be in the military service which sanctions killing of another human being? Doesn't that go against the ten commandments....'Thou shall not kill'? No Christian can justify killing. They have to want to murder in order to be drawn to the service.
Our country is NUTS!
Will the Iraqi's overstrike these crusader buttons in Hebrew?
Killing and converting in the name of christianity is nothing new. It's been going on for over 2000 years.
KaneJeeves-
Yep.
Everybody in the Middle East, and most of the people on entire planet for that matter, use the term "occupation" to describe continuing US military presence in Iraq, with the notable exception of the media, the politicians, and other opinion/perception shapers inside of the United States. Only by consistently and repeatedly calling it a "war" can Bush and McCain and the other hawks babble on about "victory", "winning", or about "retreat", or "surrender". Change the terminology, and you suddenly change the whole tone and substance of the public policy debate.
Interesting, too, that most Arabs and other Muslims similarly refer to the Israelis routinely as an "occupation" force on Palestinian lands. Up until Little George took office, every single President since Truman recognized how dumb and politically counterproductive it would be to US national interests to be perceived as overtly joined at the hip with Zionism. But of course that was then, this is now, and the 21st Century GOP neo-cons assuredly know best.
As to the fundy coins being passed out by the Marines at the Fallujah checkpoints, my reaction is pretty much like my reaction was to part of the Abu Ghraib scandal.
If you really, genuinely wanted to find out who promulgated and implemented the official policy, go trace back who requisitioned and distributed all those pairs of womens' undies to the detainees inside a maximum security military prison.
If you really, genuinely want to find out who authorized or turned their head to the proselytizing, all you gotta due is follow the money back to its source.
I'll bet you my last dinar the Pentagon blames it on them bad apples that are always down at the bottom of the barrell.
Kudos once again to the McClatchy News service, a continuing beacon of hope in the increasingly bland wilderness of American print journalism.
Bill from Saginaw
Sounds like typical right wing behavior to me. The Crusaders, on their way to Jerusalem, upon finding Eastern Orthodox Christians in Turkey, agreed that these were not the kind of Christians they knew anything about. Just to be on the safe side they decided to "Kill them all. God will know his own."
Standard US Christian behavior too: xenophobic, ignorant, insensitive, arrogant. Falwell has left us and Robertson and Bauer are getting old. Not to worry, Parsley, Haigee and van Impe to the rescue! Stupidity is not going to die out anytime soon.
Why don't we see Stephen Mitchell, Karen Armstrong, Elaine Pagles, Sam Harris on TV. Is having a brain a disqualification?
At the beginning of this "war" a friend who's one of those who worship bush, said it was the crusades, and the only way it's going to be over, is when there isn't anyone left living on the other side.
The "christians" who're involved are pushing for armageddon, and think the more people they can pull into their christianity, the better their chances will be when facing JUDGEMENT DAY.
Doesn't it say in the Christian Bible's Ten Commandments "Thou Shalt Not Kill" ?? So what are these Christian soldiers doing in Iraq killing people?
Why is it Christians always put pressure on people to join their religion? Why can't the U.S. just leave people alone to live in peace. No foreign country attacked America on 9/11. The U.S. needs to get out of Iraq but refuses to since there is oil in Iraq.
Ah, I couldn't help but think of our good friend Ann Coulter's famous quote:
"We should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity."
Perhaps her face should be on one side of the coin.
My fantasy world is better than your fantasy world! You'll find out when you die! Hordes of pitchfork toting demons are waiting for you unless you convert now. I know because I read it in a book. I have secured my place in paradise even though I can't explain exactly what 'paradise' is.
And "God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son" well, not really since Jesus rose up from the dead and didn't really die. But he's the one! Ask any of the great religious leaders; Jim Jones, David Khoresh, or Marshall Applewhite!
Remember that good Christians support local community organizations like the NRA and the KKK. Get a gun and get onboard now! We'll tell you how to live!
Ann Coulter's face - I'm laughing hysterically just thinking of all the places it should and shouldn't be.
Maybe that is her face on the front of the quarter. On the back it says, "In God We Lust".
Ken Nuti
Medford, MA
Now religious rot will join military and political rot in Iraq. America's biggest export: rot.
Bible fact check- "Thou shalt not MURDER"
There's plenty of killing...
But as long as you're going to criticize killing, why not criticize the daily bombings, maimings, tortures, etc. of Iraqis by other Iraqis?
Sounds like a bs story to me anyway- psy-ops jiu-jitsu by Iraqis wanting to undermine Iraqi public support for American troops.
" skippyagogo41 May 29th, 2008 12:47 pm
The marines aren't doing much to prevent an outbreak of more fighting if they're pushing fundy coins on the people they occupy.
It's more and more evident that this 'war' isn't; it's a crusade for christ! ..."
NOPE, you're very short-sighted, don't think far, or else know little; or both.
It's not "a crusade for (the) Christ" (it's not a name, but only a title, dummy!), but anti-Christ(ian), more of these demented, lying, ... false prophet types, whom Christ [condemned] long ago. Scripture is wherein this is said and explicitly so; therefore, you evidently can't read, let alone being short-sighted.
It's for evangelicals, but they're not evangelising except falsely in the name of the Christ, while his name was known as Jesus of Nazareth, which, btw, is NOT Rome; in case you also forgot that fact.
Entirely not of his discipleship are these idiots, and may the Iraqis's anger or wratch cause the earth to shake so hard beneath the feet and vehicles of these U.S. soldiers, who are also triators of the USA and its international obligations, that the earth opens up and "swallows" all of these jackasses up whole; chomp chomp and gulp being heard from Earth for after-effect. Maybe a big burp of gas into the atmosphere, to fart the toxic gases caused by these idiots.
bamabanjo-
If foreign soldiers were running loose over your beautiful America pushing Islam and Jihad, what would you do to the American traitors who aided and abetted those assholes who oocupied your land? Most Bush die-hards keep their sparse supply of brains where the sun never shines. One good fart and they actually believe they had blown their minds.
bamabanjo
I couldn't agree with you more. Iraqi public support for American troops may even be higher than Bush's approval rating. And I just know these heathens are dying to be converted to the One True Way. After all, look at all the good it's done them already.
Seaweed-
Yes those women and children in the marketplaces are aiders and abetters, definitely.
Purvis-
Nothing I said supported converting Muslims, but yes I do think there are Iraqis that would rather have Americans on their side than face the viciousness of the "resistance" led by non-Iraqis. Anbar case in point.
Enough posts in this page illustrate very clearly that a lot of U.S. assholes still at home instead of being killed or extremely injured in Iraq, which should be today's reality, pervertedly enjoy spewing their "sons of the father of lies and murder" bs upon us all.
None of these assholes can ever speak for [true] Christianity, of which there's extremely little in the West, and which the person who posted a quote of Gandhi above clearly refers to.
"hazmat May 29th, 2008 1:50 pm
"i do not like your christians. they are so unlike your christ."
—m.k. gandhi"
I FULLY AGREE; it's not the assholes who posted above who represent any true Christian qualities AT ALL, not in the remotest slightness. I should know; having had an excellent teacher and more than enough commonsense.
Best thing to do is for real, non-treasonous Americans to give these asshole "neighbour" types are solid "taste" of the bs they like to "dish out" against innocent people; innocent and extremely defenceless, which is the way these assholes lust for their victims to be. Like SATAN does!
He's their real father; Jesus having condemned them all around 2,000 years ago, for extras. But sons of the father of lies do little other than LIE their lives and souls away; and pervertedly enjoy it. It's not unlikely anyway, for Scripture couldn't be clearer about the condemnation of all who falsely profess to be disciples of Jesus.
The love to try to fool us all though; just that the lies don't pass for anything else with me.
Since we're forcing them into Diebold Democracy and Corporate Capitalism, it's no surprise that we want to convert them to Xtianity too. I guess next up we'll be sending our Pop Stars over there to convert them to our 'culture'.
The American military is full of Christian's that enlisted because they think that Iraq and terrorism (not in any way connected) are part of a religious war. This propaganda was spread by Bush when he was making references to his religious duties in reference to the Iraq campaign and his fight against terrorism (so much for the separation of church and state). Most of the fundamentalists that have joined the war have heard this sort of nonsense preached from the pulpit at local churches. There are still a few religious miscreants wanting to bring about the" end of times" in any middle east conflict. There have even been complaints by enlisted men concerning overt pressure from Christian groups within the military for some time now. Money from private Christian organizations have found its way to Christian organizations within the military.
Christian organizations, not satisfied with the direction the country was headed started to infiltrate politics over 20 years ago. The Republican party having the most of the Christian infiltrators (and most of the moral offenders) have been pushing this Christian propaganda for the last 5 presidential campaigns.
Think tanks that advised the administration on Iraq were Christian Neocons.
Contractors (the most profitable) are Christian led Neocons (ie Blackwater).
Of course this is a Christian campaign. Operation Iraqi Freedom was to free the Iraqi people from the bonds of Muhammad and of Islam. This was an obvious undercurrent concerning this war for oil and control of the region with Israel.
I thought all of this was fairly obvious. Haven't you ever heard the phrase "onward Christian soldiers"? Fundamentalists don't have the capacity for the complexities of literacy, they read a phrase and interpret it literally. I guess in a sense that would make them illiterate or ill-literate to some degree.
Jesus save us from your followers...
Bush in 2001: "This crusade, this war on terrorism is going to take a while."
I think most of the world assumed that Bush was simply revealing his ignorance of history, specifically the crusades. Most of the west, with the notable exception of America, now see religious wars as a bad thing. Bush also is betraying his idiocy here. How can you have a war on a crime?
But there have been too many incidents: urinating on holy books, destroying cultural museums and mosques, now they are proselytizing at gunpoint.
Maybe we should have taken Bush literally? It was just that at the time, I for one couldn't believe that anyone could be so stupid as to believe what the neocons were saying. I assumed that they simply wanted to profit from their access to power and with regards to Iraq, to control the oil. I guess that is all still true but we have to add the perversion of Christianity to the missions tasked to the US military.
Onward Christian soldier. Disgusting Crusaders.
Are You Washed in the Blood of the Lamb? :?:
Wait until Sistani declares Jihad (the religious war variety), along with the rest of the world's Muslims. There are already rumors of him writing fatwas against US occupation.) The US thinks it sees resistance now?!
The US has been saying it isn't a war on Islam -- but that's going to be hard to argue against now. There are over 1 1/2 billion Muslims worldwide, to 300 million Americans (of all religious systems). This is utter idiocy.
marines pushing christianity! Jesus must be rolling in his grave. This association between murderers and a man murdered is absurd...are the marines preaching love thy neighbour?
The word crusade is apt, and like those first crusaders, they only embarrass the religion they claim to represent.
'Out of fear, he accepted it, Anad said. When he was inside the city, the college student said, he looked at one side of the coin. "Where will you spend eternity?" it asked.'
All this calls to mind a sci fi story title : 'The Beast that Shouted Love at the Heart of the World'
Mike Corbeil;
I have yet to see any proof of the existance of any christian. Kinda like you never meet a 'real' communist, the ideas are nice. But the practice of either philosophy isn't.
ps. I don't capitalise the name/title of christ for the same reason I don't capitalise the title of the usa, bush or other names/titles I wish to disrespect.
I also wonder if the coins have any silver content. If so shouldn't they hand out thirty pieces of them to each Iraqi?
Great posts: HAZMAT, CRITICAL THINK TANK, NIETSCHZE, LILLULU & THE LORAX.
The key points are: 1. The TEACHINGS of Jesus are antithetical to the activities of war, the initiative in particular of pre-emptive war 2. When people are brainwashed into thinking that the PAIN they are causing others is necessary to some DIVINE plan or GOD'S will, they think it erases all standards of LAWFUL behavior.
The connection between these 2 opposing influences causes GREAT interior, as in mental, chaos. Those who cannot think for themselves are much more prone to follow the bidding of others, in this case of deranged leaders.
When I was a young child my parents were separated and I was left in the care of maids and housekeepers. One African American maid in particular loved to listen to religious (Southern Baptist) radio. I was a little sponge, but intelligent enough to subliminally USE what I was hearing on the playground. I was very good at getting kids to jump off swings when the swings were going high, or jump down from the top of staircases by coaching them "God wants you to do it." If I was very sincere in this request, children responded by OBEYING.
I was 5 or 6 years old and didn't understand what I was actually doing. It was some kind of unconscious experiment based on USING what I heard on the radio. Indeed ALL through history people have been able and willing to do UNSPEAKABLE things to others IF they believed, or were deceptively convinced, that SUCH ACTION constituted a HIGHER will or plan.
It is almost unthinkable that mankind could have passed through so much history, seen so much depravity, studied it and exposed at least SOME of it in social studies classes and STILL see the same lies used for the SAME insane, amoral outcomes. Maybe one of the masters will show up to correct the folly. It would seem that the hierarchy must be quite aware of the blood bath being rendered of the Middle East, birth place of the "3 great (patriarchal) religions." The FACT that religions are leading the way to a destruction of THE CREATION is itself the quintessential blasphmey. For what individual destroys that which CREATOR bestowed to them? And the FACT that that it's the RIGHT WING/fundamentalits of all THREE religions who are causing this wound to humanity that may yet have further lethal repurcusions asks ALL of us to really question WHAT IS RELIGION FOR? Is it serving the LIVING GOD? Or is it just a rationale to kill and maim and spit upon the HOLY creation that has extended the gift of life, and YES, with different values--the GREAT TURNING, another story, one beyond MARS RULES--this planet for its bountiful Eden qualities COULD be the great garden, the great gift. Human beings by cleaving to hatred, by allowing false leaders to convince them that their holiness exists in bringing pain to others only succeed in inviting the SAME to themselves. The LAW of karma is inviolate. I feel shame and pain for the madness that has enveloped too many and allowed things to come to this DARK AGE redux/Crusade. It doesn't seem real or possible that such ignorance, hatred and depravity could be given so much room to express... but the FACT that the US has invested in war and weapons and become ARMS MERCHANT to a world itself victimized by numerous unjust causes is like playing the role of mafia hit man, at the least, accessory to crimes against humanity. To then put Jesus' name on this behavior? My GOD, it is beyond the pale...
Need I say more:
U.S. reassigns Marine for passing out Bible verses to Muslims
By Leila Fadel and Jamal Naji | McClatchy Newspapers
BAGHDAD, Iraq — The U.S. military confirmed Thursday that a Marine in Fallujah passed out coins with a Gospel verse on them to Sunni Muslims, a military spokesman in the Iraqi city said. The man was immediately removed from the checkpoint and reassigned.......
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/homepage/story/38870.html
The intent of the coin is not surprising.
I sure would like to know who minted and distributed those coins to the soldies. They didn't make them for themselves? Who's the supplier?
Where minted might be important as well as by what means transported to Iraq.
Your poem should be required reading at every senate session ~NAHIDA~.
They who love Christianity more than truth and fairness, will end up loving themselves and loving no one else.
They should be glad they are not being treated like the heahtens of pre Columbian Meso-America
You gotta fry a couple of eggs to make an omlette.
Where else? Made in China.
China well, of course, yes.
But what organization/agency was responsible for getting these into the troops pockets?
Are troops allowed to distribute anything like that without having permission to do so? I think not.
Who gave the order to distribute this christian bribe or is this just a few rogue soldiers?
Hey, Earl Simmins,
I dare you to go to Iraq and have those comments translated to a man who has lost his family to some trigger-happy 'good Christian boy'.
And they see themselves as protected under the Free Exercise of Religion, thereby admitting that they are using the Machinery of State in furtherance of their individual personal interests. To me, that is of the same character as sending the military in, on a contrivance, to fill the pocket of your personal cronies. Spending our children's lives and our treasure to gain control of future oil, spilling their blood for a sour black ooze. Future ooze, yielding $300 per barrel to the middleman, of it's $400 cost to Exxon.
Violating their oath of office and committing a sort of basic treason upon the people they represent. But who has the right to decide it.
There is no God higher than Truth. The Mahatma
Perhaps the Iraqi's could produce a coin to hand to their occupiers: "Woe to you, hypocrites! You honour God only with lip service, while your hearts are far from God." Or maybe: "if God so loved the world, why the hell are you killing us?" It's obscene to link Jesus with killing.
Here's Earl -- they should be glad they aren't being treated like the heathens of meso-America.
You mean there's a difference between plucking the still beating heart from a sacrifice to promote the possibility of good rains to come and sending in young soldiers to die to enhance the possibility of controlling future oil?
I'll bet is has something to do with Peace With Honor.
Typical American tactic conquer then subdue, British Monarchy and Catholic church teamed up in 1553 did the same to the british people kept them as poor uneducated sheep and for centuries, same as what americans are trying this way they won't loose control of that texas tea. Ya in God we trust right, it should say In Oil we trust
Philly