KARACHI, April 15: Advertisements placed recently in Indian newspapers by the US army for clerical and semi-skilled positions in their Middle Eastern bases lay down three conditions for applicants — ought to be fluent in English, be less than 35 years in age and be non-Muslims.

This has been criticized editorially in no uncertain terms by the prestigious 100-plus year-old Indian newspaper The Statesman in its issue of March 30, which reached Karachi by post on Tuesday.

The paper says the US army would not have put out such an advertisement back home, or even for its European bases, for fear of being roasted by civil liberties groups. “India, one supposes, is far enough to violate the equal opportunities clause. The issue, however, is why the army of the world’s, by many counts, most effective democracy should be so openly discriminatory,” said the editorial.

“If US bases now cannot recruit Muslims for fear that they may be subversives, what will happen when Americans recruit for a ‘colonial’ administration in Iraq? Or do US authorities think that Muslim recruits are more dangerous when working in conflict-free Kuwait than in war-ravaged Iraq?

The impression that every Iraqi will be falling over backwards towards America after Saddam Hussein is as fanciful as the conflation of Muslim and terrorist identities is unfair.”

The paper concluded by saying that the US army ought to withdraw “the unacceptable advertisement”.