Christian Coin Handout Angers Iraqis

[vertical]

(BAGHDAD) — A U.S. Marine handed out coins promoting Christianity to Muslims in the former insurgent stronghold of Fallujah, outraged Sunni officials said Friday. The U.S. military responded quickly, removing a trooper from duty pending an investigation.
Related Articles

The distribution of the coins was the second perceived insult to Islam by American service members this month. A U.S. sniper was sent out of the country after using a Quran, Islam's holy book, for target practice.

Photographs of the coins, which were inscribed with phrases in Arabic, were widely distributed via cell phones in Fallujah and were seen by an Associated Press employee.

One side asked: "Where will you spend eternity?"The other contained a verse from the New Testament: "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. John 3:16."

Sunni officials and residents said a Marine distributed about 10 coins at a checkpoint controlling access to the city, the scene of one of the fiercest battles of the war. Al-Zubaie said a man brought one of the coins to a mosque on Wednesday to show it to him and other Sunni leaders.

I cannot believe that a soldier would attempt to be an evangelist for Christianity while he was on an official US mission in Iraq. Is the army there to push these beliefs onto the people of Iraq? Religious intolerance seems to be raging with many in the armed forces. Yes, Christians are taught to 'spread the good word' and to try and 'save as many as possible', but trying to do this while on an official US mission is wrong. We say we have religious freedom in this country, yet we present ourselves as intolerant of their religious views. This would be different if he was engaged in an active conversation with a local about Christianity. This soldier was working a checkpoint, where people are forced to stop and interact with the soldiers. Did the people that were stopped at the checkpoint appreciate this religious coin? It does not seem that way, but of course, being a Christian, he continued to hand them out.

In my opinion, Christians have just as much proof that Jesus is who he says he is as Muslims do regarding Mohammad. Why don't we promote the freedom of religion that we enjoy in the US instead of making it seem that the USA is solely about Christianity?

[Grizzly]

Had I have been that soldier I would not have handed out the coins knowing that Islam is such a very repressed, opressed and intolerant religion, after all we are known to them as infidels ( not much tolerance there huh!). It has been reported on the news that muslim families have gone so far as to kill other members who have converted to christianity. You are right Vertical, the USA does preach freedom of (not from) religion and I suppose that the soldier thought he was expressing that...after all he was not forcing his beliefs, nor condemning theirs. He was simply doing what all OTHER religions do here in our country, share and express their beliefs and just like over here, the muslims over there had every right and opportunity to simply say no thanks or throw the coin down when he handed it to them.
  Many of their mosque's here and in Europe openly preach hatred and overthrow against the USA and Western Europe (ahhh, freedom of religion)...try preaching hatred and overthrow against Iraq and Islam from a christian church in Iraq and see if you are afforded that same freedom. And to think simply handing out a coin could so infuriate people.
We are spoiled by our freedom sometimes.