Marine Christian missionaries in Fallujah...? What are these people smoking...?

using the holy qur'an for target practice is not only appalling but also continues to have ripple effects right here in afghanistan *...

this is damn near as bad...

At the western entrance to the Iraqi city of Fallujah Tuesday, Muamar Anad handed his residence badge to the U.S. Marines guarding the city. They checked to be sure that he was a city resident, and when they were done, Anad said, a Marine slipped a coin out of his pocket and put it in his hand.

Out of fear, he accepted it, Anad said. When he was inside the city, the college student said, he looked at one side of the coin. "Where will you spend eternity?" it asked.

He flipped it over, and on the other side it read, "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. John 3:16."

"They are trying to convert us to Christianity," said Anad, a Sunni Muslim like most residents of this city in Anbar province. At home, he told his story, and his relatives echoed their disapproval: They'd been given the coins, too, he said.

Fallujah , the scene of a bloody U.S. offensive against Sunni insurgents in 2004, has calmed and grown less hostile to American troops since residents turned against al Qaida in Iraq , which had tried to force its brand of Islamist extremism on the population.

Now residents of the city are abuzz that some Americans whom they consider occupiers are also acting as Christian missionaries. Residents said some Marines at the western entrance to their city have been passing out the coins for two days in what they call a "humiliating" attempt to convert them to Christianity.

i was taken to dinner last evening by a truly wonderful gentleman who is in charge of the i.t. operation for the project we are both working for... he's a devout muslim, exceptionally skilled in his craft, works very hard many hours a day, travels to all the regional offices, and tries to regularly make time to spend with his family across the border in peshawar, pakistan, where life is somewhat easier and there are decent schools for his children...

he shared with me his beliefs, based on the qur'an, which, no surprise to me even though i haven't read it, reflected nothing less than human dignity, honesty, integrity, and helping your fellow man, regardless of race, creed or color... i find it impossible to put myself in the mind of someone who would do what that marine was doing... it's so fundamentally insulting, or, as was stated above, "humiliating"...

no kidding...

* Sporadic protests have erupted across Afghanistan in the last week as news spreads of a copy of the Koran being found riddled with bullets at a shooting range in Baghdad on May 11.

A Lithuanian soldier and at least two Afghans were killed last week when protesters tried to storm a military base in the west of the country.

In the latest protests, police arrested dozens of demonstrators and prevented them blocking a highway in Logar province south of the capital, Kabul.

Some demonstrators waved the white flag of the Taliban.

"Death to America. Death to Bush, his allies and the United Nations. We want them out," said one young protester as others chanted Allahu Akbar, or God is Great.

An effigy of US President George W. Bush and an American flag were dragged along the road.

just imagine, if you can, what kind of outrage would ensue if muslims in the u.s. were to use a christian bible for target practice... i can't, nor do i want to...

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