Courtesy of ” (TAM) The American Muslim”
Evangelical Christian missionaries embedded with American combat troops in Afghanistan
by Mikey Weinstein
Missionaries shown distributing New Testament in Arabic to Afghani civilians
“Travel the Road”, a popular Christian reality TV series produced by the Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN), follows the travels of Will Decker and Tim Scott, two “extreme” missionaries, as they circle the world fulfilling their mission—“Preach the Gospel to the ends of the earth and encourage the church to be active in the Great Commission.”
Season 2 of this series ended with three episodes filmed in Afghanistan—Journey to the Line: Afghanistan: Part 1, Terrors of the Night: Afghanistan: Part 2, and Fog of War: Afghanistan: Part 3. For these episodes, the missionaries were completely embedded and, thus, actually permitted to stay on U.S. military bases, travel with a public affairs unit, and accompany and film troops on patrols, all for the purpose of evangelizing Afghanis and producing a television show promoting the Christian religion.
go to the site for the complete article…
As an American Muslim Veteran, I don’t know what aspect of my background makes me angrier about this news. The only though in my mind is the imaging of the reaction had this been another religion say for instance Muslims doing this, there would be an uproar. Surely there are many violations committed in just the production and and continued attempts by these groups, troops, etc. but what really ticks me off is the hypocrisy of it all.
We often hear the allegations by non-Muslims in the West about how Muslims are supposedly trying to “Islamicize” the West as if they can actually recall an incident where Muslims knocked on their doors, bought and produced complete cable channels solely to propragate, or left flyers on their vehicles, etc.
We are also told that Muslims are false in their allegations or beliefs about the intentions of Christians as it relates to their dealings with Muslim countries. We are categorically told it’s a fallacy to suggest or think for a minute that there are religious intentions or Christians using the military incursions to their own advantage, yet here we are again.
While this is not an isolated event or series of events, it just happens to be another article that happened to surface that highlights the very real event and events surrounding the actions of some Christians who daily use the US Military’s position of power in Muslim countries as a tool to exploit the people and propagate their faith.
It’s despicable, shameful, and disgusting. I can blame many people, chiefly the US Government for allowing this, the Military for violating dozens of rules, but also both these Christian groups and Muslims in general.
Now many of the above are easily discerned and why, but inclusion of the Muslims as part of the blame may not be.
I was taught as a young Corporal that it’s easy to point out whats wrong but harder to provide solutions, therefore in keeping with that tradition I highlighted the Muslim role as a means to produce a solution.
Our lack of unity, vigilance, and concern for fellow Muslims allow the opportunity for explotation to exist.
If Muslim Countries would step up to the plate especially the very wealthy ones, and decided that the people in war ravagedn Afghanistan, Iraq, Palestine, etc. were more important that building resort islands, fancy hotels, or indoor ski resorts, we wouldn’t have half of these problems.
What if ordinary Muslims ran for office, joined the military, worked for aid agencies, or was just as brazen to be missionaries in Muslim countries (yes, even Muslims need to be reminded about Islam), imagine what could happen if our voice was heard when it comes to making decisions?
Do you think for one minute that if the company commander of unit were Muslim he/she would allow Evangelicals to hijack his/her unit o propragate their religion to these Muslims?
With all this said, how should Muslims feel? In my opinion, we make too much noise about the small things and ignore the big things. Personally, I believe this is much larger than whether or not someone draws a cartoon.
An American Muslim 
“We often hear the allegations by non-Muslims in the West about how Muslims are supposedly trying to “Islamicize” the West as if they can actually recall an incident where Muslims knocked on their doors, bought and produced complete cable channels solely to propragate, or left flyers on their vehicles, etc.”
Actually, in my country this happens. Ok, muslims don’t go door-to-door, but they do have a television corporation (not bought, but government-sponsored) and they do leave flyers on vehicles (one on my bike at least). I’ve never heard anyone calling that ‘islamicize’.
That word usually refers to attempts to have islamic features accepted as part of the public, cultural, social and political realm. Things like trying to have islamic festivities recognised as a holiday, to allow muslim women to wear headscarves while on public duty (police, judges etc.) or -rather more serious- attempts to assign legal status to islamic laws on marriage and divorce.
Distributing flyers, broadcasting and going door-to-door is bottom-up. “Islamicize” refers to a top-down process.
I am no Muslim. I’m not even a Christian. But I am an American, and a combat veteran with 12 years of active service in the U.S. Military. The use of a military unit to proselytize any religious agenda is prohibited. It is not the duty nor the domain of the military to do anything other than fulfil its tactical and strategic objectives in any theater of conflict. No commander worth his oath would allow “imbedded missionaries” to operate within his force, and any commander who does should be brought up on charges. It is a conflict of interest, a dereliction of duty, and it interferes with the goals of any combat unit. Other than the words spoken in this website, I’ve seen no evidence that this act has occurred, nor can I find any reference to any condonement of this behavior by any military command.
By the same token, what the CIA does is beyond military jurisdiction. I cannot tell you that such actions aren’t undertaken by intelligence operatives to destabilize an enemy population base. But, again, that is not a military operation, nor is it germain to military rules or regulation.
And, by the way, the general American perception of “Christian Missionary Work” in Muslim countries is pretty much one of horror. The only thing we tend to hear or see are the examples of foreign missionaries getting their heads severed in Afghanistan for committing the act of entering the country and preaching. I don’t think Muslim nations have much to worry about in regards to groups of Christians settling, taking over television, radio, the courts and the military… resulting in “biblical law” being instituted over time… or the end product of Muslims being put to the sword if they don’t convert.