Video revealed army converting Afghans, US denied allegations

On Monday Qatar-based Al Jazeera television network broadcast footage of alleged US troops with bibles translated into local languages, however, the American army denied its role in any such conversion attempt in Afghanistan.

On Monday, US army reportedly said that it did not order any soldier to try to convert Afghans to Christianity. General Order Number 1 from the US military's Central Command prohibits active duty troops serving in Iraq and Afghanistan from trying to convert people to Christianity. It is also considered as a crime in many Muslim countries, including Afghanistan. Al Jazeera television footage reportedly showed troops apparently preparing to convert Afghans to Christianity. The video, which was filmed about one year ago, showed military chaplains stationed in the US air base at Bagram discussing how to distribute copies of the Bible printed in the country's main Pashto and Dari languages. The chaplain was shown delivering a sermon to other soldiers, saying:

"The special forces guys — they hunt men basically. We do the same things as Christians, we hunt people for Jesus. We do, we hunt them down."

Admiral Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the highest ranking officer in the US military, has reportedly denied the involvement of US army in promoting Christianity. He said: “From the United States' military's perspective, it is not our position to push any specific kind of religion." US military spokeswoman, Major Jennifer Willis, said the comments from the sermon were taken out of context. He also said chaplains were asked to make clear to soldiers that they were not allowed to be engaged in proselytization while serving. Former Afghan Prime Minister Ahmad Shah Ahmadzai said:

"We consider this act as a direct attack on our religion that will arouse Afghans' emotions to take actions against them."

Willis claimed those bibles had been sent by a US church to a soldier in Afghanistan. She said:

"That specific case involved a soldier who brought in a donation of translated bibles that were sent to his personal address by his home church. He showed them to the group and the chaplain explained that he cannot distribute them.”

Willis also said the translated bibles were never distributed as the soldier knew that would violate General Order 1.