The Michigan defense contractor we reported on last week will voluntarily stop stamping references to Bible verses on combat rifle sights made for the U.S. military.

The references to Bible passages raised concerns that the citations break a government rule that bars proselytizing by American troops in Afghanistan and Iraq, which are predominantly Muslim countries.

But a new book suggests the proselytizing usually goes the other way around. Beer, Bacon and Bullets: Culture in Coalition Warfare from Gallipoli to Iraq by Gal Luft examines how culture can impact the relations between Western militaries and their non-Western allies. Lots of tension has characterized these working relations. Luft investigates five case studies of military cooperation between dissimilar cultures, including how American generals in Saudi Arabia bent over backwards to curry favor with their hosts in the 1991 war against Iraq.

In fact, the Saudis openly proselytized the U.S. soldiers:

They made no effort to hide their missionary efforts among the thousands of young men and women who were stationed in their land. Efforts to convert U.S. soldiers to Islam were explicit and were even a source of pride among the Saudis.  Saudi lecturers appeared before U.S. troops with the aim of explaining the fundamentals of Islam, the customs and the rituals. With them came missionaries who offered gifts and money to potential converts. 

The Saudi efforts paid off. More than 2,000 American servicemen and women converted to Islam during the 1991 Gulf War.