Pentagon underkände anti-islamisk officersutbildning

"US officer course suspended over ‘war with Islam’ lesson

America’s most senior military officer has intervened after discovering that an educational course for senior officers bound for promotion included a lesson in Islamic radicalism which contained the words: “The US is at war with Islam”.

President Obama has repeatedly stated since taking office that America is not at war with Islam but is fighting terrorism waged by Islamic extremists, such as al-Qaeda, who have denigrated their own faith by their violent actions.

The inclusion of such “inflammatory” language in a high-prestige course for officers attending the Joint Forces Staff College in Norfolk, Virginia, was only spotted when one of the students, a Colonel who has just completed the course, complained to the Pentagon.

General Martin Dempsey, Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, responded by suspending the course and ordering the entire military to scour training material to ensure it did not contain anti-Islamic content. In a letter to all directors of military training colleges and to heads of US commands, General Dempsey described the wording of the Norfolk course as “objectionable and inflammatory”.

Captain John Kirby, a Pentagon spokesman, said the course with the lesson entitled “Perspectives on Islam and Islamic Radicalism” had been running since 2004, although he was not sure how long the words, “the US is at war with Islam” had been included."


Källa, The Times 25 april 2012:
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/world/americas/article3395308.ece
Artikeln kräver en prenumeration för tillgång att läsa nyheten.

Nyheten finns däremot helt öppen hos BBC News fredag 11 maj 2012:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-18032968