"F*** yeah": Worse Than Abu Ghraib

[FourScore]

"F*** yeah": Worse Than Abu Ghraib
by Mash
Sat May 17, 2008 at 09:02:06 PM PDT

They scrawled the words "Fuck yeah" on the pages of the Holy Koran and then they shot it full of holes. Last week a few American soldiers in Iraq thought it would be cool to use the Koran for target practice. The US commander on the ground, Major General Jeffery Hammond, has quickly apologized to try to repair the damage. I hope it will be enough, but I seriously doubt that fallout from this act of stupidity by a few soldiers can be contained.

I am a Muslim. I am an American. I am deeply offended. Those who know me know that I am not easily offended in these matters.

Muslims consider the words in the Koran to be the literal word of God. Korans in Muslim homes are kept in a place of honor, usually displayed on a stand made to hold the book on a mantle or another prominent place. Muslims consider it a grave insult if the Koran comes into contact with one's feet or is desecrated in any other way. Every Muslim understands this. It is instinctive to protect the Koran.

So when an American soldier desecrates a Koran and riddles it with bullets, the message is clear: it does not need any translation. This isn't the "cartoon controversy" where a bunch of radical Islamists thumped their chests in response. This will hit home with the moderate Muslims around the world. Moderate Muslims are not going to go out on the streets and march in protest. But they will understand the message coming from America. At a time when America needs the moderates in the Muslim world to rally to the cause and isolate the extremists, this kind of act will cause the moderates to sit on their hands. I doubt very many Muslims around the world will care to make the distinction between the act of a few American soldiers and the policy of the United States. That kind of nuance is likely not going to translate well.

This kind of action is a victory for the hatemongers on both sides. It makes my conversations with Muslims in the country of my birth - Bangladesh - that much more difficult. I will trot out the standard line about how this was an act of a few and does not represent the attitude of the United States government toward the Muslims of the world. I will get a polite hearing, but I doubt anyone will believe me. Already I am confronted with Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay when I speak out against human rights violations in the Muslim world. At least in those cases I can make the admittedly weak case that those abuses were carried out in the overzealous response to terrorists acts - that those acts were targetted at who the United States thought posed a security threat to itself. In this case, however, there is no getting around the fact that the target is the over one billion Muslims around the world.

I am not so worried that this particular act will increase the level of terrorism against the United States. Those who would act in violence don't particularly need this as an excuse to do their acts - if it wasn't this, they would find another justification. But I do worry that the long-term goal of winning "hearts and minds" just took a major blow. I don't know how many more such blows can be absorbed before the divide between the Muslim world and the West is irretrievably made permanent.

Those of us who stand with a foot in each culture have a responsibility to try the bridge the gaps of misunderstanding and mutual fear that have hightened since the September 11th attacks. But our voices are drowned out, along with the voices of the majority of those in the West and in the Muslim world who simply want to live in peace to raise their families, when this kind of act is carried out by a "strategic corporal" . This must stop.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/5/18/026/42400/993/517671

[mac2]

1. Were those troops Blackwater?

They still there killing and causing mayhem? Bush said it wasn't a war against Islamics or any another religious group...but it is. Orwellian that's for sure. He uses them as scapegoats just like Hitler used the Jews for his power abuse and rise to power.

Make no mistake this whole fear thing is a distraction from their robbery, removing our rights, and our way of life. Bin Laden did not do any of it. The FBI even admitted they couldn't trace it back to him.

[democrank]

2. Sickening, shameful actions.

I can only imagine what the reaction would be if a soldier from an occupying country shot up a Bible here in the United States. This morally bankrupt bullying and reckless indifference must stop.

[Fleshdancer]

3. I agree that it's shameful, but I disagree that it's worse than Abu Ghraib

The torture of human beings is far worse than shooting holes in religious books - whether it be the bible, the koran or any other religious publication that exists.

[Name removed]

4. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[MonkeyFunk]

6. I agree

no book is more sacred than a human being.

[Name removed]

7. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[countryjake]

8. I doubt that poster read the article...

it sounds like a knee-jerk response to the topic title that the person at DailyKos gave to their journal entry. There's no reference to the reasons that "Mash" gave for making that comparison, from the poster you've responded to.

I'm not religious either, but I recognize the harm that intolerance brings. I also can recognize a hate crime, just like nooses hanging or swastikas scrawled, and the far-reaching consequences of such threats.

[POAS]

9. I agree and while

atrocities to humans is awful and contemptible this is a case of a different sort.

The comparison is not, in my opinion, over the attack so much as the insult. Yes attacking and torturing at Abu Ghraib was a terrible thing to do to people and the Muslim world (indeed the whole world) rightly condemned those actions but here we have an action not at the followers of Islam but at the religion itself. At the very core of that religion and the various cultures that have spring from it.

The wounds from Abu Ghraib will heal much faster than the wounds being inflicted by actions such as this one. We have sown the wind.

[countryjake]

15. I feel for that "American-allied" Iraqi militiaman who made the discovery...

in the first place...I can't even imagine how he may have felt, finding the basis of his belief defiled by the very soldiers he has been working with, "allied" with, fighting his brothers in Islam with. Fear would have been my first reaction, I think, and then a sadness...sorrow at being taken for a fool by the military which claims to be trying to end the chaos in Iraq. Then anger would set in. And questions. What sort of Western value of "freedom and tolerance" does an act such as that imply? Were these snipers training at that firing range practicing the next phase of The Occupation? Exactly what type of "Awakening" did that American staff sergeant have in mind, for the Iraqi Councils he is working alongside, daily?

As Mash's piece says, moderate Muslims "will understand the message coming from America."

[eyl]

10. That's true to an extent

however, it's all well and good to say that people shouldn't be outraged at the damage or destruction of symbols (something I disagree with, BTW, though I agree it's generally unjustifiable to be express that outrage with violence). But the fact of the matter is that people in that area DO take it badly. It would be one thing if this was done in the States or Europe, but this took place IN THEIR OWN COUNTRY. So while in principle you may be right (and it's certainly not as serious as Abu Ghraib) in practise this act could be very harmful.

[trumad]

12. Let's just put it this way...

It's one more nail in our coffin over there and it certainly didn't help. Agree?

[Indenturedebtor]

13. I agree with you to an extent

But don't think that this sort of idolatry is solely the province of Islam.

If for example a Muslim country illegally occupied the US and started defiling the baby jesus, people would freak out. It's literally adding isult to injury.

I mean how hard is it to NOT defile something?

[snot]

5. what is sacred

is love.

truth.

kindness.

justice.

(imho.)

these soldiers are poor, stupid, uneducated fools. who would you rather be? i feel blessed not to be them. we are to blame, to have put them in a position to do these stupid things.

Please forgive us, thank you for trying to help us do better, and please keep trying to help us do better.

[onethatcares]

11. this would probably be the second step of the program

first step: dehumanize the one you hate.

second step: treat their beliefs like crap

keep going and you'll see how AbuGhraib could happen.

And they hate us for our "freedoms" WTF?

[Torn_Scorned_Ignored]

14. whereismyparty

Thank you for posting this.

This is news we will not hear about by the MSM.

What happened to the "sensitivity training" our soldiers were supposed to get?
It must of went to the same place as the "there may be photos" CENTCOM briefing in January 2004.