Muslim groups reacted angrily Wednesday after it emerged that the US military in Iraq and Afghanistan were using rifle sights inscribed with coded Biblical references.
The Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC) called on US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates to immediately withdraw from combat use equipment found to have inscriptions of Biblical references.
It followed a report from ABC television which revealed that Michigan-based contractor Trijicon had sold up to 800,000 of the sights to the US military which were being used in combat.
The report said the religious codes — referencing passages from the New Testament — appeared to be a violation of US military rules prohibiting proselytizing of any religion in Iraq or Afghanistan.
A statement posted on the Trijicon Web site said: “As part of our faith and our belief in service to our country, Trijicon has put scripture references on our products for more than two decades.”
“As long as we have men and women in danger, we will continue to do everything we can to provide them with both state-of-the-art technology and the never-ending support and prayers of a grateful nation,” it said.
The company told ABC there was nothing illegal in putting the references on the gun sights, but the MPAC protested the moves.
“Having Biblical references on military equipment violates the basic ideals and values our country was founded upon,” MPAC director Haris Tarin said in a statement. “Worse still, it provides propaganda ammo to extremists who claim there is a Crusader war against Islam’ by the US.”
ABC said one of the citations on the gun sights, 2COR4:6, is an apparent reference to Second Corinthians 4:6 of the New Testament. The passage reads: “For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”
Other citations are taken from the books of Revelation, Matthew and John dealing with Jesus as “the light of the world.” John 8:12, referred to on the gun sights as JN8:12, reads: “Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
Meanwhile, New Zealand said yesterday that the Biblical citations would be removed, saying they were inappropriate and could stoke religious tensions.
New Zealand defense spokesman Major Kristian Dunne said that Trijicon would be instructed to remove the inscriptions from further orders of the gun sights for New Zealand and that the letters would be removed from gun sights already in use by troops.
“The inscriptions … put us in a difficult situation. We were unaware of it and we’re unhappy that the manufacturer didn’t give us any indication that these were on there,” Dunne said. “We deem them to be inappropriate.”
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