While alarm bells have been ringing over an unprecedented number of military commanders being relieved / purged under the Obama administration, the crusader ranks in the military might just be growing. Could an infidel movement be to the U.S. Military what the Tea Party was to the U.S. Government?

Modern day Crusader

It would appear that Islamophobia Today has a case of Crusader-phobia (h/t BNI):

…Since 2007 the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) and its founder Mikey Weinstein have diligently documented violations of religious freedom within the military. During that time many of MRFF’s documentation of violations have included cases of anti-Islam/Muslim propaganda and activities.

In addition to these very troubling stories reported in the mainstream press and by rights organizations, Islamophobia Today has uncovered facts indicating that the pervasive “Crusader” sub-culture within the ranks of Islamophobes isn’t limited to internet forums and blogs but also exists within the US Military.

Anti-Muslim/Islam and pro-Crusader themes tied to military-use paraphernalia, including: T-Shirts, insignias, bullet coating, rifle scope cases as well as tattoos inscribed “Kafir,” and “Infidel” have become common within a sub-set of the US military. {emphasis ours}

Does this not make Weinstein an inconsistent atheist? Aren’t U.S. troops who adorn themselves with “Kafir” and “Infidel” apparel and tattoos mocking religious labels for them? As an atheist, shouldn’t Weinstein be defending soldiers who engage in such behavior?

“Kafir” Crusader

A quick look at Weinstein’s website only further underscores this inconsistency. He writes:

Countless armed forces members have reached out to the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) over the last nearly seven years to express their dire concern regarding the proliferation of literature, imagery, insignia, and much more which indicates that, indeed, some do see themselves as the Christian extremist counterparts of their Islamic fundamentalist, Salafi-Jihadist foes. This extremely dangerous Islamophobia, inextricably intertwined into the very fabric of the US armed forces, has reached such a dire level of toxicity…

…threatens to reignite the explosive tension and anti-American rage that exists across the Muslim world. “Crusader” is an epithet that is routinely used to describe US military personnel throughout the Arab and Islamic world. A phrase which literally means “taking up the cross,” Crusader recalls a history of colonization and campaigns of conquest and plunder spearheaded by European Christian military orders. Spanning three centuries and starting in the year 1096, the crusades viciously claimed the lives of millions of inhabitants of the Middle East… {emphasis ours}

Mikey Weinstein: Crusader-phobe?

Remember, that a pro-Muslim website named “Islamophobia Today” is making the case that when U.S. troops identify themselves outwardly in a way that Muslims they are fighting also identify them – as pork-eating apes, pigs, monkeys, infidels and kafirs – it is offensive to Muslims.

There’s simply no pleasing the Muslim world.