A US military course that proposed mass annihilation of Muslims has been suspended, the Pentagon confirmed Friday, DPA reported.
Army Lt. Col Matthew Dooley, who taught the class entitled "Perspectives on Islam and Islamic Radicalism," remains on staff at the Joint Forces Staff College in Norfolk, Virginia.
But he was relieved of teaching duties, a spokesman for the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff told dpa.
On Thursday the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Martin Dempsey, condemned the class as "totally objectionable, against our values and it wasn't academically sound." He has ordered an inquiry into how the course came to be offered at the school.
In his lectures at the college, which is a component of the National Defence University, Dooley proposed "total war" against Muslims as a key to victory over Islamic terror, according to Wired Magazine, which reported on the story Thursday.
The class materials reportedly called Islam a "barbaric ideology" which "will no longer be tolerated," according to the magazine report.
"Islam must change or we will facilitate its self-destruction," the class materials said.
Military officials cancelled the course last month after a student brought it their attention, Wired magazine reported.
The strategies put forward by Dooley included using the "historical precedents of Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Tokyo and Dresden" to justify the destruction of the Islamic holy cities of Medina and Mecca.
Dooley proposed "targeting civilians whenever necessary" and suggested a scenario in which the Muslim religion is reduced to "cult status."
The class materials cited by Wired acknowledged that the proposed severe measures were not likely to be considered "politically correct."
In recent months various scandals involving US troops have erupted in Afghanistan. The various cases involved photos of US soldiers posing with the body parts of a suicide-bomber and of US soldiers urinating on dead Taliban fighters.
In February copies of the Koran were burned at a US base in Afghanistan, provoking lethal protests around the country. In March a US soldier was charged with murdering 17 Afghan civilians.