FREEDOM WATCH

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SOLDIER SUES OVER MISTREATMENT AS ATHEIST

JASON LEOPOLD, TRUTH OUT - A military watchdog organization filed a
lawsuit in federal court against the Pentagon, Secretary of Defense
Robert Gates, and a US Army major, on behalf of an Army soldier
stationed in Iraq. The suit charges the Pentagon with widespread
constitutional violations by allegedly trying to force the soldier to
embrace evangelical Christianity and then retaliating against him when
he refused.

The complaint, filed in US District Court in Kansas City, by the
nonprofit Military Religious Freedom Foundation, on behalf of Jeremy
Hall, an Army specialist currently on active duty in Speicher, Iraq,
alleges that Hall's First Amendment rights were violated beginning last
Thanksgiving when, because of his atheist beliefs, he declined to
participate in a Christian prayer ceremony commemorating the holiday.

"Immediately after plaintiff made it known he would decline to join
hands and pray, he was confronted, in the presence of other military
personnel, by the senior ranking ... staff sergeant who asked plaintiff
why he did not want to pray, whereupon plaintiff explained because he is
an atheist," says the lawsuit, a copy of which was provided to Truthout.
"The staff sergeant asked plaintiff what an atheist is and plaintiff
responded it meant that he (plaintiff) did not believe in God. This
response caused the staff sergeant to tell plaintiff that he would have
to sit elsewhere for the Thanksgiving dinner. Nonetheless, plaintiff sat
at the table in silence and finished his meal."

Moreover, the complaint alleges that on August 7, when Hall received
permission by an Army chaplain to organize a meeting of other soldiers
who shared his atheist beliefs, his supervisor, Army Major Paul
Welborne, broke up the gathering and threatened to retaliate against the
soldier by charging him with violating the Uniform Code of Military
Justice. The complaint also alleges that Welborne vowed to block Hall's
reenlistment in the Army if the atheist group continued to meet - a
violation of Hall's First Amendment rights under the Constitution.
Welborne is named as a defendant in the lawsuit.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/091807R.shtml

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