Monday Evening, March 18, 2019
WASHINGTON POST
HIGHLIGHTS INCIDENT EXPOSED BY MRFF
...IN WHICH MRFF’S CLIENT,
A U.S. ARMY SERGEANT OF MUSLIM FAITH,
WAS FORCEFULLY ORDERED
TO REMOVE HER HIJAB.
Five Myths About Hijab

By: Nadia B. Ahmad
and Asifa Quraishi-Landes

Friday, March 15, 2019
(Excerpts from Washington Post/Emphasis and link added by MRFF)

[...]

MYTH NO. 1
'Hijab' means 'headscarf.'

This month, Army Times reported on an alleged incident in which an Army sergeant was ordered to remove her headscarf by a senior noncommissioned officer, even though the sergeant had “an approved exemption from her brigade commander to wear a hijab in uniform.” In a story about first lady Melania Trump covering her head for a 2017 audience with the pope but eschewing a scarf for a visit to Saudi Arabia, NBC News reported that the Saudi government “did not request that Mrs. Trump wear a head covering known as a hijab, or a headscarf.”

[...]
DAILY KOS
OP-ED

Reached #1 on the Daily Kos Recommended List

Command Sergeant Major with
Apparent X-Ray Vision
Sees Muslim Soldier’s Hair
Through Her Hijab

By: Chris Rodda

Monday, March 18, 2019
(Excerpts from Daily Kos/Emphasis added by MRFF)

As reported last week by the Army Times, Newsweek, Religion Dispatches, and numerous other news outlets, both here in the U.S. and internationally, on March 6, while attending a suicide prevention briefing at a base chapel, Sgt. Cesilia Valdovinos was forced to remove her hijab by her superior, Command Sgt. Maj. Kerstin Montoya, an egregious violation of her religious rights and a humiliating experience for a woman of the Muslim faith.

[...]

Nothing was said about Valdovinos’s hair at the time of the incident. It was only after Valdovinos, on the advice of a Muslim chaplain, contacted the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) that Fort Carson officials issued the following statement claiming that the reason Command Sgt. Maj. Montoya demanded that Valdovinos’s hair was “visibly out of regulation.”

[...]
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
MRFF represents slightly over 18%
of all Muslim Americans in the U.S. military.
MRFF DECRIES ASSAULT
ON THE U.S. CONSTITUTION AS
SCANDALOUS, OUTRAGEOUS, AND ILLEGAL!
SHAMEFULLY RENEGING ON THEIR WORD
TO MRFF AND IT's 14 VETERAN CLIENTS
TO REMOVE CHRISTIAN BIBLE FROM THE POW/MIA DISPLAY
MANCHESTER, NH VA MEDICAL CENTER PERMANENTLY ATTACHES CHRISTIAN BIBLE TO POW/MIA TABLE IN TRANSPARENT PLEXIGLASS CASE,
MRFF's Adversary Bob Jones Writes to
Laconia Daily Sun in Laconia, NH Stating that Christian Bible
Will Remain Permanently on POW/MIA Table

LACONIA DAILY SUN
OP-ED

Bible returns to Missing Man Table
at Manchester VA

By: Bob Jones

Friday, March 15, 2019
(Excerpts from Laconia Daily Sun/Emphasis added by MRFF)

To The Daily Sun,

I have been asked for update on the POW/MIA Missing Man Table and the Bible placement that was in question and had national attention.

Well, as of Monday morning, the 18th, the Bible will be in a Plexiglas case that was donated by a Navy veteran and will be attached to the table. The case will have the name of the POW the Bible belonged to before being given to a Navy veteran, member of Northeast POW/MIA Network and Purple Heart recipient.

[...]
Mikey Weinstein Vehemently Responds to Acting Staff Asst. to the Director, Manchester VAMC Corey Beem in Regards to this
Unconstitutional Attack on the Separation of Church and State

From: Michael L Weinstein
Subject: This Sordid Matter is Hardly Over
Date: March 17, 2019 at 10:38:25 AM MDT
To: "Beem, Corey D."

…..hello, Corey….as perhaps you may likely expect, sir, if this bigoted filthy assault on the separation of church and state, as clearly prohibited by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution , below, happens tomorrow as Mr. Bob Jones is gleefully describing & crowing about in the blue link below (or ANY other day thereafter), here’s what will probably occur; we will likely be forced by your Manchester VA's horrendous and deliberate misfeasance to take this disgusting travesty of an unconstitutional display of fundamentalist Christian supremacy, primacy, nationalism, exclusivity, triumphalism and dominance aggressively and swiftly to Federal Court!!…

...permanently attaching that Christian bible to the POW/MIA Table in a transparent Plexiglass case is simply SCANDALOUS, OUTRAGEOUS & ILLEGAL!!!!!!! …indeed, you clearly agreed with MRFF’s initial protestations about all of this with your January 28, 2019 e-mail to me (about only 3 hours after MRFF originally protested that Christian bible on that POW/MIA display table!!
Manchester VAMC Shamefully Reneges on their Word ,
As Stated Below to MRFF on 1/28/19, that Bible
Would Be Removed From the POW/MIA Table

From: Beem, Corey D.
Subject: Re: [EXTERNAL] VA in Manchester NH display
Date: January 28, 2019 at 11:29 AM
To: Michael L Weinstein
 
Mr. Weinstein,
 
I appreciate the phone call this morning concerning our POW/MIA table in the front foyer. Please know that as a Marine, retired, and now a VA employee I hold this table and its significance close to my heart. I want you to know that you can inform your clients that the Manchester VAMC has the utmost respect and admiration for all Veterans, regardless of their beliefs. As such we are going to be removing the Bible from the display to better serve all Veterans. [emphasis added]
 
I also would like to thank you for your service to this great nation. 
 
Semper Fidelis,
 
Corey D. Beem 
Acting Staff Assistant to the Director
Manchester VAMC
Manchester, NH 03833
HUFFPOST HIGHLIGHTS
WHITE NATIONALISM ACTIVE
IN THE U.S. MILITARY

Exclusive: 7 U.S. Military Members Identified
As Part Of White Nationalist Group

By: Christopher Mathias

Sunday, March 17, 2019


(Excerpts from Huff/Emphasis added by MRFF)

Leaked chat logs have connected seven current members of the U.S. armed forces to a white nationalist group, according to a HuffPost investigation.

Two Marines, two Army ROTC cadets, an Army physician, a member of the Texas National Guard and one member of the Air Force all belong to an organization called Identity Evropa, which is listed by the Anti-Defamation League and the Southern Poverty Law Center as an extremist group.

[...]

Daryle Jenkins, the founder of the anti-racist group One People’s Project and an Air Force vetera n, expressed concern over the safety of nonwhite and non-Christian members of the services who have to work alongside white nationalists in uniform who could “ undermine and threaten their fellow soldier ,” he said.

[...]
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