Special to WorldTribune.com

WASHINGTON — The United States has ordered the purging of
unflattering references to Islam in military training programs.

Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has issued a
directive to review military education programs that deal with Islamic
insurgency or extremism.

Officials said the directive to the heads of joint military education institutions and combatant commanders would ensure the removal of any reference to Islam deemed inappropriate.

“Our concern is there are some unprofessional things being taught to
students in professional military education curriculum,” Defense Department spokesman John Kirby said.

The directive by the Joint Chiefs came in wake of a complaint against a course at the Armed Forces Staff College in Norfolk, Va.

In March, a student informed Dempsey of a Power Point slide in a class entitled “Perspectives on Islam and Islamic Radicalism,” that asserted that the United States was at war with Islam. The course had been taught at the college since 2004.

Officials said Dempsey ordered the suspension of the course until the
review was completed. They said Defense Secretary Leon Panetta supported
Dempsey’s order to purge objectionable references to Islam in the military
curriculum.

“He [Panetta] also completely endorses the chairman’s intention to look
at joint professional military education across the board to make sure we
have done an adequate scrub on the content of this type of curriculum,”
Kirby told a Pentagon briefing on April 25.

Dempsey also ordered an investigation into the suspended course at the
Armed Forces Staff College. Officials said the Joint Chiefs head wanted an
explanation of how the objectionable references to Islam found their way
into the course.

“We believe the right thing to do was to suspend the course due to some
of the things that were presented in the course,” Kirby said.

  Armed Forces Staff College in Norfolk, Gen. Martin Dempsey, Leon Panetta, objectionable references to Islam, Perspectives on Islam and Islamic Radicalism, U.S. rewriting references to Islam in military training curricula