One of the slides from a presentation that was merely intended to 'stimulate discussion'Poor judgment and poor oversight led to the teaching of anti-Islamic material at a military school for officers, the Pentagon said Wednesday

Though an Army lieutenant colonel who taught the class has been relieved of his teaching duties, investigators recommended reviewing the actions of two civilian officials at the school to see if they also should face discipline, the Defense Department said in a statement. A second military officer will receive counseling.

Materials in a course for military officers at Joint Forces Staff College in Norfolk, Va., portrayed the U.S. as at war with Islam. That's an idea counter to repeated assertions by U.S. officials that the war being fought by America is one against terrorists.

Some of the material suggested the U.S. ultimately might have to obliterate the Islamic holy cities of Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia without regard for civilian deaths, following World War II precedents of the nuclear attack on Hiroshima, Japan, or the allied firebombing of Dresden, Germany.

The teacher, Lt. Col. Matthew Dooley, also suggested that the Geneva Convention, which guides behavior toward prisoners, was "no longer relevant" and that Muslims "hate everything you stand for."

The Pentagon suspended the course in late April when a student objected to the material. The FBI also changed some agent training last year after discovering that its curriculum, too, was critical of Islam.

The new findings come from a report sought by chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman, Gen. Martin Dempsey. He had ordered all service branches to review their training to ensure that other courses don't use anti-Islamic material and that procedures are in place to screen course content. The report itself has not been released, but the conclusions were described by Dempsey's spokesman, Marine Col. Dave Lapan, in a written statement to the media and later in a conversation with Pentagon reporters.

Lapan said the intent of the inflammatory material was to be provocative – "to be something to stimulate discussion and challenge people's beliefs and generate academic discussion," he said. But briefing slides used in the class, for instance, did not explain that. "The flaw was that it didn't clearly define that it was meant to be provocative," Lapan said.

Associated Press, 20 June 2012

See also "Military instructor suspended over Islam course", Reuters, 20 June 2012

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London Assembly member Murad Qureshi has written to complain about the election address from the British National Party that appears in the booklet distributed by London Elects to inform voters about the 3 May elections for the London Mayor and Assembly.

The BNP's appeal to voters features a quote from their phoney non-Reverend Robert West which reads: "I'm backing the British National Party because they support our traditional Christian faith. We need strong leadership to protect our national identity from the threat of Islam."

The booklet is sent to every household in Greater London. It is quite disgraceful that London Elects has allowed the BNP to include in it an outrageous slur on one of the major faiths in London, where 8% of the electorate is Muslim.

Does anyone imagine that the BNP would be allowed to include an equivalent attack on the Jewish community in its election address? But bigotry is apparently considered acceptable when it is directed against Muslims. It is a measure of how Islamophobia has entered the mainstream and is now widely regarded as legitimate.

It is too late to withdraw the booklet, but London Elects should issue a public apology to London's Muslim community along with an assurance that this will never happen again.

Update:  The quote from Robert West can also be found on the London Elects website, where the booklet itself is available for download. You can email them at info@londonelects.org.uk or phone 020 7983 4444 to complain.

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