General Order Number One, Forbid Proselytizing – Evangelists Cannot Protect Murtads

There appears to be NO accountability from the US Missionary Industrial Complex.  All they want to do is chalk up another Apostate, another Murtad for Christ!  With as strict as Islam is about converting to other faiths, and as stubborn evangelism has become, it would appear that there is a real conflict of interest in Afghanistan, Iraq and other Muslim countries.  This conflict of interest occurred when the original US mission was hijacked from looking for Bin Laden and began an overt  Christian Crusade … Operating under the cloak of administering to US Forces, evangelist missions have overstepped their authority under US law, but appear to be right in line with their own mission of “saving souls for Christ”, per  Missionary Industrial Complex guidelines.    Considering the fact that Al Qaeda and Taliban are fighting a Jihad/Holy War against the infidels, the evangelist mission has decided to engage the enemy at the jihad level. These military evangelists have not made it clear what they plan to do after they successfully convert someone from Islam.  The mere act of conversion dooms their convert to unimaginable strife, along with their families.  Converts are called Murtads. In Islamic law (sharia), the consensus view is that a male apostate must be put to death unless he suffers from a mental disorder or converted under duress, for example, due to an imminent danger of being killed. A female apostate must be either executed, according to Shafi’i, Maliki, and Hanbali schools of Sunni Islamic jurisprudence (fiqh), or imprisoned until she reverts to Islam as advocated by the Sunni Hanafi school and by Shi’a scholars.^[19]

The last war on this planet should not be fought using 12th century religious revenge!  This is still sibling rivalry among the children of Abraham.  Why have these children never grown up?  Religion has  done more to divide the people of the world than asteroids, plagues, floods, earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanoes have done to unite them.  Indeed, on the religious level, there is no evolution.  Just imagine what would happen if the Taliban invaded America and shoved Islam down our throats.  What if …

In the bustling religious marketplace of modern America, conversions out of one faith and into another are not exactly news. They happen every day, across the full spectrum of belief. But some conversions resonate more than others, especially at a time when the U.S. finds itself at war with terrorists who draw their inspiration from one of the world’s great religions.

The ugly rationalizations of propagandists like Syed Mumtaz Ali and Ali Khan do not emerge from nowhere; they are attempts to legitimate the harsh social reality already faced by the thousands of Muslim apostates in the West who must constantly worry about their personal safety. For most of them, this means maintaining an extremely low profile in religious contexts.

Converts from Islam, especially those who become involved in Christian ministries, often use assumed names, or only their first names, in order to protect themselves and their families.  The most common dangers faced by Muslim apostates come from their own families.

…  a couple of female converts from Islam told a reporter about their fears as new Christians. One woman said that when her family finds out, “I know they’re going to disown me if they don’t kill me.” The second woman had similar fears. “My brothers haven’t spoken to me in the last couple of years, and that was only because I married an American,” she said. “Can you imagine what they would do if they found out I was a Christian?”

Roy Oksnevad, a missionary with the Evangelical Free Church in Minneapolis, tells of a Turkish convert whose brother, an ultra-conservative imam who also owns a lucrative carpet and jewelry business, threatened to have him killed if he ever returned to Turkey. A Farsi-speaking pastor [name withheld by request] in Oakton, Virginia, told the Washington Times, “I’ve seen some people who’ve come from Iran to the United States to persecute, if not kill, in order to bring back their relatives to Islam.”

Even when apostates do not face physical danger from their families, they are often ostracized. This experience is not unique to Muslims, of course; it is a fact of life for many people who convert out of the faith into which they were born. But for Muslim apostates, the loss of family and community support can carry a heavy price, especially if they are immigrants. If they lose their livelihoods or the means to maintain themselves financially, they can be forced to return to their home countries–and that can amount to a death sentence.

One of Al Jazeera Most EMailed Articles:   ‘Witness for Jesus’ in Afghanistan

It is not clear if the presence of the Bibles and exhortations for soldiers to be “witnesses” for Jesus continues, but they were filmed a year ago despite regulations by the US military’s Central Command that expressly forbid “proselytising of any religion, faith or practice”US soldiers have been encouraged to spread the message of their Christian faith among Afghanistan’s predominantly Muslim population, video footage obtained by Al Jazeera appears to show.

Military chaplains stationed in the US air base at Bagram were also filmed with bibles printed in the country’s main Pashto and Dari languages.

Caught on tape: footage taken by Hughes, the chaplains appear to have found a way around the regulation known as General Order Number One.”Do we know what it means to proselytise?” Captain Emmit Furner, a military chaplain, says to the gathering.

“It is General Order Number One,” an unidentified soldier replies, “you can’t proselytise but you can give gifts”…“I bought a carpet and then I gave the guy a Bible after I conducted my business”.

Pentagon officials have so far not responded to a copy of the footage provided to them, but the distribution of Bibles in a place as politically sensitive as Afghanistan is bound to cause deep concern in Washington, the Al Jazeera correspondent says.

Probe call in Afghan ‘convert’ row

Ahmed Shah Ahmedzai said there must be a “serious investigation” after military chaplains stationed in the US air base at Bagram were filmed discussing how to distribute copies of the Bible printed in the country’s main Pashto and Dari languages.

In one recorded sermon, Lieutenant-Colonel Gary Hensley, the chief of the US military chaplains in Afghanistan, tells soldiers that, as followers of Jesus Christ, they all have a responsibility “to be witnesses for him”.

“The special forces guys – they hunt men basically. We do the same things as Christians, we hunt people for Jesus. We do, we hunt them down,” he says.

“Get the hound of heaven after them, so we get them into the kingdom. That’s what we do, that’s our business.”

The Crusade for a Christian Military

Middle East Online : Are US Forces Trying to Convert Afghans to Christianity? AMY GOODMAN: The former prime minister of Afghanistan, Ahmad Shah Ahmadzai, has called for an investigation into allegations that US soldiers are trying…

Military commanders may want their troops to pray a little less

AMERICA : Some US soldiers are allegedly trying to convert Afghans to Christianity … the national day of prayer in the US and, like all his predecessors since Harry Truman, US president Barack Obama issued a proclamation calling on all Americans “to pray in thanksgiving for our freedoms and blessings”.

In Afghanistan, however, US military commanders may wish their subordinates would pray a little less – or at least keep their religious views to themselves.

The Hounds of Heaven

A U.S. military spokesman has denied that American soldiers are allowed to try to convert Afghans to Christianity — it violates Central Command’s General Order No. 1 — and said that Hensley was quoted out of context. U.S. military spokesmen, of course, also routinely deny that U.S. bombing raids kill civilians.

And indeed, U.S. airstrikes this week in a densely populated area in western Afghanistan’s Farah Province, during a battle between Afghan soldiers and the Taliban, may have killed as many as 100 civilians, according to the New York Times. The Red Cross, the United Nations and the Afghan government are all expressing shock at the death toll, but our government will only acknowledge that it is “investigating the reports of civilian deaths,” which is the standard, meaningless comment that reporters work into such stories, seemingly with no obligation to follow up. This lets us forget about it and move on.

Torture, religion, democracy, God. They’re all part of the mixed-up, horrific business that George Bush unleashed in the Middle East and Central Asia, and that Barack Obama is struggling to control and rationalize. As the words above demonstrate, the 12th century is striving mightily to join hands with the 20th in the U.S. military: Unbridled religious arrogance is forging a link with high-tech weaponry and an unlimited defense budget.

The speaker, Lt. Col. Gary Hensley, who is no less than the chief of U.S. military chaplains in Afghanistan, was videotaped last year delivering a sermon at Bagram Air Base. Since Al Jazeera first broadcast the footage at the beginning of the week, it has spread widely on the Internet. Like so much else that the Bush administration has bequeathed us, and the world — pre-emptive war and torture, for instance — this is nothing new, but suddenly it’s overt. I can’t exactly say this is a good thing, but certainly this is where we want it.

US Soldiers in Afghanistan Told to “hunt people for Jesus… so we get them into the kingdom”

Trying to convert Muslims to any other faith is a crime in Afghanistan. The fact that the video footage is being broadcast on Al Jazeera guarantees that it will be seen throughout the Muslim world. It is likely to add more credence to the perception that the US is engaging in a war on Islam with neo-crusader forces invading Muslim lands.

‘Very damaging’

Under the US military code of conduct, armed forces on active duty are prohibited from trying to convert a person’s faith.

IN VIDEO

US troops urged to ‘witness for Jesus’ in Afghanistan

More videos …

Ahmed Shah Ahmedzai told Al Jazeera from Kabul on Monday: “This is a complete deviation from what they [the US military] are supposed to be doing.”I don’t think even the US constitution would allow what they are doing … it is completely against all regulations.

“This is very damaging for diplomatic relations between the two counties … everyone knows people are very conservative here, very faithful to Islam. They will never accept any other religion.   “Someone who leaves Islam is sentenced very severely – the death penalty [is imposed].    “There must be a serious investigation now that it has come out into the public and [into the] press,” he said.

Sayed Aalam Uddin Asser,  of the Islamic Front for Peace and Understanding in Kabul, told Al Jazeera: “It’s a national security issue … our constitution says nothing can take place in Afghanistan against Islam.

“If people come and propaganda other religions which have no followers in Afghanistan [then] it creates problems for the people, for peace, for stability.

Jesus killed Mohammed:The crusade for a Christian military

Spreading Christianity in Dar al-Islam

Can Christians serve in the New World Order army?

Christopher Hitchens shares his godless views with Air Force cadets, even if he can’t appear on campus

But then again, this is all a media conspiracy, isn’t it?  The US Military wouldn’t lie to the American people, would it?  No bad things have happened because of the US Military, that was all a media conspiracy … all those videos were made in Hollywood, weren’t they?  Is the US Military really on a Christian Crusade?  Do they even care that a successful conversion just creates new targets for torture or death. Converts are Apostates, Murtads that must be ultimately eliminated … apostasy is considered treason, and accordingly treated as a capital offense, not usually by the governments themselves, but by clerics.  As demonstrated daily, clerics wield extraordinary power in Islamic nations. Visit An American Murtad

Pentagon Denies Proselytizing in Afghanistan

Rights Group Uncovers Other Cases Of Military Proselytizing Christianity to Muslims

As expected, the U.S. military quickly denied that the video released on Sunday by Al Jazeera is evidence that our troops proselytizing Muslims in Afghanistan, claiming that what was shown in the video was an isolated incident, and that the chaplains’ statements were taken out of context.

Here’s the official response from the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) to the U.S. military: BULLSHIT!

Here’s another of the many examples from MRFF’s stockpile of General Order 1-A violations. The January 2009 newsletter of Worldwide Military Baptist Missions (WMBM) included these images of the English-Arabic proselytizing materials that they’ve been sending to our troops.

Here is a refreshing angle that deserves much more attention, illustrating individuals instead of the Missionary Industrial Complex … an article by HUSSEIN HAMDANI at the The Hamilton Spectator: Muslim-Jewish history is inspiring.  We need more of this demonstration and less glamorizing of manufactured conflicts over dogma that empower religious totalitarianism.  We are not Pavlov’s Dog to be controlled by greedy, un-accountable charsmatics.