Quieted Guns

A gun manufacturer that came under fire from critics for inscribing biblical references onto its rifles has decided to stop putting such references on products used by the military.”Gen. David Petraeus, commander of United States Central Command, said Wednesday — apparently before learning of the company’s announcement — that the references were a ‘big concern’ to the U.S. Army and the U.S. Marine Corps, which have contracts for the scopes. ‘I hope you can sense … this is of serious concern to me and the other commanders in Iraq and Afghanistan because it can indeed create a perception that is absolutely contrary to what it is that we have sought to do,’ he said. He said U.S. troops are much more sensitive “about this kind of thing,” apparently, than is the contractor involved. On its Web site Wednesday, the Muslim Public Affairs Council said the references “feed into the violent extremists’ narrative that the ongoing wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are a ‘crusade against Islam.'”