This came as a pleasant and welcome surprise. An American Muslim group has denounced a solider that is using his Muslim beliefs to refuse an overseas assignment.
“The group is also asking other American Muslim organizations to speak out and make it clear that no loyal American Muslim should ever seek CO status.”
Ever?
That seems a bit bizarre to me. The bar is fairly high when you suddenly become one right before going to a war zone, but this group seems to be saying something a bit broader than that.
My mother is Mennonite, and I’ve done a little reading on the history of Mennonites in Canada - it takes more to be a Conscientious Objector than just saying you’re one, and you don’t want to study war no more. Maybe he got Muslim and Mennonite confused.
Not the point. Conscientious Objector status only plays a part when there is a draft. At all other times such people are just labeled “not interested”.
Really? I hope they execute the guy for trying to get out of his deployment. He knew exactly what he was doing when he joined. He was perfectly fine to accept the benefits and pay until they tried to deploy him.
I know that. You cannot be a Conscientious Objector(at least not in the legal sense) when you voluntarily enlisted yourself.
Conscientious Objector status implies coercion. ie: state mandated military service.
What I said was, outside of times of draft, people with objections to war simply dont enlist. They are disinterested in fighting. No special status(or entitlement) is needed.
I also never said people could get out of service by expressing a lack of interest. All hell would break loose if social contracts could be broken so easily.
The soldier in question could not even be a Conscientious Objector in the face of a draft as his particular religion does not have edicts prohibiting violence. Its more clear cut with the Mennonites, Hutterites and Amish.
Thats interesting, but there is no indication that it leads anywhere but red tape. I mean, the platoon has 180 days(half a year!) to dawdle. And then they will have to arrange interviews and whatnot. Possibly in a combat theatre?
An American Muslim group has denounced a solider that is using his Muslim beliefs to refuse an overseas assignment.
This guy is already a soldier. It has nothing to do with a draft. Soldiers do not typically have the option to declare disinterest and opt out.