US suspends military course teaching 'Islam is the enemy'

A controversial US military course that taught officers to prepare for a "total war" against Islam using "Hiroshima-style" tactics has been suspended by the Pentagon following an uproar.

The Pentagon suspended the course in late April when a student objected to the materials, which has been termed as against American values by Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen Martin Dempsey.

"It was just totally objectionable, against our values, and it wasn't academically sound. This wasn't about, you know, we're pushing back on liberal thought. This was just objectionable, academically irresponsible," Gen Dempsey said.

"There is an investigation ongoing. The individual instructor is no longer in a teaching status. He is not in a teaching status. And are you asking me am I surprised? Yeah. I'm surprised. And I was actually quite thankful that the young man who did find the course material offensive spoke up," he said in response to a question.

However, the instructor responsible for the course, Army Lt Col Matthew A Dooley, is still employed at the Joint Forces Staff College in Norfolk, Virginia.

According to media reports, Dooley, for about an year, taught an optional course at the college for lieutenant colonels, colonels, commanders and Navy captains which proposed taking a war on Islam.

"We are looking at how that course was approved, what motivated the individual to adopt that -- it was an elective, but what motivated that elective for being part of the curriculum. We are looking across the institutions that provide our professional military education now to make sure there's nothing like that out there," Gen Dempsey added.