from Israel My Glory, Volume 69, Number 4
Bowing to the Bad Buys
July/August 2011 Editorial
by Elwood McQuaid
A recent report that Guantanamo’s
Muslim detainees have convinced
the U.S. prison not to
fly the American flag where they
can see it is consistent with the inexplicable
descent into the absurd now
commonly practiced by U.S. officials.
The rationale for this essentially
bizarre action is the fear of
offending the sensibilities of Islamic
jihadists in U.S. custody.
Recent rhetorical gyrating over
what should or should not be exposed
about the demise of archterrorist
Osama bin Laden is an example of a
seeming obsession with not offending
Islamists because it may enflame their
anger toward America—as though
they were not already angry. The intensity
of their fanaticism can hardly be
cooled by our condescending excursions
into self-effacing acts that must
appear to them as an apology and manifestation
of weakness.
But condescend we do. As long
ago as 2003, the Pentagon issued
detailed rules on handling the Qur’an
at the Guantanamo Bay detainment
complex off the Cuban coast. On May
17, 2005, The Washington Post reported
the following:
Only Muslim chaplains and
Muslim interpreters can handle
the holy book, and only after putting
on clean gloves in full view
of detainees. The detailed rules
require U.S. Muslim personnel
to use both hands when touching
the Koran to signal “respect and
reverence,” and specify that the
right hand be the primary one
used to manipulate any part of
the book “due to the cultural
associations with the left hand.”
The Koran should be treated
like a “fragile piece of delicate
art.” . . . The Pentagon memo,
among other directives, barred military
police from touching the
Koran. If a copy of the book was
to be moved from a cell, the
memo said, it must be placed on
a “clean, dry detainee towel”
and then wrapped without turning
it over at any time. Muslim
chaplains must then ensure that
it is not placed in any offensive
area while transported.
Contrast those regulations with
the treatment of Bibles sent to an
evangelical Christian soldier in
Afghanistan by his church. He
received copies of the New Testament
in the local Dari and Pashto
languages. Understanding that Central
Command General Order No. 1
forbids “proselytizing of any faith,
religion, or practice,” he intended
to distribute them, without comment,
as gifts to anyone who wanted
one. However, fearing the Bibles
would be viewed as encouraging
conversions and would anger local
Muslims, the U.S. military confiscated
and destroyed the lot of them.
How they were destroyed was
described by Christian Broadcasting’s
David Brody: “The Bibles were
burned because the rules on the base
say that all garbage is burned at the
end of the day.”
Asked why the commanders did
not return the Bibles to the sending
church, the reply was that they
might be sent to some other soldier
and distributed. So they burned
God’s Word instead.
This is the situation confronting
America at this time in our history.
Our government treats the Qur’an
with kid gloves but burns the
Bible. It bows to Islamist terrorists
for fear of reprisals but ignores
Christians because we obviously
do not riot in the streets, burn
down buildings, and otherwise create
mayhem.
A deplorable condition has crept
into our society that tolerates, or
openly repudiates, the faith upon
which this nation was brought
into being. At the center of the
core values of the most benevolent,
unique, caring and sharing
nation in world history is the
Word of God. To belittle the Book
and, with increasing evidence, the
people who have found life and
true redemption through its message,
is no minor transgression.
Bowing to the bad guys is not the
way to go. They are not people who
will reach out to us in love and compassion
if they win the day. Let’s pray
that burning Bibles is not symbolic of
the wave of the future.
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