U.S. military apologizes for Allah soccer balls

U.S. military apologizes for Allah soccer balls

cnews.canoe.ca

The U-S military says it regrets any offence it may have caused by handing out soccer balls emblazoned with the name of Allah as part of a public relations exercise in Afghanistan.

(visit the link for the full news article)

At least one of the balls - which were dropped by helicopter to children in Khost province in eastern Afghanistan on Friday - carried a small picture of the Saudi Arabian flag.

Muslims seem to easy offended nowadays , the US Army was only trying to give the kids a bit of something to do.

Jamal said the U.S. military told him they bought the balls in a market in Kabul and they were made in China

Typical...:@

cnews.canoe.ca
(visit the link for the full news article)

[edit on 28-8-2007 by The_Coo]

[edit on 28-8-2007 by The_Coo]

[edit on 28-8-2007 by The_Coo]

Muslims seem to easy offended nowadays.

Yeah...its not like any christians would get upset if anyone handed out soccer balls with "Jesus Christ" printed on them and let kids kick them around in the mud, sit on them or anything else you can do with a soccer ball. Idiot muslims.

The foot is considered unclean in many places (especially in the middle east), to show the bottom of your foot is considered a great insult. Even pointing at your foot could be considered a insult. When we took baghdad the people were smacking images and statues of saddam with their shoes...it was meant to be insulting. Handing out soccer balls with religious names and phrases only shows what we americans know about other cultures...especially the cultures of people we invade.

I wonder how many "Higher Ups" this had to get approval from to make this happen.

Originally posted by The_Coo
Muslims seem to easy offended nowadays , the US Army was only trying to give the kids a bit of something to do.

Well that's a no-brainer. Would you put something you considered holy, such as the name of your Lord, God on something you would kick? That's disrespectful.

I wouldn't put anything regarded as holy or sacred anywhere near my feet. It should be at a level above the waist at least. And I'm a moderate living in a pretty secular country. Which idiot thought it was a good idea to distribute these footballs in of all countries, Afghanistan, where their interpretation of the Quran is strict as strict as can be (aside from Saudi Arabia)?

People seem to exercise their gray cells less and less nowadays.

Well it was a picture of a flag , lots of footballs have a national flag depicted on them

Sounds like a typically deliberate ignorance of Islamic views by not so much the folks on the ground there, but those at a higher level close to the action...

Or...

God forbid, those running the show from home ???!!!!? *shock* Tell me that ain't true or even possible ??

Either way it sucks...

Get on with rebuilding what you destroyed and get the hell out of there, pronto. That goes for British, Australian (my country of birth) and other nations...

The flag features in Arabic script the Islamic declaration of faith, which contains the words Allah and the Prophet Muhammad.

www.iht.com...

Btw Coo...that was cool of you how you edited your original post to remove the part about there being religous names in a religious phrase to make it look like "it was just a flag."



[edit on 28/8/07 by Pfeil]

One of the first things my unit went through upon entering Saudi Arabia during Desert Shield was a cultural orientation to the region, one of the points was how the feet and shoes could be seen as an insult. Like Pfeil
said this is indeed an insult and I find the weak excuse......

'Blasphemous' U.S. Soccer Balls Anger Afghans

A spokeswoman for the U.S. forces in Afghanistan said they made "significant efforts to work with local leaders, mullahs and elders to respect their culture," and distributing the footballs was an effort to give a gift the Afghan children would enjoy.


"Unfortunately," she added,here was something on those footballs we didn't immediately understand to be offensive and we regret that we do not want to offend."

emphasis:mine

......to be less than adequate.

reply to post by The_Coo


True, however the Saudi flag (as well as that of a number of other muslim nations) have the word "Allah" on it. Arguing whether the flag is sacred or not is irrelevant to the discussion because at the end of it, the word/name still appears on an object that is to be kicked around. And the word/name is what is sacred, and cause for ire when it is not respected.

Again, this is an example of not thinking.

Edit to add:

It could also be an example of "the road to hell is paved with good intentions..."

I don't know. A silly mistake that could've easily been avoided had more attention to detail been observed.

[edit on 28-8-2007 by Beachcoma]

lol , ok maybe it wasnt a good idea to buy those kids some footballs to kick around , but those buying them probably just went to the market and bought dozens of them , they probably didnt think to check them over.

No, it was a good idea. PR is good, but they should fire or at least send the person who made the blunder for cultural orientation like JacKatMtn's unit went through.

You guys dont seem to understand. This just wasnt some soilder that went to a local market (which by the way, no market in the middle east would have these balls, if they did theyd probably end up being killed) and bought these balls, then threw them out of a helicopter. This was a PR operation. This had to go through so many levels of command to get approval and NOONE knew that this was a bad idea. It boggles my mind how this even happened.

hmm you don't need to be muslim to use the word allah in your vocabulary. arabic jews and christians also refer to god as allah. I figured allah was just a normal word in the vocabulary in arabic speaking countries. I don't see why people would be offended.

edit: nevermind. now i see the soccer balls included an islamic script. oh well. hopefully they accept the apology since the soccer balls were made with good intentions.

[edit on 28-8-2007 by curiousbeliever]

So maybe these soldiers did this intentionally ?

Ive read a few reports of bored soldiers having some fun with the locals.

American Soldiers Mocking Little Kids

[edit on 28-8-2007 by The_Coo]

reply to post by curiousbeliever


Because it's not just the word "Allah"/God on the Saudi flag printed on the football. It was the entire Kalima Shahadah, the declaration of the muslim faith. That is, I testify that there is no god but God and Muhammad is the messenger of God. The Kalima Shahada also forms the first of the Five Pillars of the muslim faith.

Pfeil:

You're right, it boggles the mind. All I can theorize is that the PR exercise was rushed, hence the spectacular blunder.

well we are not christians we are muslims and its a offence to wright allah (swt) on a football the soldiers should no better and fun yea why not give them a plain football duh they just making things worse a football which you kick with allahs name what the hell is wrong with you lot you are suppose to make things better not worse!!!

This was no mistake, if indeed it was a Public Relations idea. The layers of command knew what they were doing. Inciting outrage almost seems fun to them.

It gives them a reason to keep our troops abroad. Therefore keeping the defense budget a gigantic dollar consuming business, good for the 1% who control 96% of the wealth in America.

Some Satire:

In the Mirror Universe ala Star Trek

If the Muslims were an occupying force here, and had little true care about our culture and, where the low-end soldiers keep asking, why is this my mission?


(Mulsim Private to Commander)

"I don't what happened sir, we wanted to see them relax by spitting good old skoal chewing tobacco, in a Jesus shaped spitoon"

"Why did they get so Mad? Americans like chewing tobacco, and Jesus."

My Opinion

I agree someone should have checked out the soccer balls before they were

handed out / dropped out.

But really everybody knows that Americans have no clue about other peoples

cultures and I don't see a reason to be mad.

It's not like they dropped the balls purely to be insulting.

but thats just my opinion

I think they should use these balls to have a soccer tournament. Shiites, Kurds, US...every secular group you can find..fight it out for Iraq. The winner gets the right to Iraq. Seems more reasonable and civilized than whats happening now.

[edit on 29-8-2007 by 3_Libras]

reply to post by 3_Libras


I'll second that.
That's one football tournament i'd be glad to see us lose.
Just make sure McLaren was managing our team and I doubt it would be a problem.

Out first round. UK troops first one's home. Sounds good.