[R-G] Marines pushing Christianity in Fallujah

[Anthony Fenton]

[See, more recently:  Marine removed from duty over Bible coin reportshttp://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/05/29/iraq.bible/index.html 
]

Iraqis claim Marines are pushing Christianity in Fallujah
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/251/story/38820.html

FALLUJAH, Iraq — At the western entrance to the Iraqi city of Fallujah  
Tuesday, Muamar Anad handed his residence badge to the U.S. Marines  
guarding the city. They checked to be sure that he was a city  
resident, and when they were done, Anad said, a Marine slipped a coin  
out of his pocket and put it in his hand.

Out of fear, he accepted it, Anad said. When he was inside the city,  
the college student said, he looked at one side of the coin. "Where  
will you spend eternity?" it asked.

He flipped it over, and on the other side it read, "For God so loved  
the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes  
in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. John 3:16."

"They are trying to convert us to Christianity," said Anad, a Sunni  
Muslim like most residents of this city in Anbar province. At home, he  
told his story, and his relatives echoed their disapproval: They'd  
been given the coins, too, he said.

Fallujah, the scene of a bloody U.S. offensive against Sunni  
insurgents in 2004, has calmed and grown less hostile to American  
troops since residents turned against al Qaida in Iraq, which had  
tried to force its brand of Islamist extremism on the population.

Now residents of the city are abuzz that some Americans whom they  
consider occupiers are also acting as Christian missionaries.  
Residents said some Marines at the western entrance to their city have  
been passing out the coins for two days in what they call a  
"humiliating" attempt to convert them to Christianity.

In the markets, people crowded around men with the coins, passing them  
to each other and asking in surprise, "Have you seen this?"

The head of the Sunni endowment in Fallujah, the organization that  
oversees Sunni places of worship and other religious establishments,  
demanded that the Marines stop.

"We say to the occupiers to stop this," said Sheikh Mohammed Amin  
Abdel Hadi. "This can cause strife between the Iraqis and especially  
between Muslim and Christians . ... Please stop these things and leave  
our homes because we are Muslims and we live in our homes in peace  
with other religions."

A spokesman said the U.S. military is investigating.

"Multi-National Force-Iraq is investigating a report that U.S.  
military personnel in Fallujah handed-out material that is religious  
and evangelical in nature," the spokesman, Rear Adm. Patrick Driscoll,  
said in a statement e-mailed to McClatchy. "Local commanders are  
investigating since the military prohibits proselytizing any religion,  
faith or practices."

Multi-National Force-Iraq is the formal name for coalition forces in  
Iraq.

In interviews, residents of Fallujah repeated two words —  
"humiliation" and "weakness".

"Because we are weak this is happening," said a shop owner who gave  
his name as Abu Abdullah. "Passing Christianity this way is  
disrespectful."

"The occupier is repeatedly trespassing on God and his religion," said  
Omar Delli, 23. "Now the occupier is planting seeds of strife between  
the Muslims and Christians. We demand the government in Fallujah have  
a new demonstration to let the occupier know that these things are  
humiliating Islam and the Quran."

The controversy over the coins that Iraqis said some Marines are  
passing out comes on the heels of a tempest triggered by a U.S. sniper  
who used the Quran, Islam's holy book, for target practice. The sniper  
was pulled out of Iraq after Iraqi police on May 11 found a Quran with  
14 bullet holes and graffiti on the pages.

In Islam, the holy book is never to touch the floor, let alone be  
defaced. Iraqi leaders condemned the actions, U.S. generals apologized  
and President Bush offered a personal apology to Iraqi Prime Minister  
Nouri al Maliki.

In Fallujah, Mohammed Jaber saw one of the coins and said he thought  
of the bullets lodged in the Quran, the torture of Iraqi men at the  
Abu Ghraib prison in 2004 and the rape of a 14-year-old girl and her  
murder and that of her family in Mahmoudiya.

"Now we have this missionary way by these coins," he said. "We feel  
the Muslims are weak and we hope that we will reach a point when we  
are strong to let them know what is wrong and what is right. "

Naji is a McClatchy special correspondent in Fallujah.