Soccer balls with 'Allah' written on them?

Question

My question is regarding the recent news regarding the recent anger expressed by the people in Kabul over the gifts of soccer balls containing Allah written on them.

Whether the gift of soccer balls was given with the best of intentions or not, the fact that such a big time snafu would be committed, shows that there are still some pretty huge misunderstandings between the two cultures.

I thought that the US had Muslim advisors to prevent such incidents from occurring? Are American troops in need of more Muslim advisors, or is this even a problem that can be avoided in the future by simply increasing the number of Muslim advisors?

Answer 1

At least one of the balls — which were dropped by helicopter to children in Khost province in eastern Afghanistan on Friday — carried a small picture of the Saudi Arabian flag. The flag features in Arabic script the Islamic declaration of faith, which contains the words Allah and the Prophet Muhammad.
It sounds like the Saudis had a hand in this.