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A growing controversy has engulfed United States Secretary of War Pete Hegseth over his newly launched military recruitment initiative, the “Send Me Tour,” which draws heavily on Christian biblical scripture to frame military service and attract new young soldiers. The initiative centers its messaging on a iconic verse from the Old Testament’s Book of Isaiah Chapter 6 Verse 8, in which the prophet Isaiah responds to God’s question of “Who shall I send?” with the declaration: “Lord, I am here. Send me.”

Over the weekend, Hegseth brought the tour to Texas A&M University, where he was filmed leading a group of college-age students in a war chant that wove the biblical verse into calls for military service. “For 250 years of this country, there have been men and women who raised their right hand and said, ‘Send me,’” Hegseth shouted to the crowd. “Send me to go fight the Redcoats. Send me to go fight the Communists. Send me to go fight the Islamists.”

The blending of religious rhetoric with military recruitment has drawn sharp condemnation from a wide range of groups, including prominent American Christian leaders, religious freedom advocates, and social media observers. Methodist reverend Benjamin Cremer was among the most vocal critics, arguing that the initiative represents both a clear violation of the First Amendment’s prohibition on government establishment of religion and a blasphemous misappropriation of sacred text. “He is using scripture to frame military service as a kind of Christian religious crusade,” Cremer wrote. He also pointed out the stark double standard at play, noting that if a radical Muslim military leader in another nation used Quranic verses to incite holy war among new recruits, American Christian leaders would issue immediate and severe condemnation. “The hypocrisy is astounding,” Cremer added.

Social media commentators have echoed this criticism, accusing Hegseth of deliberately twisting the original meaning of the Isaiah verse for military ends. One commentator wrote on the platform X that “Pete Hegseth twists Bible quote to justify US wars!” They further explained that the prophet’s original “Send me!” cry was a call to preach repentance and divine judgment to the ancient Israelite people, not an endorsement of large-scale global military conflict.

This incident is far from the first time Hegseth has faced public scrutiny for blending conservative Christianity with US military policy. In April, he drew widespread criticism for reading a fake verse taken from Quentin Tarantino’s 1994 cult film *Pulp Fiction* during one of the regular Christian prayer and worship services he hosts at the Pentagon. He has also previously sparked outrage for framing US military actions, including the ongoing February 2024 war on Iran, as a religious obligation. During one Pentagon prayer service, Hegseth called for “overwhelming violence of action against those who deserve no mercy,” adding: “Let every round find its mark against the enemies of righteousness and our great nation.”

The use of religious rhetoric around the war on Iran extends beyond Hegseth’s public comments. When the US and Israel launched the conflict in February, top US commanders across all military branches told their troops that the war was “anointed by Jesus” and would trigger his second coming as part of the biblical Armageddon. This messaging prompted hundreds of complaints from active-duty military personnel. The Military Religious Freedom Foundation, an organization that defends religious freedom for all service members regardless of faith, confirmed to Middle East Eye that it received more than 200 formal complaints from service members across the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, and Space Force in the wake of those comments.

Hegseth has become one of the most prominent and vocal public advocates for the US war on Iran, and has repeatedly adopted a combative stance when pressed by journalists on issues including ammunition shortages and rising US casualty numbers. He is a member of the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches, a denomination founded in 1998 by evangelical pastor Douglas Wilson, who has a well-documented history of using Islamophobic rhetoric when commenting on Muslim immigration to the United States.

In early June 2020, as India grappled with its first devastating wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, 28-year-old celebrity talent manager Disha Salian made final plans to leave her family home for an upcoming advertising shoot. Excited for the new project, she showed her parents an advance payment cheque she had received, told them she would return in just two days, and walked out the door. That would be the last time Satish and his wife would see their only daughter alive.

Four days later, in the early hours of June 9, Satish Salian was summoned by Mumbai police to a local hospital, where he was informed Disha was dead. Police initially claimed Disha had fallen accidentally from the 12th floor of a Mumbai residential building, with friends at the hospital attributing the fall to alcohol consumption. Months later, local investigators closed the case, officially ruling Disha’s death a suicide. But Satish Salian never accepted that conclusion.

For six years, the father waged a relentless campaign for justice, arguing his daughter was gang-raped and murdered as part of a cover-up to silence her. He has alleged that senior police officials destroyed evidence and fabricated the suicide narrative to protect powerful politicians and connected figures allegedly involved in the crime. His claims gained new traction earlier this month, when the Bombay High Court delivered a bombshell ruling ordering India’s federal investigation agency, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), to open a full reinvestigation into Disha’s death.

In their September 2 order, Justices Sarang V Kotwal and Ranjitsinha Raja Bhonsale issued scathing criticism of the original local police investigation, which unfolded in two phases over six years. The judges noted a litany of procedural failures and inconsistencies: unexplained delays in official documentation, the complete absence of blood at the site where Disha’s body landed, and post-mortem injuries that do not align with a fall from a great height. The court wrote that the flawed original probe “raises more questions than it answers”, adding that “we find this difficult to accept” as a complete, credible investigation. One of the court’s most serious objections was that local police never filed a mandatory First Information Report (FIR) – the required official documentation of a potential crime – and only treated the death as suspicious, not as a potential homicide.

Following the court order, the CBI last week formally registered an FIR based on Satish Salian’s full complaint. The BBC has reviewed both the FIR and the full court order, which lays out the full scope of the father’s allegations.

At the time of her death, Disha worked for Mumbai-based celebrity management firm Kwan Entertainment, and was the official manager of popular Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput. According to the allegations outlined in the court order, Disha uncovered evidence of illegal activity by powerful public figures, and shared that information with Rajput. When that information was inadvertently leaked back to the figures involved, Disha was killed to prevent her from speaking publicly. Less than a week after Disha’s death, Rajput was found dead in his Mumbai home. Local police also ruled Rajput’s death a suicide, citing pre-existing mental health conditions – a claim the actor’s family has repeatedly denied. After widespread public outrage, Rajput’s case was also transferred to the CBI, which closed the investigation last year, confirming the original suicide ruling and clearing Rajput’s then-girlfriend actress Rhea Chakraborty and her family of any involvement.

In his new FIR, Satish Salian directly links the two high-profile deaths, alleging Disha had shared evidence of “incriminating and objectionable information concerning alleged drug trafficking, child abuse and other unlawful activities” involving a former Maharashtra state minister and other connected figures. Salian claims Disha and Rajput planned to hold a public press conference to expose the wrongdoing, prompting a coordinated criminal conspiracy to silence both. “In order to prevent that and protect the persons involved, a well-orchestrated criminal conspiracy was hatched. The victim was gang raped and murdered, and thereafter evidence was suppressed/fabricated and a false story of suicide was created to cover up the crimes and shield the accused,” the FIR states.

The Bombay High Court stressed in its order that the filing of the new FIR “does not imply any finding of guilt against anyone”, and that no individual will be treated as a suspect unless investigators find sufficient reasonable suspicion. Even so, the case has sent shockwaves across Indian politics and entertainment: the FIR names several senior Maharashtra state politicians, high-ranking police officers, and prominent Bollywood figures. The development has dominated national headlines, with allegations of political power abuse, widespread denials from named individuals, and counter-accusations of political vendetta.

For Satish Salian, the court order has brought a small measure of peace after six years of campaigning. Speaking to the BBC, he described Disha as a bright, kind, well-read young woman who was the center of his and his wife’s life. “She was very bright, she did well in her studies and read a lot. She had a heart of gold and was very helpful. She was our only child and she loved us very much,” he said. His wife has never recovered from the loss, he added, and has battled deep depression since Disha’s death. For the father, justice is clear: “I want the death penalty for those who hurt my daughter. Those who inflicted pain on her must die a painful death too. That is what justice for Disha would look like to me.”