This is an ACTUAL article, no joke...

U.S. Marines Accused of Proselytizing in Fallujah

Posted on May 29, 2008; from the Council of American-Islamic Relations main website, www.cair.org.

At the western entrance to the Iraqi city of Fallujah on Tuesday, Muamar Anad handed his residence badge to the U.S. Marines guarding the city. They checked to be sure he was a city resident, and when they were done, Anad said, a Marine slipped a coin out of his pocket and put it in his hand.

Out of fear, he accepted it, Anad said. When he was inside the city, the college student said, he looked at one side of the coin. "Where will you spend eternity?" it asked.
He flipped it over, and on the other side it read, "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. John 3:16."

"They are trying to convert us to Christianity," said Anad, a Sunni Muslim like most residents of this city in Anbar province. At home, he told his story, and his relatives echoed their disapproval: They'd been given the coins, too, he said.

"Iraq is investigating a report that U.S. military personnel in Fallujah handed-out material that is religious and evangelical in nature," said Rear Adm. Patrick Driscoll, a U.S. military spokesman, in a statement e-mailed to McClatchy Newspapers. "Local commanders are investigating since the military prohibits proselytizing any religion, faith or practices."
Fallujah, the scene of a bloody U.S. offensive against Sunni insurgents in 2004, has calmed and grown less hostile to U.S. troops since residents turned against al-Qaida in Iraq.
Now residents of the city are abuzz that some Americans who they consider occupiers are also acting as Christian missionaries. Residents said some Marines at the western entrance to their city have been passing out the coins for two days in what they call a "humiliating" attempt to convert them to Christianity.

It's Nikhar now:
The above news is absolutely unacceptable. I am all for people believing in what they want, or choose, or were raised to believe, as long as that means that they are good people and treat others well, and with respect, regardless of where they come from, the color of their skin, their creed, etc. The above article is proof not only of America's unwelcome presence in Iraq, but also of certain soldiers' attempts to target Iraqi civilians for the purpose of getting them to convert. First and foremost, this is NOT the job of these soldiers. Second, they need to understand that they are in a MUSLIM COUNTRY. Third, they need to comprehend that Christianity is not the solution for what problems are occuring in that country, and that Islam is not the problem either: power, greed, illiteracy, and politics are the heart of those issues. And last but not least, these soldiers need to really get what it means to respect others and their beliefs and refrain from handing out this unwelcome coins and offering their unwelcome ideas. And people wonder why the Middle East doesn't trust America, especially the American military...

NIkhar Ahmed: Distinguished Leadership Award 2008 -- Specific Page!

I have been searching for the link to this page for a while...it took them a little bit to load up my picture, so I didn't want to post the following link: http://www.denison.edu/offices/publicaffairs/pressreleases/leadership/2008/nikhar_ahmed.html until they did! Check it out -- this award was a long time comming, and I appreciated it not for the attention, but more so for the recognition for the time and efforts I had contributed to both the Denison community and the surrounding community!

Shout out to Ozzie Crump, without whom I would not have realized that it was picture day at Denison, and so I would not have the wonderful picture that they used in the profile for the DL award...major props Oz! Thank you for calling me and urging me to come to take the picture, saying that "People gotta know that colored folk attended Denison!" So true, so true...