Muslim Anger Over Military 'Jesus' scopes

[Deeps]

Muslim anger over military 'Jesus' scopes

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Muslim groups reacted angrily Wednesday after it emerged that the US military in Iraq and Afghanistan were using rifle sights inscribed with coded Biblical references.

The company producing the sights, which are also used to train Afghan and Iraqi soldiers under contracts with the US Army and the Marine Corps, said it has inscribed references to the New Testament on the metal casings for over two decades.

The British Ministry of Defense meanwhile announced it had placed an order for 400 of the gunsights with Trijicon but added it had not been aware of the significance of the inscriptions, in a decision criticized by the opposition Liberal Democrat party.

The Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC) called on US Defense Secretary Robert Gates to immediately withdraw from combat use equipment found to have inscriptions of Biblical references after it emerged that Trijicon has contracts to supply over 800,000 of the sights to the US military.

The Pentagon sought to defuse the brewing controversy, saying it was "disturbed" by the reports. ...

Link

The headline itself is insane ... [color:purple]Talk about value added reporting! I'm not Muslim and I'm completed fucking irate over this.

This scandal on the heals of the Blackwater independent security force scandal where their leader essentially admitted to engaging in armed conflict in the name of God, is a little unbearable.

[Kanada Kev]

http://www.jambands.ca/sanctuary/showpost.php?post/630657/

It's simply idiotic. Whether or not the "code" was noticed before, it has a purpose. By having them on there, and have it as common knowledge, it gives anyone being attacked by the US fuel to be even more enraged.

Fucking crusade mentality.

[Dr_Evil_Mouse]

Get a load of this:

uU6_s9txcCE

(On Huffpost)

Fox & Friends co-host Steve Doocy came to the defense of a Michigan company, Trijicon, that has come under heavy criticism for selling the U.S. military weapons for use in Iraq and Afghanistan that are inscribed with secret Bible quotes. The inscriptions threaten to be a major public relations headache since the U.S. has gone out of its way to offer assurances that its operations in the Muslim world have nothing to do with Islam.

Doocy, however, doesn't see what the big deal is because the terrorists "started it."

My wife made a good observation yesterday when we were talking about this story, and that is, 'hey, wait a minute, the Taliban and the extremists, what is it they say just before they blow themselves up or kill somebody, they say Allahu Akbar.' If anybody's making this a religious thing, they started it.

Trijicon has announced that it will cease the practice and is offering its clients kits to remove existing inscriptions.

[SaggyBalls]

So trivial...

[Kanada Kev]

No More Jesus Rifles

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/jesus-rifles/story?id=9618791

[SaggyBalls]

John, Chapter 8, Verse 12, which reads: "Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life."

Pretty appropriate for a nightscope.

Who blew the whistle on this?

Were there Internal memos talking about the verses?

It feels treasonous to even leak it before giving the army an opportunity to reverse the castings on those scopes.

So much hassle, so much of a talking point, and a reason for holy warriors to blow themselves up on a subway in NYC.

[Dr_Evil_Mouse]

It is, though, just one more case of the ways in which Christian supremacism has insinuated itself into this conflict. I mean, just take Blackwater's (Xe, now) Erik Prince as one huge example. There must be an awful lot of talk on many fronts (and I wish I could read Arabic) about what kind of conspiracy people in the Muslim world must think is going on.

As for the point about treason, it seems to me more treasonous to escalate hostility against troops who are ostensibly in a non-religious war (or, rather, wars) through this kind of stupidity.

[SaggyBalls]

It seems more treasonous? Unless those references were specifically put on the scopes with that in mind, it is NOT treason, as there is no intent for said desired outcome.

Whoever brought this up or hid any underlying meaning (which I sincerely doubt is the root of the verse) had an intention that was not in line with the accepted aims and attitudes that are meant to keep the US secure.

My apologies to you, Dr. Mouse, as I am confident that we both would agree that we don't need to argue something as potentially trivial as this, but "treason is the crime that covers some of the more serious acts of betrayal of one's sovereign or nation. " (wiki)

From my point of view, this is an issue of betrayal.

"Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort." (wiki)

Throwing fuel on the fire in this case is far more treasonous than putting a few digits on a scope.

Too bad it's now a religious war, since both sides arguably are for the same God and set of ideals.

Of course this thread could easily turn into a henotheistic Judeo-Christianity vs. monotheistic Islam, but if this is enough of a talking point to you then maybe a seperate thread would be more appropriate, as would pointing me towards another more appropriate forum for this...like, say, going for a beer as I'm really only learning as I go when it comes to world religion and politics.

(Perhaps) The same is true with everybody, but fwiw, I respect your perspective and (potential) understanding of this topic.

[Dr_Evil_Mouse]

Fair enough - these issues do get awfully complicated very quickly. But I would still say the big issue lies with the dolts who put these inscriptions on these rifle sights in the first place.

I mean, doesn't it pigeonhole a particular type of Christianity when the tradition is broadcast through something whose sole purpose is to help kill someone? (rifle scopes would seem to have a limited number of household applications.)

It makes me think of Kurt Vonnegut pointing out how so few judges in the US get their knickers in a knot to get the Sermon on the Mount posted in their courtrooms, but seem fixated on the 10 Commandments.

(That is a tangent, yes .)

[jonyak]

noone else find it ironic they use jesus quotes on something used to help kill people?

[SaggyBalls]

Of course, jonyak, but it would be far more ironic if they were to put the jesus quotes on landmines or a moses reference on a flamethrower - or better yet, a fire extinguisher.

[nibbler]

noone else find it ironic they use jesus quotes on something used to help kill people?

Excerpts from Frank Zappa's "Dumb All Over" - 1981

...You can't run a country

By a book of religion

Not by a heap

Or a lump or a smidgeon

Of foolish rules

Of ancient date

Designed to make

You all feel great

While you fold, spindle

And mutilate

Those unbelievers

From a neighboring state

...

...The Good Book says:

"It gotta be that way!"

But their book says:

"REVENGE THE CRUSADES . . .

With whips 'n chains

'N hand grenades . . . "

TWO ARMS? TWO ARMS?

Have another and another

Our God says:

"There ain't no other!"

Our God says

"It's all okay!"

Our God says

"This is the way!"

It says in the book:

"Burn 'n destroy . . .

'N repent, 'n redeem

'N revenge, 'n deploy

'N rumble thee forth

To the land of the unbelieving scum on the other side

'Cause they don't go for what's in the book

'N that makes 'em BAD

So verily we must choppeth them up

And stompeth them down

Or rent a nice French bomb

To poof them out of existance

While leaving their real estate just where we need it

To use again

For temples in which to praise

OUR GOD

("Cause he can really take care of business!")

[Kanada Kev]

noone else find it ironic they use jesus quotes on something used to help kill people?

Yup,

http://www.jambands.ca/sanctuary/showpost.php?post/630657/