A senior fellow for national security understands why the Pentagon has suspended a course for military officers that officials say contained inflammatory material about Islam.
The course had been taught at Norfolk, Virginia, since 2004, but Defense Department spokesman Captain John Kirby says "Perspectives on Islam and Islamic Radicalism" presented a number of problems, including the contention that the United States is at war with Islam.
"It was presented as an assertion that the United States is at war with Islam and we ought to just recognize that we're at war with Islam. Well, that's not at all what we believe to be the case," he commented.
Lt. Col. Bob Maginnis (USA-Ret.), who is senior fellow for national security at the Family Research Council, sees where the Defense Department is coming from.
"The problem is that even though there are teachings in the Koran that give justification to some people to use it as a hammer against the West, and against Christians in particular, we need to be careful about using a wide brush to paint all people of Islamic faith," he offers.
Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has ordered all service branches to review their training to ensure other courses do not use anti-Islamic material.