MRFF FEATURED BY
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Nativity scenes at Guantanamo spark protest
 Wednesday, December 18, 2013
Selected Article Excerpt:
GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba (AP) — Some troops at Guantanamo Bay want the U.S. Navy to remove nativity scenes and Christmas decorations from two base dining facilities, saying they improperly promote Christianity over other faiths, an organization that advocates for religious freedom in the military said Wednesday.
A group of 18 service members from several faiths contacted the Military Religious Freedom Foundation for help in removing the nativity scenes and decorations because they figured they would be ignored and feared retribution, said Mikey Weinstein, the president of the organization. The troops, he added, also prefer to remain anonymous because of a possible backlash.
“They are terrified,” Weinstein said. “Right now, there is a witch hunt going on to find out who did this.”
Eleven of the troops who complained are Protestant and Catholic and the rest are Muslim, Jewish, agnostic or atheist, Weinstein said.
MRFF FEATURED BY
MIAMI HERALD
Nativity scenes at Guantanamo spark protest
Wednesday, December 18, 2013
Selected Article Excerpt:
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GUANTANAMO BAY NAVY BASE, Cuba -- Two Nativity scenes, one in the dining room for prison camp guards, are causing a bit of a stir among a few troops at this remote outpost.
A total of 18 U.S. service members stationed here, five of them officers, appealed to the Military Religious Freedom Foundation after an agonizing, secret meeting on this base earlier this week about what to do about two créches and other Christmas decorations that festoon the main prison and base dining rooms, the rights group’s president, Mikey Weinstein, said Wednesday.
He said they want them moved to the base chapel, a request he relayed to Pentagon officials on Tuesday.
He said eight of the protesting American troops work inside the detention center zone that this week held more than 150 Muslim prisoners. The rest work elsewhere on the base, and all insisted on anonymity fearing what Weinstein called a “fundamentalist Christian command climate at Guantánamo.”
There was no response Wednesday from Kelly Wirfel, the spokeswoman at the Navy base, which has a school, a golf course and about 6,000 residents, a third of them civilian contract workers from Jamaica and the Philippines. A Pentagon spokesman also had no comment.
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Military group demands Pentagon remove ‘egregiously unconstitutional’ nativities at Guantanamo Bay
**Glenn Beck-owned website offers surprisingly even-handed coverage of latest Constitutional violation in U.S. military
Wednesday, December 18, 2013
Selected Article Excerpt:
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There’s a nativity debate unfolding at Guantanamo Bay after U.S. servicemen reportedly complained about two creches in dining spaces.
The Military Religious Freedom Foundation says it received an email from 18 active-duty service members who are opposed to the presence of these Christian scenes, the Navy Times reported. The organization is appealing to the Pentagon to immediately remove the displays.
The nativities are in common dining areas, with the complaining officers writing in their email to the Military Religious Freedom Foundation that the creches give “the impression is that one faith is better than others, and that the military institution singularly promotes Christianity.”
“MRFF is demanding that the wholly unconstitutional nativity scenes and other sectarian messages be taken down immediately from the Gold Hill and Seaside gallies at GTMO,” Military Religious Freedom Foundation President Mikey Weinstein said in an email to the Pentagon.
Weinstein told TheBlaze Wednesday that the Pentagon has not responded to his group’s inquiries. He pledged that his organization will continue to demand that the two nativities be taken down immediately and placed at a more appropriate location.
“The law is clear. Either you include all religious faiths or you do not,” he said. “These nativity scenes are completely appropriate over at the chapel. They are completely ... egregiously unconstitutional where they currently reside.”
Weinstein said the majority of his clients are actually Christians.
“For the record, 11 of our 18 clients are practicing Protestants and Roman Catholics,” he said. The rest are Jewish, Muslim, atheist and agnostic.
Weinstein added, “Our clients have told us that there appears to be a witch hunt going on to find out who the 18 clients are.”
MRFF FEATURED BY
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Guantanamo’s nativity scene decorations spark controversy among troops
Wednesday, December 18, 2013
Selected Article Excerpt:
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An interfaith group of Guantanamo troops wants two Christmas nativity scenes removed from dining halls, saying the decorations show a preference for Christianity over other religions.
The 18 service members sought the help of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation to have the decorations moved from the cafeterias to the Guantanamo base chapel.
The troops were apparently too afraid to speak directly to their higher-ups, fearing retribution because of the base’s “religious climate.”
"They are terrified," said Mikey Weinstein, president of the MRFF. "Right now, there is a witch hunt going on to find out who did this."
MRFF FEATURED BY
CBS WASHINGTON DC
Group Demands
Pentagon To Take Down
‘Unconstitutional Nativity Scenes’
At
Guantanamo Bay
Wednesday, December 18, 2013
Selected Article Excerpt:
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WASHINGTON (CBS DC) — The Military Religious Freedom Foundation is demanding the Pentagon remove Nativity scenes at Guantanamo Bay.
The group received an email from a service member stationed at the base in Cuba, saying that he and others want the Christian Nativity scenes at the Gold Hill Galley and Seaside Galley dining facilities taken down. The service member states he reached out to MRFF because he felt their concerns would be ignored and that they could face possible retribution.
“These dining facilities are frequented by all members of the chain of command and command teams and should have been addressed already by these senior members,” the letter to the MRFF states. “The religious climate was made very clear when we received our initial in-processing brief. One of our senior command team members briefed that their relationship with God was placed higher than even their relationship with their family.”
The letter also said that the military family includes Muslims, Jews, Wiccans, Buddhists, Agnostics and other denominations and that the military institution only promotes Christianity.
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