Want to send your brother-in-law in Iraq a Bible? An ikon? A kippah? Some joss sticks? Forget it. All that is "contrary to Islamic faith." Qur'ans and other Islamic articles only, please.
Sharia Alert from...the United States Postal Service: "Overseas Military Mail," from the U.S. Postal Service (thanks to Pamela):
Mail addressed to military post offices overseas is subject to certain conditions or restrictions of mailing regarding content, preparation, and handling. The APO/FPO table below outlines these conditions by APO/FPO ZIP Codes through the use of footnoted mailing restrictions codes (see the Restrictions page following the table). [...]RESTRICTIONS
[...]
C. Cigarettes and other tobacco products are prohibited.
C1. Obscene articles, prints, paintings, cards, films, videotapes, etc., and horror comics and matrices are prohibited.
D. Coffee is prohibited.
E1. Medicines or vaccines not conforming to French laws are prohibited.
E2. Any matter containing religious materials contrary to Islamic faith or depicting nude or seminude persons, pornographic or sexual items, or nonauthorized political materials is prohibited. [...]
These regulations date from 2003. Are they still in force? Have there been any cases where Bibles or Talmuds have been mailed, and never received, been confiscated? This is one more for the offices -- the good offices -- of Sue Myrick and Frank Wolf.
So, basically, anything someone already armed and fed would want.
Don't get all riled up, I have been sending Maxim, chew, books and other stuff to uour Marines for some time. I even put "Christmas gifts" on the label.
The rules, of which I was unaware, have now given me some ideas for even more creative care packages.
Merry Christmas to our troops and don't worry, more supplies are en route.
this reg must be protested.
seems to me that limiting access to the information necessary for personal faith needs of the troops is an infringement of their right of freedom of conscience.
Hugh,
There was something like this in place before 2003. As far as I know, none of my Christmas card or other packages were turned around. When I was stationed overseas. It is a stupid rule. I am willing to be it is illegal under international postal conventions.
I am pretty sure there are no regulations that forbid mailing a copy of the Bhagavad Gītā to the Vatican.
This must be some kind of bureaucratic joke.
Since most are ignorant of the fundamentalist Muslim faith, how are they supposed to know what might offend the fundiemoos?
Your tax dollars at work.
we need to flood congress with emails and faxes protesting this policy, especially with religious material.
www.congress.org
we need to flood congress with emails and faxes protesting this policy, especially with religious material.
congress org
We need to flood Congress with emails and protest this policy
My neighbor, is serving in Iraq, in Bagdad.
I sent some emails with I think it was some rather insightful articles from jihadwatch..... they were rejected by the military censors.
Mark
My neighbor, is serving in Iraq, in Bagdad.
I sent some emails with I think it was some rather insightful articles from jihadwatch..... they were rejected by the military censors.
Mark
"[jihadwatch posts] were rejected by the military censors."
would not be good for morale.
'E1. Medicines or vaccines not conforming to French laws are prohibited.'
Anybody else wondering what the heck French laws have to do with US mail?
Oh, and a copy of the Qur'an, the Sura,and the Hadiths sent to military personnel should be enough to scare the bejeesus out of 'em!
Especially if marked with highlighters.
However, has that Postal Bulletin since been amended?
-- For example, Postal Bulletin PB22217 - October 11, 2007
--- Overseas Military Mail Restrictions Section E2 removes the comments that restricts "Any matter containing religious materials contrary to Islamic faith"
http://www.usps.com/cpim/ftp/bulletin/2007/pb22217.pdf
--- See pages 44 and 48
Why does the press not highlight these law's?
This is like backdoor shaira law and need's to be stopped.
Open debate and people's view's must be heard without everyone being accused of islamphobia.
Are there no national paper's or main stream news channels willing to take on islam before islam takes over the free world?
Sadly the longer it is left to fester the worse it will become.
The U.S. should be able to post what it likes to it's own militry,in any country.
If you go to the linked USPS site, you will
see a catalog of APO zip codes, each followed by
a list of footnotes.
Then follows a catalog of footnotes.
Each APO has restrictions which, one might
suppose, relate to the local situations.
For example, there's no doubt about the
military necessity of E3 at some loations.
E3. Radio transceivers, cordless telephones, global positioning systems, scanners, base stations, and handheld transmitters are prohibited.
Here are two lists of caveats I pulled from
a random place in the list of APOs:
09636 A1-B-B1-C-F-U
09638 A1-B-B1-C-E2-F-U-V
One with E2, one without.
Rather than originating with the USPS, these
sort of regulations come down from US armed
forces, because of our brass' judgment of
military necessity. Status-of-forces agreements
and plain old not pissing off the locals
enter into this judgment.
Perfect? Not by a long shot.
Our people under arms give up freedoms,
temporarily, so that we can have them.
They do such a good job that many of us
have the illusion that our freedoms are
naturally secured permanently, when in
fact they require constant defense.
Another appalling development!
Our men and women in the service should not be treated in such a way.
"Anybody else wondering what the heck French laws have to do with US mail?"
Posted by Vee
For that matter what does French law have to do with standards for medical treatment either of American military personnel or Iraqi citizens?
Yes, the whole world is bowing to Islamic sensibilities.
And where is the Catholic Church, the only force that can counteract this? Fast asleep and totally demoralised; licking its wounds and thinking no one on earth needs us now!
How wrong can you get!
my first reaction to the article above was to think of a russian song called: goodbye America
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PsuO7cQ4fUQ&feature=related
Well, USPS, we are profoundly sorry for so much dhimmitude!
But hey, the end has not arrived, yet!
Let´s fight them
Freedom or death(is-lame)?
The choice is ours to make
And where is the Catholic Church, the only force that can counteract this? Fast asleep and totally demoralised...
Where did that come from???????? The Catholic Church has absolutley nothing to do with this.
It is our postal service that is dropping the ball.
As for being fast asleep and demoralised...
www.fathercorapi.com/
In 2007, restriction E-2 was amended to apply only to bulk shipments. Mail to individuals is no longer restricted. The restriction did not apply to all APOs, but was limited certain ones, probably to the Islamic law states.
It still offends me that United States mail sent to Americans is censored.
Perhaps we should not send our boys to fight and to rebuild where they cannot practice their religious rights. Perhaps we should only send bombs, and then leave.
That coffee one looks really weird since we definitely got tons of coffee in the mail in Baghdad - even from corporate starbucks and dunkin donuts.
Keep in mind that APO/FPO also includes all US embassies and state dept facilities (including Saudi Arabia, etc) - that said, any mail should be going through the diplomatic channels to the best of my knowledge so I don't think religious materials would be subject to any restrictions.
Could be wrong though. General Order #1 - in 2005/2006 at least - banned porno (as if....), alcohol, drugs, etc for DoD's usage in Iraq (although state dept and other agencies could booze it up all they wanted, and airmen in Qatar could drink - go figure) - but I never saw anything then about Islam.
Some folks misunderstand the regulations. The lettered list of restrictions is the total list of restrictions applicable anywhere. For each APO zip code, some subset of the restrictions is applicable. The restriction on coffee, for example, does not apply to Iraq. It seems to have to do with Germany. Don't know why. Similarly, you're free to send materials inconsistent with Islam to Germany. The restriction on medicines contrary to French law applies to France, nowhere else.
"The U.S. should be able to post what it likes to it's own militry,in any country."
Generally, I agree, but some restrictions are reasonable. Other countries are perfectly entitled to prohibit the importation of, e.g., fruit that might spread diseases to their local crops. The US applies similar restrictions.
Thanks for the clarification on the "subsets", folks.
And it's heartening to see military (even if they are "ex") reading this site.
Aloha...
I would like to see this article corrected for accuracy, because, as mentioned elsewhere, the restriction applies to BULK mailing of such items. Also mentioned elsewhere, people have sent such items to our military, and have not experienced any problems in doing so.
See the USPS page on Supporting Our Troops Mailing Restrictions: http://www.usps.com/supportingourtroops/mailingrestrictions.htm.
Tana-Lee
I work for the Postal Service. We have a directive instructing us not to say "Merry Christmas" in our Employee Labor Manual (ELM). It doesn't address Hanukah, Ramadan, Kwanzaa, or anything else. Just another attempt to silence Christians and eliminate Christ whenever possible. Instead of Christmas, I just say "Merry Christ Mass" or "Happy Holy Day"! God bless our troups... just keep on trying guys.
The U.S. Post Office has a legal problem. This prohibition on speach violates the U.S. Constitution.
This is just another example of the immoral G.W. Bush organization bending over backwards in support of Islam and immorality--I was never fooled by these whores in the White House--I always saw them for what they were and are. Is it any wonder they are SO immoral and unconstitional--they are not Christian--they got into power by fraud at the polls and by a corrupt supreme court! Matthew 7:20-21