Army Presentation Lumps Many Religions with Extremists
In a story appearing in London’s Daily Mail a photo of terrorist Osama Bin Laden appeared side by side with that of Rabbi Sholom Mendel Simpson, one of the Rebbes secrataries, along with the caption ‘spot the religious extremist’. The disturbing and offensive likening of the two came in a story about a U.S. Army Reserve presentation which lumped many different religious groups into the ‘extremist’ category.
A slideshow presentation shown to US Army Reserve recruits classifies christians, including both evangelicals and Roman Catholics, as religious extremists, placing them in the same category as skinheads, the Ku Klux Klan, Hamas and Al Qaeda.
The presentation also warned that members of the military are prohibited from taking leadership roles in any organization the Pentagon considers ‘extremist,’ and from distributing the organization’s literature, whether on or off a military installation.
The opening slide warns that ‘the rise in hate crimes and extremism outside the military may be an indication of internal issues all [armed] services will have to face.’
Citing a Southern Poverty Law Center report as evidence that extremism is on the rise, the Army Reserve presentation blames ‘the superheated fears generated by economic dislocation, a proliferation of demonizing conspiracy theories,the changing racial make-up of America and the prospect of 4 more years under a black president who many on the far right view as an enemy to their country.’
Later in the slideshow is a list of groups that exemplify ‘religious extremism.’
Included are ‘evangelical Christianity,’ ‘Catholicism,’ ‘Ultra-Orthodox’ Judaism, and ‘Islamophobia.’
Most of the list is populated by more widely accepted examples of religious extremist groups, including Al Qaeda, Sunni Muslims, Hamas, and the Ku Klux Klan.
‘Men and women of faith who have served the Army faithfully for centuries shouldn’t be likened to those who have regularly threatened the peace and security of the United States,’ retired Col. Ron Crews, executive director of the Chaplain Alliance for Religious Liberty, said in a statement.
‘It is dishonorable for any U.S. military entity to allow this type of wrongheaded characterization.
Crews also took a shot at the Southern Poverty Law Center.
‘It also appears that some military entities are using definitions of “hate” and “extreme” from the lists of anti-Christian political organizations,’ he added. ‘That violates the apolitical stance appropriate for the military.’
He noted that the Army Chief of Chaplains has investigated the presentation and determined that it was ‘an isolated incident not condoned by the Department of the Army.’
The Army Reserve presentation defines religious extremism as ‘beliefs, attitudes, feelings, actions, or strategies of a character far removed from the “ordinary.”‘
It concedes that ‘ordinary’ is a subjective term, but condemns religious Americans ‘who believe that their beliefs, customs and traditions are the only “right way” and that all others are practicing their faith the “wrong way,” seeing and believing that their faith/religion [is] superior to all others.’
Many Christians and Jews, the presentation suggests, fit into that category, making them as objectionable as Muslim terrorists.
The U.S. Army Office of the Chief of Chaplains did not immediately respond to a request for comment. But the Catholic Archdiocese for the Military Services said it ‘is astounded that Catholics were listed alongside groups that are, by their very mission and nature, violent and extremist.’
‘The Archdiocese calls upon the Department of Defense to review these materials,’ the organization said in a statement, ‘and to ensure that tax-payer funds are never again used to present blatantly anti-religious material to the men and women in uniform.’
Shamir the worm
This is a joke,right?They included virtually 3/4 of world population as extremists!Past that,since when is the Jewish ddefence league a religion?????
DB
The word “extremism” is relative a relative term,so technically the army was right.However,the word “xenophobia” is a term also applicable here,because that is exactly what the army is teaching its recruits.
Gold
“It concedes that ‘ordinary’ is a subjective term, but condemns religious Americans ‘who believe that their beliefs, customs and traditions are the only “right way” and that all others are practicing their faith the “wrong way,” seeing and believing that their faith/religion [is] superior to all others.”
No one truth can contradict another truth.
Milhouse
There is only one truth. We say Oleinu three times a day;
CH
Because the only non extremist is an atheist homo who had 3 abortions and loiters in Manhattan at the occupy wall street demonstrations….
Leah
Well…Unfortunately this is the way some of them present themselves as fanatics fundamentalists talibans
Milhouse
The Southern Poverty Law Center is a disreputable organisation that exists only for the purpose of raising millions of dollars and providing a lavish lifestyle for the people who run it. It routinely makes up “hate groups” that don’t exist, or that are nothing of the sort. For instance a few years ago it claimed there are two active Ku Klux Klan chapters in Rhode Island, when in fact the Klan is completely unknown there (as it is in most of America). It labeled the Family Research Council a “hate group” and a crazy follower went there with a gun to shoot people there. Thankfully he was disarmed after only injuring one person, but the SPLC refused to apologise. They have overseas bank accounts hiding millions of dollars, and have not done anything useful for all that money in decades.
Andrea Schonberger
I definitely agree with some of those listed like the KKK, AofG, and AlQuaeda–they aren’t religions but hate groups pure and simple. Some should not be on it like mainstream Judaism, Catholicism and Protestants religions. A few are cults which usually are extremists. The SPLC has a complete list of groups to avoid.
Milhouse
The SPLC is the problem! They are the originators of this list; why are you going to them for anything? They are the biggest hate group around.
Andrea Schonberger
Dear Milhouse, The SPLC can be a valuable tool for Yidden who are in the dark about their own religion. Cults like Jews for you know who, so called “messianic shuls”, and Jewish “churches” are eager to snare innocent Jews into their traps. Do you want these people to go to fake shuls and have them lost forever? If in doubt do your research first.
Milhouse
Dear Andrea, SPLC is not a valuable tool for anyone to learn about yiddishkeit. SPLC hates yiddishkeit and everything that is good. And it is certainly not interested in preventing people from going to fake shuls, such as reformed, conservative, “messianic”, etc.