Afghan ’convert’ row stirs calls for inquiry

Hurriyet Daily News with wires

refid:11576689 ilişkili resim dosyası

A former Afghan premier called for an investigation after the footage showed U.S. military chaplains stationed in the airbase at Bagram with Bibles printed in the country's main languages, the Qatar-based network said yesterday on its Web site.

"There must be a serious investigation," said Ahmed Shah Ahmedzai after chaplains were filmed discussing how to distribute the Bibles printed in the Pashto and Dari languages.

"This is very damaging for diplomatic relations between the two counties. É Everyone knows people are very conservative here, very faithful to Islam. They will never accept any other religion. Someone who leaves Islam is sentenced very severely Ğ the death penalty [is imposed]," he said.

Lt. Col. Gary Hensley, the chief of the U.S. military chaplains in Afghanistan, was shown delivering a recorded sermon to other soldiers, saying: "The special forces guys Ğ they hunt men basically. We do the same things as Christians, we hunt people for Jesus. We do, we hunt them down."

He also told soldiers that as followers of Jesus Christ, they all have a responsibility "to be witnesses for him."

"Get the hound of heaven after them, so we get them into the kingdom. That's what we do, that's our business," Al Jazeera’s footage quoted him as saying. The U.S. military denied it has allowed soldiers to try to convert Afghans to Christianity, considered a crime in many Muslim countries. Under the U.S. military code of conduct, armed forces on active duty are prohibited from trying to convert a person's faith.

Bibles for Afghanistan

The footage, shot about a year ago by Brian Hughes, a documentary maker and former member of the U.S. military who spent several days in Bagram, was obtained by Al Jazeera's James Bays, who has covered Afghanistan extensively. In other footage captured at Bagram, Sgt. Jon Watt, a soldier set to become a military chaplain, said during a Bible study class: "I also want to praise God because my church collected some money to get Bibles for Afghanistan. They came and sent the money out."

It is not clear whether the Bibles were distributed to Afghans, but Hughes said that none of the people he recorded in a series of sermons and Bible study classes appeared able to speak Pashto or Dari. Hughes said: "The only reason they would have these documents there was to distribute them to the Afghan people, and I knew it was wrong, and I knew that filming it É documenting it would be important."

It was not clear if the presence of the Bibles and practice of calling on soldiers to be "witnesses" for Jesus continues, but they were filmed a year ago despite regulations by the U.S. military. In another piece of footage, the chaplains appeared to understand their actions were in breach of a regulation known as General Order No. 1.

"Do we know what it means to proselytize?" Cap. Emmit Furner, a military chaplain, asked the gathering. "It is General Order No. 1," an unidentified soldier replied. But Watt said: "You can't proselytize, but you can give gifts."

The footage also suggests U.S. soldiers gave out Bibles in Iraq. In an address at Bagram, Watt is recorded as saying: "I bought a carpet, and then I gave the guy a Bible after I conducted my business. É The expressions that I got from the people in Iraq [were] just phenomenal; they were hungry for the word."