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Marines set sights on refurbishing mosques
Marines and Navy Seabees are seeking Iraqi contractors to repair and refurbish mosques in an effort to dispel the notion that the United States has declared war on Islam. The effort is proceeding more quickly in the surrounding farming villages than in this Sunni Triangle city where Marines and insurgents fought three bloody weeks of combat. The Marines have a growing list of mosques that villagers would like help in repairing, renovating or expanding. Few, if any, village mosques were damaged during the fight, but the Americans said that fixing the mosques could elicit more goodwill in return than almost any other construction project. "The mosques are part of their communal life, and thatâs what weâre here to improve," said Lt. Col. Colin McNease, officer in charge of the civil affairs unit of the 1st Marine Regiment. "This is a good way to demonstrate that this is not a war against Islam." In Fallujah, where insurgents used mosques to store weapons and as vantage points to fire on Marines, the process of using U.S. money for mosque projects will be tricky. For one thing, Americans are not able to travel into the city without a heavy military escort. The Marines and Seabees also will need to rely on Iraqi contractors to provide cost estimates and construction plans before any money can be allocated. The program to repair mosques was part of the original Marine plan to win friends and bring stability to Fallujah. That plan was suspended after the Marines surrounded the city on April 5 and imposed martial law in response to the killing of four U.S. contractors on March 31. Plans are now for the United States to pay Iraqi contractors who will then hire Iraqis as laborers. The Seabees are attempting to devise an apprenticeship program in which residents of Fallujah -where unemployment is said to exceed 70 percent - can learn basic carpentry, plumbing and other construction skills. Several mosques in Fallujah were damaged during the fight. A minaret was destroyed by a Marine tank to keep insurgents from using it to rain down machine-gun fire on Marines in the battle-scarred Jolan neighborhood. Another mosque was damaged by a laser-guided bomb dropped by an Air Force warplane. From the beginning of the Marine involvement here, civil affairs specialists have sought to counteract propaganda that the United States is attempting to destroy Islam. Pamphlets and messages from sound trucks were used. When fighting broke out, the United States changed its message: "Terrorists are attempting to dishonor the sanctity of mosques in your area by using them to conduct attacks." With the Marines no longer in daily skirmishes with the insurgents, the message of the information campaign to Iraqis has shifted, but the message that the United States is not warring on Islam remains. "I donât think we will ever get away from that theme," said Capt. Kurt Gordon, spokesman for the 1st Marine Regiment. Posted by: TS(vice girl) 2004-05-24 |
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