Evangelical Christians and Catholics are both classified by the Pentagon as "extremists," not unlike the Ku Klux Klan or al-Qaida, according to training documents from the Defense Equal Opportunity Management Institute, a Department of Defense agency.
Obtained by the Chaplain Alliance for Religious Liberty via a Freedom of Information Act Request, the training materials contain a 133-page lesson on "Extremism."
"The materials we obtained establish that the U.S. military violated its appropriate apolitical stance and engaged in a dishonorable mischaracterization of multiple faith groups,"
Ron Crews, executive director of the Chaplain Alliance, told Fox News.
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Among the other groups considered "extremists" by the Pentagon are Sunni Muslims, ultra-Orthodox Jews, and the Muslim Brotherhood are other groups
the Pentagon considers extremists, besides Evangelical Christians and Catholics, according to the Christian Post.
"Many extremists will talk of individual liberties, states' rights, and how to make the world a better place," the DoD reportedly says in the study guide, warning that involvement with "extremist" organizations is "incompatible with military service and is, therefore, prohibited."
The leaked DoD documents come on the heels of an April incident in which a U.S. Army training instructor sent an email to his subordinates warning them to be on the lookout for any soldiers who might be members of "domestic hate groups" such as the Family Research Council, a Christian organization.
"It's disturbing insight into what's happening inside Obama's Pentagon," Tom Fitton, president of the conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch, told Fox News. "The Obama administration has a nasty habit of equating basic conservative values with terrorism."
The Pentagon also reportedly considers American founding fathers like George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Benjamin Franklin "extremists."
"In today's military, you can't say jihad but you can pretend that the founding fathers were extremists and, in the same breath, tie them to the KKK and al-Qaida,"
Fitton said on "The Steve Malzberg Show" on Newsmax TV on Tuesday.
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