The Air Force Academy decided not to show it…but the fact they had to have a seminar entitled “USA’s War on Terror: Not a Battle Between Christianity and Islam,” is more evidence of creeping sharia. Or maybe just dhimmitude. Whatever you want to call it, it was the result of Muslim whining over the AFA’s hosting of former terrorists who spoke openly about Islam.
They did get the seminar title correct, it’s not just a battle between Christianity and Islam. It’s a battle between everything not Islam versus Islam. The nauseating, almost Islamic-sounding propaganda film’s trailer can be viewed here.
Air Force Academy officials declined to show clips from a documentary critical of Christian proselytizing in the U.S. military at a seminar Wednesday on war and religion.
Footage from “Constantine’s Sword,” a documentary premiering April 19 in New York, was scheduled to be shown to cadets during the panel discussion.
But academy sponsors decided at the last minute against using the film clips because several Catholic organizations nationwide complained that the footage was anti-Catholic, said academy spokesmen Johnny Whitaker.
Catholic League President Bill Donohue said in a statement Wednesday that the documentary is “a propaganda film that trashes Catholicism.”
The seminar, titled “USA’s War on Terror: Not a Battle Between Christianity and Islam,” was delayed 25 minutes while academy representatives debated whether to show the controversial footage, which reportedly included scenes involving alleged religious discrimination at the academy between 2003 and 2005.
The speakers were former U.S. Ambassador Joseph Wilson, a critic of the Iraq war; Islamic scholar Reza Aslan; and academy graduate Mikey Weinstein, who sued the Air Force in 2005 for allegedly encouraging Christian evangelicals to proselytize to cadets. The case was dismissed before going to trial.
Wednesday’s event, which was not open to the public, was organized to counter charges of bias from the Muslim community and others after a February seminar at the academy in which cadets heard speakers claiming to be former Islamic terrorists who characterized Islam as a dangerous religion.Wednesday’s speakers, by contrast, argued that the U.S. military’s embracing of Christianity sends the message to Arabs that the Iraq war is not about freeing Iraqi people but about converting the Muslim world to Christianity.
Panelists showed a five-minute film that compiled news stories alleging religious discrimination against non-Christians at military institutions, including the Air Force Academy. Photos showed military personnel holding Bibles, and military leaders were quoted using terms like “holy war” and “crusade” when talking about the Iraq war.
“Al-Qaida wants to convince Muslims that this war is a crusade against Islam,” Aslan told about 450 cadets and faculty in Fairchild Hall. And the military, by using Christian rhetoric, “makes the war seem like one between Christianity and Islam,” he said.
This will prolong the war indefinitely, Aslan said. “Religious wars do not end.”
Weinstein, founder and president of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, told the cadets that the military’s failure to crack down on religious discrimination breaks down the separation between church and state.
“This is not a left or right issue,” Weinstein said. “This is a constitutional issue.”
Many cadets were unswayed by the speakers’ arguments.
“It’s about a war on terror, not Islam,” said Matt McCandless, 20.
Travis Miller, 20, dismissed the five-minute film as propaganda and not representing the military’s view. He also said the academy has made progress toward religious tolerance.
“The fact that these speakers are here at all shows the great strides the academy has made,” Miller said.
CONTACT THE WRITER: 636-0367 or mark.barna@gazette.com
Tags: Air Force, Catholic, Creeping Sharia, islam, Life, military, News, Politics, Religion
April 11, 2008 at 8:16 AM
Nice find! Found your site via ZIP’s. Keep up the good work.