"Jesus Rifles" get the boot

Dubbed the "Jesus rifles", in what was a very embarassing episode for the US military, US gunsight maker Trijicon have decided to stop inscribing biblical references onto gunsights used by US soldiers - who are coincidentally also deployed in Irqa and Afghanistan. To make it worse, these weapons are used to train Muslim Iraqi and Afghan security forces and perhaps later supplied to them. The fear is that this fuels the notion that USA and its allies are waging a religious war against the Muslim world. Even if there was no official "religious war", religious insensitivity can spark off anger (lots of it) and perhaps in this case even lose a war. Check out this post for examples of insensitvities in America war against terror, it's appaling.

There is no biblical text on the sights, only numerical references to passages. The Bible references carry the common theme of Jesus being the light of the world. One, JN8:12 – chapter eight, verse 12 in the Book of John – reads: "When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, 'I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.'" The other inscription is from the Second Corinthians, which reads: "For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ."

A Church of England spokesman best sums up the episode, "People of all faiths and none are being killed and injured in these ­conflicts, on all sides, and any suggestion that this is being done in the name of the Bible would be deeply worrying to many ­Christians. The meaning of the Bible is to be found in reflective reading and prayer, not in sloganising and soundbites."

For us, it is important that we keep our public instituitions secular. It would be disastrous to be carrying out our military/police training in the name of a religion, or even appear to carry out in the name of any religion. Any troop tainted with any hint of favouring any religion would not be able to enforce law and order in our multi-ethnic society. Too much baggage and suspicions. But have we found the balance between secularism and the rights to practice one's religion? Are these two always a dichotomy and in conflict? Is secularism oppressive? Would it be ok for a soldier to inscribed his own weapon?