01-10-2005, 12:56 AM
Assalamu alaikum everyone,
I know it is hard to believe that the army trains its soldiers to respect the muslim culture, but I will briefly list what my brother told me in training.
I should emphasize that my brother and I are extremely close, and have been all our lives. I have no reason to believe he was lying, and in fact he was telling me what was in his training to check with me if it was really accurate. Of course he did not tell me everything, but he gave me several points that he remembered off the top of his head.
These are the <b>requirements</b> of soldiers, according to his training.
1. Not allowed to wear any sort of religious symbols
2. Not allowed to talk to anyone about their own religion
(those two are strictly enforced for the reason that they do not want unnecessary fights to be started)
3. If they enter any mosques, they are required to remove their shoes. It was explained the mosques are places of worship to be respected. They are also advised against touching or handling any Qur'ans without permission from people in the mosque.
4. If they are invited into someone's home, they are required to remain in the room they are put, and not to wander around the house, as this may impose on the privacy of the women in the house. The concept of hijab is explained to them (accurately, as far as I can tell), and it's importance emphasized.
He also told me that although they have plenty of people available to clean up around the base for free, they instead employ iraqis to do the same work, paying them about $52 a day. $52 in iraq is equivalent to roughly $1000 in america (i'd love to be making $1000 a day).
He also told me some things that were not accurate, such as they were taught about the hajj, that it is required for every muslim who is able to go at least once in his lifetime. That part was correct, but they also told them that after a muslim goes to hajj, they can add mohammed to their name. I told him I have no idea where they came up with that crazy idea.
So sure there are probably many things they are taught that are not true, or that go against the idea of being respectful, but from what I can tell they are not interested in getting the soldiers into the "fighting spirit," as their goal is to keep the peace long enough to proceed with the elections.
Allaho alim