US Military Course Considering “US at War with Islam” Receives Objection

The Pentagon stated on Wednesday that the top U.S. military officer has ordered a review of training material after a course for officers was found to consider that the United States is at war with Islam, Reuters reported.

According to the agency, “Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff General Martin Dempsey sent a letter on Tuesday to leaders of the Army and other services, along with regional commanders and officials heading the National Guard, ordering a review of relevant training and education material across the military.”

Dempsy said that “this review will ensure our professional education programs exhibit the cultural sensitivity, respect for religion and intellectual balance that we should expect in our academic institutions.”

The review was prompted by a soldier who sent a complaint after having completed an elective course entitled "Perspectives on Islam and Islamite Radicalism" at the Joint Forces Staff College in Norfolk, Virginia.

The course included an assertion "that the United States is at war with Islam and we ought to just recognize that we are war with Islam," Pentagon spokesman, Captain John Kirby was quoted as saying.

Kirby added before reporters that “that's not at all what we believe to be the case. We're at war against terrorism, specifically Al-Qaeda, who has a warped view of the Islamic faith."

Reuters quoted him as saying that “US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta also felt deep concern over the discovery, which follows a string of incidents that, more than 10 years after the Afghan war began, have exposed a persisting gap between people in the conservative Muslim nation and the Western soldiers fighting Islamist militants there.”

Source: Reuters
26-04-2012 - 14:28 Last updated 26-04-2012 - 14:28

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