The above news report from Al Jazeer English accuses U.S. Army soldiers in Afghanistan of violating anti-proselytizing rules by handing out New Testaments in the languages of the locals. The outcome: The Bibles were confiscated and destroyed by the military.
Reuters reported earlier this month:
Military officials have said the bibles were sent through private mail to an evangelical Christian soldier by his church back home. The soldier brought them to the bible study class where they were filmed.
Trying to convert Muslims to another faith is a crime in Afghanistan. An Afghan man who converted to Christianity was sentenced to death for apostasy in 2006 but was allowed to leave the country after an international uproar.
“It certainly is, from the United States military’s perspective, not our position to ever push any specific kind of religion, period,” chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen told a Pentagon briefing on Monday.
But David Brody, Christian Broadcasting Networks’ senior Washington correspondent and an evangelical well-respected by his secular peers, asks a spot-on question:
“if the U.S. Military seized a stack full of Korans, would they be burned? You think that might cause a little outrage in the Muslim world?”
