(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - According to the BBC, the story, which was first broken by Wired website, has been astonishing enough to enrage General Martin Dempsey.
The “Perspectives on Islam and Islamic Radicalism” course for senior officers was taught at the Joint Forces Staff College in Norfolk, Virginia, for a year.
The instructor, Lieutenant Colonel Matthew Dooley, taught officers there was no such thing as moderate Islam and that they should consider the religion their enemy.
The course advocated "total war" against all the world's Muslims, including possible nuclear attacks on the holy cities of Mecca and Medina and the wiping out of civilian populations.
The Pentagon has confirmed the course material found on their website is authentic.
Following the incident, Dempsey has ordered a full investigation into what other US military schools might be teaching about this religion.
“As far as I can see this is not intended in any sense as a rather sick academic exercise in stretching the bounds of what could be thought. It is actually what the officer teaching it believes,” said senior British journalist, Mark Mardell.
In other words, he said, the contents of the course were “completely nutty stuff that would disgrace the wilder fringes of the blogosphere.”
General Dempsey described the course as "counter to our values of appreciation for religious freedom and cultural awareness" and "just objectionable, academically irresponsible."
It came to light when one of the officers on the course complained last month. There is now an investigation into how the course was approved and why it was part of the curriculum.
A lieutenant colonel has been suspended from teaching, but for the moment keeps his job. The Pentagon hopes a full report will be out by the end of the month.
“What does seem rather surprising is that all those commanders, captains and colonels must have sat through the course and not felt the need to tell someone that something rather weird was going on,” Mardell concluded.
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