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Thursday, March 14, 2019
NEWS OF MRFF's U.S. ARMY CLIENT
ORDERED TO REMOVE HIJAB
GOES INTERNATIONALLY VIRAL
MRFF represents slightly over 18%
of all Muslim Americans in the U.S. military.
Click image to watch 42-second video.
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Muslim soldier was ‘spiritually raped’ by Army officer
asking her to remove her hijab

By: Jimmy McCloskey

Wednesday, March 13, 2019
(Excerpts from Metro/Emphasis added by MRFF)

Sergeant Cesilia Valdovinos, 26, says she was left ‘feeling naked’ after Command Sergeant Major Kerstin Montoya ordered her to remove her head-covering during suicide prevention training on March 6. And the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, an anti-prejudice group which is now advocating for Valdovinos, went further by likening Montoya’s actions to a spiritual assault on the servicewoman.

In a statement posted on the MRFF website, spokesman Mikey Weinstein continued: ‘ This rips asunder good order, morale, discipline and unit cohesion . ‘It also serves up a “public relations bonanza for our Islamic extremist enemies” who wish to paint the war on terror as a war on Islam or a clash of world religions.’

[...]

She told the Army Times: ‘To me, it was the same thing as if they had asked someone to take their top off.’ An Army spokesman said that Valdovinos was singled out for failing to have her hair up in a reglation bun under the headscarf. The soldier insists she was wearing her hair in the correct style, and that it only came loose as she removed her headscarf. Fort Carson officials have insisted Montoya was right to upbraid Valdovinos, with a spokesman saying the sergeant’s hair ‘was completely down, which is not allowed while in uniform.’ But Weinstein has also hit back at that claim, saying: ‘ Their mendacious and twisted ‘version’ of what transpired is an absolutely repulsive exacerbation of an already horrific incident of racist anti-Muslim prejudice. ’ The Military Religious Freedom Foundation have warned Fort Carson that they will complain to the US Civil Rights Commission if the sergeant’s complaint is not handled promptly.
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Muslim US Army soldier says
‘forced’ to remove hijab – superiors respond

By: Laura Widener

Wednesday, March 13, 2019
(Excerpts from American Military News)

A Muslim soldier in the U.S. Army says she was forced by a superior to remove her hijab, but her story is being challenged by Fort Carson officials.

Sgt. Cesilia Valdovinos contends that on March 6, Command Sgt. Maj. Kerstin Montoya grabbed her arm and pulled her into a room where she was forced to remove her authorized hijab, Colorado Springs Independent reported Tuesday.

The incident took place at a memorial chapel on Fort Carson, Colorado. Valdovinos said that Montoya, without explanation, demanded “You come with me,” escorted her to the back of the chapel, pointed to the hijab and said to remove “that.”

[...]
NEWSWEEK
COVERS STORY EXPOSED BY MRFF

MUSLIM U.S. ARMY SOLDIER CLAIMS
COMMAND SERGEANT ORDERED HER TO REMOVE HIJAB

By: Maria Perez

Wednesday, March 13, 2019
(Excerpts from Newsweek)

Muslim soldier claims she was asked to remove her hijab by her command sergeant major during a suicide prevention briefing earlier this month. Sergeant Cesilia Valdovinos told The Army Times she was at a chapel in Fort Carson, Colorado, on March 6 and was forcefully taken outside by her command sergeant major to remove the hijab in front of other people.
Valdovinos, who is a member of the 704th Bridge Support Battalion, told the publication her hijab has been approved to wear with her uniform by her brigade commander and was not wearing her hair in a regulation bun. She claims no one asked her if she was wearing the regulation bun before Command Sergeant Major Kerstin Montoya took her by the arm outside and forced her to take off her hijab.

[...]
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‘I felt naked,’ says Muslim soldier
ordered to remove her hijab. But Army pushes back.

By: Kaitlyn Alanis

Wednesday, March 13, 2019

(Excerpts from Miami Herald/Emphasis added by MRFF)

A Muslim soldier with the U.S. Army says “I felt naked” and discriminated when she was  ordered to remove her hijab while at Fort Carson , the Colorado Springs Independent reported.

In a March 7 complaint filed with the Mountain Post’s equal opportunity office, Sgt. Cesilia Valdovinos said she was discriminated against when forced to remove the religious head scarf at the chapel on Fort Carson in Colorado, according to the Independent.

“To me, it was the same thing as if they had asked someone to take their top off,” she said, according to the Army Times. Valdovinos  says she was forced to remove the hijab  by a senior non-commissioned officer while at a suicide prevention meeting in the chapel on March 6.

[...]

“It would have been IMPOSSIBLE for this (Command Sgt. Maj.) to have even SEEN the hair of our ... client,” president Michael Weinstein with the Military Religious Freedom Foundation wrote in a statement. “Indeed, even if this CSM DID have X-Ray vision,  our client’s hair was neatly tucked beneath her under-cap , completely in accord with Army appearance regulations.” 

[...]

“Their mendacious and twisted ‘version’ of what transpired is an absolutely repulsive exacerbation of an already horrific incident of racist anti-Muslim prejudice,” Weinstein said in his statement. 

[...]
Background:
MRFF's Efforts on Behalf of
U.S. Army Soldier Of the Muslim Faith
Forcefully Ordered to Remove Hijab
Background:
MRFF's Efforts on Behalf of
U.S. Military Members of the Muslim Faith
"Remember Texas! Remember Foot Hood!"

From: (name withheld)
Subject: Remember Texas! Remember Foot Hood!
Date: March 13, 2019 at 3:35:31 PM MDT
To: Mikey Weinstein

You leftist freaks at the MFRF get all up to protect towel heads camel jockeys but you don’t lift a damn finger for Christians who built this country.
Now I read that you protect that moslim women at Fort Carson who gets to wear her stupid arab costume?

Maybe you all forgot about Texas and Fort Hood where that sand nigger major hasan shot and killed all those innocent Christian soldiers? There only crime was loving Jesus Christ. Ayrabs can’t stand that.

Well I am a Texan. And my family has been in Texas for almost a hundred
years and we do not forget that stuff in Texas! Texas is for liberty and Jesus.
Why don’t you stop helping the arab terrorists in the Army and start helping the Christian soldiers who have to serve with that islam trash?
And you are jew right?
That figures too.
 

Response from MRFF Advisory Board Member
John Compere

From: John Compere
Subject: Fw: Remember Texas! Remember Foot Hood!
Date: March 13, 2019 at 5:32:21 PM MDT
To: (name & email withheld)

(name withheld),

Your repugnant racist rant reflects only on yourself & reveals a brainless bigot who cannot communicate in a moral & meaningful manner. You & hate-filled hypocrites like you are the reason why moral Americans & Texans reject the insidious intolerance of radical religious racism. The late George H.W. Bush (Texan, military hero, Christian gentleman & American President), wisely warned “Hate corrodes the container it is carried in”. Perhaps you should think about that.

For your information, the Military Religious Freedom Foundation is a non-profit constitutional rights organization (composed of over 80% Christians) that represents military members of any religion or belief who request their right to religious freedom, to which all Americans are entitled under the US Constitution (& all Texans are entitled under the Texas Constitution), be respected & protected. We represent over 61,000 military men & women (95% of whom are Christians) who have requested our representation.

I am a 4th generation Texan whose family has been in Texas for more than 100 years. My Texas is for the religious liberty mandated by the American & Texas Constitutions, both of which provide freedom of any religion or no religion for Americans & Texans. Be assured the Eyes of Texas are elsewhere – not upon you.

“There is no argument in the world that carries the hatred that a religious belief one does.” – American Philosopher Mark Twain


Brigadier General John Compere, US Army (Retired)
Disabled American Veteran (Vietnam Era)
Military Religious Freedom Foundation Advisory Board Member
Texas rancher


On Mar 13, 2019, at 12:44 PM, (name withheld) wrote:

In GOD we trust

Shalom

Response from MRFF Founder and President
Mikey Weinstein

From: Mikey Weinstein
Date: March 13, 2019 at 12:45:46 PM MDT
To: (name withheld)
Subject: Re:

Negative… In the CONSTITUTION we trust…
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