Giving Rest

(referred to this article via The Journey)

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Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Washington, D.C.-based Council on American-Islamic Relations, said mixing relief work and proselytizing in Iraq fits a long history of missionaries using deception.

"They go in under the guise of helping people, and what they really want is to help them leave their faith," Hooper said. "It's really a despicable practice - going to people who are extremely vulnerable, in a very bad situation, and using widely disproportionate power relationships to get them to change their faith."

Hooper warned that if missionaries follow soldiers into the country, U.S. statements that the war is not against Islam are undermined.

"It sends the message to the Muslim and Arab world that the stated intent of the attack on Iraq is not what the intent really is," he said.