citation:http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/05/17/iraq.quran/index.html. Date: Sun, May 18th.
II. Summary- Commander of the U.S. forces in Baghdad issued an apology for the staff sergeant who was a sniper section leader assigned to the headquarters of the 64th Armored Regiment. The soldier reportedly used the Quran for target practice. The soldier apparently didn't know that this book was the Muslim holy book but it is not believed to be true. Another military official kissed the Quran and presented it as a "humble gift" to the tribal leaders. The Commnader also read from the shooter's letter: "I sincerely hope that my actions have not diminished the partnership that our two nations have developed together. ... My actions were shortsighted, very reckless and irresponsible, but in my heart [the actions] were not malicious."
III. Reaction- This relates to the APWH theme impact of interaction among and within major societies because of the fact that this is all about the conflict of religion and ignorance within the war in Iraq. The point of view is of a news reporter from CNN, which, in case you were wondering is a news station in our country. The article could be skewed in the fact that the U.S. soldier claims he did not know that the holy book was the Quran and it sounds very untrue. The point of view that is missing is the view from the soldier who shot the Quran. I think this would be helpful to get a "straight from the source" point of view. I thought this article was shocking and shows just how much our soldiers respect and are ignorant to the Muslim religion.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
I thought this was a very interesting article, and I agree with Nicole. But I think that the soldier did know that the Quran was the muslim holy book, and have been shooting at it deliberately. Or else, why would he use it for target practice instead of any other book he could have used? If he really was aware of what he was doing, then it was a very wrong thing to do, because you're not going to gain the respect of foreign countries until you learn to respect them too.
I agree with Nicole. By doing this, it shows the ignorance of our soldiers. Of all books, why did he use the Qur'an? This will just make everything worse between the U.S and the Middle East. It is obvious that he knew exactly what he was doing. Our soldiers need to learn how to respect other beliefs and cultures, or else these problems will never be solved.
heyy nikki=)
I don't think that whether the person that shot at the Qur'an knew what it was or didn't matters. i think that it was right of him to formally apologize, and i do not think that this should create rifts between different groups of people with different beliefs. i think that this article relates to the fact that religion is a major cause of wars and fighting between civilizations or religions. Also i think that religion will always be a driving force and never a force that will unify everyone. however many poeple rely on religion for their everyday lives. anywayss good articlee Nicole
<3 Lexx
Post a Comment