FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
APRIL 10, 2011
MEDIA CONTACT: 352-371-2487 or 352-871-2680 (Stephanie Sapp) or INFO@STANDUPAMERICANOW.ORG
LETTER FROM A U.S. SERVICEMAN, April 9, 2011; 1:01pm
Rev. Terry Jones,
I am an active member of the U.S. Armed Forces currently serving in Afghanistan. I want to write you and personally thank you for standing up and using your rights as a U.S. citizen to express your views under our First Amendment right to freedom of speech. When people are too afraid, too pressured, or just don't care enough to use their rights they allow servicemembers to give their lives for nothing. More than anything else, not knowing and not using their rights is the most un-American act ever committed by a U.S. citizen.
Many countries do not believe in free speech even though it is a guaranteed right given to all their citizens. In the U.K., speech is only free as long as it doesn’t offend anyone or contradict what those is power want you to say. Had you burned the Quran in the U.K. you surely would have been put in jail. In Afghanistan, speech is only free as long as it doesn’t violate the Quran, which, according to their constitution, is the highest law of the land and no law can be made above it. If you were in Afghanistan, you and the 12 people who acted as a jury during the Quran trial would have been put to death for your actions. Neither of these countries protects their citizens’ freedom of speech or their right to express themselves.
Now, I have been keeping a close watch on the situation from here in country in regards to the actions to burn a Quran at Dove World Outreach Center on March 20. Given what I am about to later in this letter, you and others will understand why I can write to you and say I feel in no more danger now than I did before the Quran was burned. I have also been keeping a close eye on popular opinion of what people are saying about those actions, and I am very happy to say that the people in America have been largely supporting your rights.
Major media outlets have been editorializing their hard news stories to twist the facts and describe you in the most unfavorable ways possible. Some of this is political posturing by news outlets is because they are afraid of people or concerned for the lives of servicemembers here in Afghanistan and the backlash of violence they perceive has come from your actions. Some are trying to isolate you in hopes of reducing that backlash. Others have very unhealthy agendas. But let me share some facts with you, facts you already know but those who read this letter may not know. And maybe, coming from a servicemember here on the ground in the fight, people may listen just a little better.
Here in Afghanistan, senior military leaders such as Gen. David Petraeus, commander, International Security Assistance Force/U.S. Forces-Afghanistan, have predicted for months now that the radical insurgents were planning a strong spring offensive that was expected to start in late March/early April of this year.
Furthermore, Afghan provincial governors, Afghan military and police generals, as well as coalition senior officials have all stated that the radical insurgents are using the peaceful protestors as human shields. Official reports of the events indicate that a relatively small number of radical insurgents are high-jacking the protests for their own twisted goals. An example is the protest where 4 Nepalese guards were murdered. This protest was attended by approximately 2000 peaceful protestors and high-jacked by about 15 radical insurgents.
These insurgents have had the same goals since long before the events of September 11, 2001 – to kill, steal, and destroy. They would have carried out these actions regardless of whether or not the Quran was burned; the burning of the Quran served only to ignite protests which the insurgents cowardly used to shield themselves. The insurgents knew that Nepalese soldiers are forbidden by their superiors from defending themselves against a civilian crowd, even if their life is in danger. And they used this fact to their advantage. While this unnerving idea that a person doesn’t have the right to self-defense is foreign to many Americans, it is very common among our coalition partners whom I have to trust my life to daily.
Now people have made many comparisons to you and to your actions, trying to describe how the actions at the Dove World Outreach Center on March 20th were wrong and illegal. I have heard people say what you did amounts to yelling “Fire!” in a crowded theater. To them I would say that your actions in no way gave Muslims any reason to believe that their life was in immediate danger. Other peoples say those actions were akin to handing a murderer a loaded gun knowing full well that the murderer would immediately use that gun. To them I would say that they are assuming that Muslims are murders and I know from personal experience that is the farthest thing from the truth.
The radical insurgents who carried out these dastardly acts to murder innocent people, burn their own government’s buildings, and destroy their friends’ private property are not the same people who were angry over the burning of the Quran. If they were, the same acts of violence would have happened all over the world, not just in Afghanistan. And even if they are, they are people – not animals – with a will and a conscience. They had a choice to control their anger or let it control them. Their lack of self control and anger management was the direct cause of those deaths.
Now the burning of any symbol – flag, book, effigy or other – I believe is a poor method of communication. But it is a method. And it was a method you felt necessary to bring attention to the problems caused in the name of Allah through the Muslim religion. Your four-hour trial brought many of these problems to light. Let me share with your readers a few more of those problems I have heard about and encountered during my time here in Afghanistan.
Children have had their hands and feet forced into boiling water as punishment for disobeying their parents. Women who are beaten by their husband and run away from him are later caught and thrown into prison; there are approximately 400 women currently in the Afghan prisons for this reason. People of both genders have been wrongfully imprisoned and forced into arranged marriages at very young ages, often as part of a deal. These are just a few more in addition to all the many crimes against humanity that were brought to light during the trial at Dover World Outreach Center on March 20, 2011.
To the readers, please do not get the wrong impression of all Muslims. Just like Americans, many Muslims are very peace loving, good-hearted people. But there is a radical extreme group among them that feel it is their right and responsibility to force their views and will on others. The defense of individual rights in Afghanistan is paramount – but it must start at home in the States.
Servicemembers risk their lives to defend the rights you enjoy as Americans. That risk, and the deaths of everyone who has given their lives to defend those rights is for nothing if you are too afraid, too pressured, or too ignorant to use your rights and defend others who use their rights. If you believe you are supporting the troops, then use the rights we are dying to give you. If you don’t, then we are dying for nothing. Not using your rights is the most un-American thing anyone can do for their country.
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Sunday, April 10, 2011
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