General John Joseph PershingImage source: Wikipedia

When I first started blogging I come across the blog of an American librarian. This chap made it quite clear to the whole world and anyone else who might be listening as to what he thought about Muslim terrorists.

While conversing with him I got the distinct feeling that he could not or would not differentiate between Muslim terrorists and just ordinary Muslims. Anyway as far as I know he closed up his blog and I have never heard of him since but in my conversations with him he brought up a story of American General John J. Pershing in the Philippines.

According to the story the good General had a rather ingenious method of crushing Muslim Filipino terrorists who did not want an American military presence in their land.

I remember asking the librarian for the source of this story but he said he did not have it on him and that being a librarian it would not be too difficult for him to obtain it. To this day I am still waiting for his reply.

Since those early days of blogging life I have oft heard the story of the General and how ordered that dead Muslim terrorists were buried with pig carcasses. This was done so that they would never go to heaven and their by guaranteeing an end to their insurrection.

For the benefit of those who have never heard of the story I shall reproduce an account here:

“…Getting back to Gen. Pershing, as legend has it, he was in the Phillipines and you guessed it, Muslim terrorists were a problem, even back then, in the early 1900′s. He and his troops captured 50 of them, brought pigs out and slaughtered them, soaked bullets in pigs blood while the terrorists were digging a trench, while digging they saw what the Americans were doing.

The pig carcasses were thrown in the trench, and the prisoners were executed with the pig’s blood soaked bullets, and their bodies were thrown in the trench, or mass grave if you will with the pig carcasses, one at a time. The 50th prisoner was set free. After the “Phillipine Incident” there was not one Islamic act of terrorism anywhere in the world for the next 42 years. That’s how s**t get’s done, and done right!” (Source: Lake Minnetonka Liberty)

The legend is an interesting read and for many Islam haters it shows a “no-frills” manner to deal with Muslims. For me the legend might make very good bed-time reading for Islam haters but of greater importance is the viliadity of the legend.

At the urban legends website they have an article debunking the myth:

“I consulted Dr. Frank E. Vandiver, professor of history at Texas A&M University and author of “Black Jack: The Life and Times of John J. Pershing,” to find out if there’s any truth to the above, and he responded via email that in his opinion the story is apocryphal. “I never found any indication that it was true in extensive research on his Moro experiences,” Vandiver responded. “This kind of thing would have run completely against his character.”

Similarly, I been unable to find any evidence corroborating the claim that Muslims believe that “eating or touching a pig, its meat, its blood, etc., is to be instantly barred from paradise and doomed to hell.” It is true that Islamic dietary restrictions, like those of Judaism, forbid the eating or handling of pork because pigs are considered unclean. But according to Raeed Tayeh of the American Muslim Association in North America, the notion that a Muslim would be denied entrance to heaven for touching a pig is “ridiculous.” (Source: About.com)

It seems that as much as some would like to use the Pershing myth to determine American policy towards Muslims as a whole today it may be that General Pershing was never involved in any such incident. No matter how much eulogising is done by the Islam haters of the incident that fact will remain true.

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