Engaging the Mosque

[George L. Singleton]

Man, what an interesting, experience filled, and adroit discussion.

Islam today in Pakistan, and for that matter Afghanistan, is another world compared to when I served there 1963-1965. Simply said.

I went back on active duty (volunteered) from my reserve slot in USSOCOM, and was Assistant Deputy Commander for Airlift at Charleston AFB, for the short Desert Storm War.

At Charleston AFB, as compared to Dover AFB as noted by our paratrooper good contributor who was then enroute from KY via Dover to the theater of operations in Saudi, we allowed groups to come on base and give out Gideon Bibles.

Yes, in days of yore I, too, was many times TDY through Saudi. I recall one very upset USAF Major put onto a flight I was on enroute to Wheelus AFB, Libya, who had just been declared "personal non grata" and kicked out of Saudi for...displaying a Christmas tree he had airlifted in from Europe in the window of his Saudi staff house!

I reguarly used to go to the US Embassy Commissary in Karachi and sent downto our boys in Daharan bottles of booze in the mid 1960s, at a mere $1.00 a bottle, gladly paid by a poor First Lieutenant, me.

In return, occasionally, our flight crews (known initialy during my tour of duty as ALC, then renamed MAC) coming through/from Daharan would drop of unexpected, uninvited, but glad to have leather goods, one leather carry all bag lo these many years later I still use on the odd trip as a carry on bag.

There are at least 25 or 26 different Arabic interpretations of their Holy Quran, and thereby more disconnects and conflicting/contradictory/confusing statements/interpretations as mankind of that belief system can imagine. I read this fact on one of "their", i.e, Pukthun, blog site discussions last week.