A Little Learning Is a Dangerous Thing

The U.S. Military has been spreading ignorant, stereotyped information about Islam, according to information in Wired (5-10-12).

General Martin Dempsey, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has condemned Department of Defense educational materials used in a course at the Joint Forces Staff College, according to Wired (5-10-12).

The FBI has also been spreading prejudice about Islam disguised as educational information. See the links here. (The FBI also spreads disinformation about climate scientists who study nuclear winter. Sooner or later, someone will call them on this, too.  Maybe the FBI should check with an American climate scientist who studies nuclear winter instead of  some KGB blowhard and an ignorant journalist.)

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (5-11-12) also carries the story as does The Guardian (5-11-12).

The suspended teacher at the Joint Forces Staff College told his students that Muslim holy cities might need to be bombed and Saudi Arabians starved. He has been advocating the indiscriminate killing of Muslim civilians. Isn't that what Al Qaeda does? Isn't this the same "school" of thought that claimed that "the only good Indian is a dead Indian"? Perhaps these "experts" are believing all that Al Qaeda propaganda they read, just as the FBI believes the ignorant views of a former KGB official on nuclear winter.

It seems to me that when the government spreads inflammatory stereotypes about Islam that they play right into the hands of extremists like Al Qaeda. Some Muslims are terrorists who use Islam to justify terrorism, but many Muslims are actually helping the U.S. defeat Al Qaeda. Most Muslims do not agree with Al Qaeda's terrorism. Mostly, Al Qaeda murders Muslims.