The Bagram Bible Program was a scandal that occurred at Bagram Air Base, in Afghanistan. In May 2009, it was made public that Christian groups had published Bibles in the Pashto and Dari languages, intended to convert Afghans from Islam to Christianity. [1] [2] [3] [4] The Bibles were sent to soldiers at the Bagram Air Base. American military authorities reported that Bible distribution was not official policy, and when a chaplain became aware of the soldiers' plans, the Bibles were confiscated and, eventually, burned.
Al Jazeera's English service were the first to break the story. [2] The story they reported included footage of a religious service for soldiers that appeared to show soldiers being encouraged to proselytize. American authorities claimed the footage from the religious service took place a year before its broadcast, and had been taken out of context.
See also
- Christianity in Afghanistan
- List of book-burning incidents
- Separation of church and state in the United States
Further reading
References
- ^ "US burns Bibles in Afghanistan row". Al Jazeera. 2009-05-22. Archived from the original on 2009-05-26.
- ^
a
b
"Military burns unsolicited Bibles sent to Afghanistan".
CNN. 2009-05-22. Archived from
the original on February 14, 2014. Retrieved 2009-05-26.
'This was irresponsible and dangerous journalism sensationalizing year-old footage of a religious service for U.S. soldiers on a U.S. base and inferring that troops are evangelizing to Afghans,' Col. Gregory Julian said.
- ^ "U.S. Military Accused of Handing Out Bibles in Afghanistan". Fox News. 2009-05-04. Archived from the original on May 9, 2009. Retrieved 2009-05-25.
-
^
"Bad Faith Efforts at Bagram".
The Forward. 2009-05-06. Retrieved 2009-05-25.
"These special forces guys — they hunt men basically," an American military chaplain is heard saying. "We do the same things as Christians, we hunt people for Jesus. We do, we hunt them down."
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