Posted on 10/22/2006 7:50:40 PM PDT by World_Events
WEST POINT, N.Y. (AP) _ Muslims at the U.S. Military Academy numbered just two in 2001. This year, there are 32.
Now West Point has opened its first space dedicated to Muslims, a worship hall complete with a pulpit facing Mecca. The space officially opened Thursday.
"I knew the Army had a policy of religious tolerance, but I didn't know it was to this extent," said first-year Cadet Ahmed Moomin, 20, from the Maldives.
Until now, Friday prayers were held in an increasingly crowded first-floor office, said Imam Asadullah, the academy's Muslim cleric. The number of Muslim cadets jumped by 10 from last year.
The new hall is large enough for dozens of followers, he said.
West Point's Muslim leaders approached administrators last year for help.
"We live in a world where everyone is looking at the United States saying, 'You're anti-Islam.' But here at West Point, that's not what we do," West Point Chaplain Col. John Cook said.
(Excerpt) Read more at newsday.com ...
I expected grandiose plots involving Manchurian candidates, dead drops, and Hasan-i-Sabah giving orders from up in his mountain."
If you're writing a novel, come up with you're own plot.
I know history repeats itself and muslim history is not pretty.
Perhaps they mean when the pulpit is faced, the worshiper faces mecca. Therefore, the imam is mooning mecca. I am not familiar with layouts of mosques.
All the moral reason we would need.
Hey rokkehead, let's ask Dubya himself. It's a Religion of PEEEEEEEEACE! (tm) (r) (c)
And did you serve in a rifle company in combat? Get a real CIB?
What about the Muslim who threw a grenade into his BN command tent in Kuwait of the 101st prior to the invasion.
Take this PC MC out of our military. Sell that elsewhere.
Tell us all how tough that secret clearance is? It is no BI.
You're focusing on a few tender blades of green and arguing that they are in no way harmful. Viewing the problem in isolation, you're probably right.
Now lift your eyes and see the forest of kudzu that is Islam.
So much for the Point. So much for us all.
Muslims don't belong in America, they don't belong in the U.S. military, and they sure as hell don't belong at West Point.
It's only a limited number, and it is thought to be important for building contacts later in their careers. We are using this program to extend America's influence in military and diplomatic matters. It amounts to no more than a few dozen students per year, paid for by their own governments.
Any foreign student who can win acceptance to an American service academy is among that country's military superstars, the kind of kid who will end up as a top-ranking general or Minister of Defense. If he's a West Point ring-knocker too, don't you think he is going to be favorably disposed towards the American military? It is a good way to introduce Western ethical and human-rights concerns into savage banana-republic militaries. And if nothing else, it may help support overseas sales of our hardware instead of French or Russian stuff.
-ccm
You nailed it.
Thanks.
By the way, I forgot to celebrate "United Nations Day" and the end of Ramadamit or whatever the hell they call it.
Oh well. Maybe next year.
"It's only a limited number, and it is thought to be important for building contacts later in their careers."
Yeah, I know. We have done it a long time. Some illustrious and some notorious products have been produced.
"We are using this program to extend America's influence in military and diplomatic matters. It amounts to no more than a few dozen students per year, paid for by their own governments."
The next thing their governemnts will pay for is a MOSQUE at West Point.
They don't need a worship space. Muslims can worship anywhere. Islam isn't like Christianity or Judaism. And I think its time we stopped the fiction that Islam is a religion of peace, that the Saudis are our allies, and that Muslims are equivalent to any other faith. Read the Koran.
"Any foreign student who can win acceptance to an American service academy is among that country's military superstars, the kind of kid who will end up as a top-ranking general or Minister of Defense."
Or military dictator.
"If he's a West Point ring-knocker too, don't you think he is going to be favorably disposed towards the American military?"
Not necessarily.
"It is a good way to introduce Western ethical and human-rights concerns into savage banana-republic militaries."
Islamic countries aren't savage banana Republics - they are theocratic dictatoriships and providing their citizens with a military education is like giving a loaded gun to a homicidal maniac.
"And if nothing else, it may help support overseas sales of our hardware instead of French or Russian stuff."
They'll buy whatever they can get - and, thatnks to our petrodollars - can afford to get it anywhere they want.
Here's a link to a website you should look at. West Point Remembrance It's a list of all the West Point graduates who have died while fighting the war on terror. If you for one second think that West Point isn't aware of the stakes of the war we are fighting, you are even more arrogant than you sound. Your awareness of the evils of Islam amount to nothing compared to the actual experience of the men and women who have and continue to risk their lives fighting islamic radicals. The same men and women who teach and lead new young warriors at West Point. To stick with your gardening analogy...you keep trimming weeds. But rest easy in the knowledge that there are hundreds of thousands of dedicated Americans facing every day an evil you only dare preach about. And they DO NOT need your wisdom regarding an enemy they are INTIMATELY familiar with.
That's fine. And like I said before, if you can identify any Muslims at West Point that are guilty of such things, please report them.
"Because there would be no point."
OK. Then what WILL you do? Bitch on internet forums?
"Again, say that to my face."
Your toughness and internet bravado are noted. As is your propensity to not follow through on your convictions.
"I do not see any recourse in the current administration. THEY don't want to win. THEY don't even see this as a war."
Good grief. Now you're just launching into rants. You really think Bush doesn't see our "War on Terror" as a war? Can you explain his absolute single minded focus on fighting terrorists all over the globe? What's his point there?
That's like allowing Nazis to train and learn at the Citadel during WW2.
I just clicked on your web page. Thanks for ruining Kinkos!
(internet bravado)
No, it's like letting the Confederacy train and learn at the Citadel or West Point!
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