Current Events Watch

Jerry Falwell would roll over in his grave, might even resurrect (now that’s a scary thought), if helicopters spontaneously began flying over our neighborhoods bombarding residents with soccer balls with images of Jesus Christ. Kicking Jesus in the face? Well, that would be very disrespectful, I suppose. Not to mention tossing JC out of a helicopter in the first place. No doubt gays, lesbians, anti-abortionists, non-Christians and perhaps even teletubby Tinky Winky would be to blame for such a blasphemous scheme.

But, nonetheless, we thought it would be a great idea to do some gifting to the children of Afghanistan by doing just that. Not with the Jesus pic, of course, they probably wouldn’t care. No, we dropped soccer balls from helicopters, displaying flags of countries from all over the world, including Saudi Arabia, which features the shahada, a verse from the Koran, recited in prayer daily, one of the Five Pillars of Islam, and includes the name Allah.

Afghan MP Mirwais Yasini said: “To have a verse of the Koran on something you kick with your foot would be an insult in any Muslim country around the world.”

I’ll admit I don’t really understand why the ball caused such outrage or led to the subsequent protest demonstration. Even as a Christian, I’d scrum with a Jesus soccer ball. Wouldn’t necessarily appreciate it having been dropped on my head from a helicopter, but once here, yeah, I’d play with it.

However, I do think we literally “dropped the ball” in this case. Muslims, we should know by now, are an extremely dedicated religious bunch. Moreso, I’d daresay, than most Christians in the US of A. I would think that had we really been making “significant efforts” to work with the mullahs and Islamic leaders, as we claimed, to understand and respect their culture, we should have known that this was a bad idea. Despite our best intentions.

Heck, even I knew, and I’ve never spoken with a mullah, that Saudi Arabia had complained in the past to the World Cup committee about their flag being on the soccer balls because it was blasphemous to Muslims.

Nice try, though. I know it’s the thought that counts, but better luck next time. However, I’d suggest a change in distribution methods. Haphazardly dropping anything from a copter seems, well, hazardous! You could take out small pets, or even small children, perhaps one for whom the gift was intended. That wouldn’t be good. On the other hand, when the Afghans see a US helicopter overhead they probably run for cover, anyway, since that usually means “Bombs Away!” Not so often “Balls Away.” Still, fly-by gifting isn’t really such a good idea. It certainly wasn’t this time.

afghanistan war, muslims, helicopter soccer balls, afghan children