US apologizes for Afghanistan leaflets that offended Muslims

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press


Updated 7:13 am, Wednesday, September 6, 2017

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — A U.S. commander on Wednesday apologized for leaflets dropped in Afghanistan that were deemed offensive to Islam.

The leaflets dropped Monday night, which encouraged Afghans to cooperate with security forces, included an image of a dog carrying the Taliban flag, said Shah Wali Shahid, the deputy governor of Parwan province, north of Kabul. The flag has Islamic verses inscribed on it, and dogs are seen as unclean in much of the Muslim world.

"Local people are very upset with this incident, and they want the perpetrators brought to justice," Shahid said, adding that demonstrations were expected across the province.

Maj. Gen. James Linder apologized, acknowledging in a statement that "the design of the leaflets mistakenly contained an image highly offensive to both Muslims and the religion of Islam." He offered his "sincerest apologies for this error."

Read more: http://www.chron.com/news/world/article/US-apologizes-for-Afghanistan-leaflets-that-12175732.php

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X-tians are always gracious about possible insults.

[keithbvadu2]

1. Thank you, Trump.

[lunasun]

2. US Military is full of radicalized Christians so not surprised

http://www.newsweek.com/christian-fundamentalists-us-armed-forces-national-security-threat-613428
Yep piss on this attack on another world religion no oopsie error

[Demonaut]

3. WHO THE FUCK APPROVED THIS?

[Mosby]

6. FYI - lots of Muslims own dogs.

[karynnj]

7. True but many think them unclean - There are Jews who eat pork, does this mean that

many others would not be offended by a pig carrying a flag with a Hebrew prayer? My daughter did study abroad in Sri Lanka and lived with both an Islamic family and a Buddhist family. Before she visited, she asked us to put together copies of some family pictures because both families had asked about our family. For the set of pictures for the Islamic family, she asked that Punky, our maltese, NOT be in the pictures.

I assume that there was no malice here - just ignorance. To the people who designed the leaflet, it was a Taliban flag. The insult was likely intentional. The problem was the flag has Islamic verses on it -- something they likely did not realize or even think about.

What this does show is how important the State Department organization - that Trump did not staff - that started in teh Obama administration dedicated to understanding the impact of various religions could have been. I would bet under Obama, the SD would have seen and warned the Armed Services about how offensive this could be.

[haveahart]

4. Putting our soldiers in even more danger.

[Mosby]

5. we should get out of afghanistan.