The Boston Globe had an article of how as aid, the US is funding faith-based hospitals in Pakistan and other Muslim nations.
"Christian groups are running health care, education, and disaster relief in many Muslim nations, and USAID has awarded about $53 million from 2001-05 to fund projects by Christians in Pakistan, Indonesia, and Afghanistan alone. Both the aid organizations and the US government hope the projects will sow good will in a region growing increasingly wary of the West."
The obvious question is obliquely addressed: "The problem with faith-based funding, whether domestically or internationally, is that their orientation is often proselytizing. We may be funding them in one area, but they are using other funds for proselytizing," said Representative Henry Waxman (D-CA), senior Democrat on the House Government Reform Committee, which does oversight and investigations. "If it's a Christian hospital in a Christian area, then I think that would be helpful [to the United States] for the public to see us supporting it. But if it's a Christian hospital in a Muslim area and we're not helping the Muslim charities, it's a bit of an insult," Waxman said.
The article never comes out and gives enough facts, but the immediate question is under the faith-based initiative is Christianity the only faith that counts? And if we want to sow good will in Muslim nations and dissuade their belief that the "war on terror" is a "war on Islam", why wouldn't we fund the muslim or secular hospitals in these regions?
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