WORLD> Middle East
|
WORLD> Middle East
|
|
US military says Afghan bibles have been destroyed
(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-05-05 16:46 KABUL - Bibles in Afghan languages sent to a US soldier at a base in Afghanistan were confiscated and destroyed to ensure that troops did not breach regulations which forbid proselytising, a military spokeswoman said.
US Central Command's General Order Number 1 forbids troops on active duty -- including all those based in Iraq and Afghanistan -- from trying to convert people to another religion. "I can now confirm that the Bibles shown on Al Jazeera's clip were, in fact, collected by the chaplains and later destroyed. They were never distributed," spokeswoman Major Jennifer Willis said at Bagram air base, north of Kabul. Military officials have said the bibles were sent through private mail to an evangelical Christian soldier by his church back home. The soldier brought them to the bible study class where they were filmed. Trying to convert Muslims to another faith is a crime in Afghanistan. An Afghan man who converted to Christianity was sentenced to death for apostasy in 2006 but was allowed to leave the country after an international uproar. "It certainly is, from the United States military's perspective, not our position to ever push any specific kind of religion, period," chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen told a Pentagon briefing on Monday.
|
