Combat rifle sights used by US forces in Iraq and Afghanistan carry references to Bible verses, stoking concerns about whether the inscriptions break a government rule that bars proselytizing by US troops.
Military officials said the citations don’t violate the ban and they would not stop using the telescoping sights, which allow troops to pinpoint the enemy day or night.
The contractor that makes the equipment, Trijicon, said the US military has been a customer since 1995 and the company has never received any complaints about the Scripture citations.
“We don’t publicize this,” Tom Munson, Trijicon’s director of sales and marketing, said in an interview. “It’s not something we make a big deal out of. But when asked, we say, ‘Yes, it’s there.’”
The inscriptions are subtle and appear in raised lettering at the end of the stock number. Trijicon’s rifle sights use tritium, a radioactive form of hydrogen, to create light and help shooters hit what they’re aiming for.
Markings on the Advanced Combat Optical Gunsight, which is standard issue to US special operations forces, include “JN8:12,” a reference to John 8:12: “Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, ‘I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life,’” according to the King James version of the Bible.
Photos posted on a US Defense Department Web site show Iraqi forces training with rifles equipped with the inscribed sights.
The Defense Department is a major customer of Trijicon’s. Last year alone, the Marine Corps signed deals worth US$66 million for the company’s products.
Mikey Weinstein, president of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, says the biblically inscribed sights could give the Taliban and other enemy forces a propaganda tool: that US troops are Christian crusaders invading Muslim countries.
“I don’t have to wonder for a nanosecond how the American public would react if citations from the Koran were being inscribed onto these US armed forces gun sights instead of New Testament citations,” Weinstein said.
The foundation is a nonprofit watchdog opposed to religious favoritism within the military.
Weinstein said he had received complaints about the scripture citations from active-duty and retired members of the military. He said he couldn’t identify them because they fear retaliation.
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