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George W. Bush: "Islam is Peace"

Discussion in 'BBS Hangout: Debate & Discussion' started by basso, Sep 11, 2012.

  1. basso

    basso Member
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    a useful reminder of an event that should not be forgotten. W, speaking off the cuff, from the heart.

    --
    Six Days After 9/11, Another Anniversary Worth Honoring
    By SAMUEL G. FREEDMAN

    In the coming days, the calendar will bring the anniversaries of two signal events. One, of course, is Sept. 11, a Tuesday this year, as it was in 2001, when Al Qaeda terrorists in four hijacked planes killed more than 3,000 Americans. With public memorial services and private tears, those deaths will be recalled and mourned.

    The other anniversary is of the visit President George W. Bush made to a Washington mosque just six days after the attack, where he spoke eloquently against the harassment of Arabs and Muslims living in the United States and about the need to respect Islam.

    This act of leadership and statesmanship, however, has all but vanished from the national collective memory. It deserves, instead, to be noted and heeded and esteemed.

    In its immediate moment, Mr. Bush’s appearance at the Islamic Center of Washington may have helped to quell vigilante assaults on American Muslims and on those, like Sikhs, who were mistaken for them. At the policy level, the president’s words also served notice that unlike Franklin D. Roosevelt after the attack on Pearl Harbor, he would not intern or in any way collectively punish innocent American citizens who happened to share a religion or ethnicity with foreign foes.

    After hailing American Muslims as “friends” and “taxpaying citizens” in his comments at the mosque, Mr. Bush went on to say: “These acts of violence against innocents violate the fundamental tenets of the Islamic faith. And it’s important for my fellow Americans to understand that.” He quoted from the Koran: “In the long run, evil in the extreme will be the end of those who do evil.” Then he continued in his own words: “The face of terror is not the true faith of Islam. That’s not what Islam is all about. Islam is peace. These terrorists don’t represent peace. They represent evil and war.”

    Eleven years after the fact, Mr. Bush has been treated like a prophet without honor in his own land. He was barely mentioned at the Republican convention last week, and former presidential candidates like Newt Gingrich, Herman Cain and Michele Bachmann have regularly inveighed against Muslims. The only allusions to Mr. Bush at the Democratic convention in Charlotte, N.C., this week were for the war in Iraq and the economic collapse that struck in his final months in office.

    Yet there was always another side to Mr. Bush, present in his self-definition as a “compassionate conservative,” in his deep faith and respect for all religions. He was probably the most colorblind Republican president since Lincoln, appointing Hispanic and black Americans to meaningful cabinet positions — national security adviser, secretary of state, secretary of education, attorney general.

    During Mr. Bush’s campaign for the Republican nomination in 2000, he spoke at a mosque, making him the first candidate in either party to do so. During a debate against his Democratic opponent, Al Gore, he denounced the profiling of Arab-American and Muslim-American airline passengers. Mr. Bush’s appointment schedule on Sept. 11, 2001, until tragedy intervened, included a 3 p.m. meeting with a delegation of American Muslim leaders.

    “His entire concept of human liberty cannot be understood apart from his elemental view of the spiritual nature of all men and women,” said Tim Goeglein, a White House staff member involved in planning the mosque visit and author of “The Man in the Middle,” about the role of religion in the Bush administration. “This is one of the very important narratives of the Bush presidency.”

    As Mr. Bush recounted in his own book “Decision Points,” in the days after Sept. 11, he was disturbed by reports of bias crimes against American Muslims. And he had heard firsthand accounts of the Japanese-American internment from one of its victims — Norman Y. Mineta, a Democrat who served as Mr. Bush’s transportation secretary.

    Out of that combination of historical perspective and visceral decency, Mr. Bush sent instructions to the White House’s Office of Public Liaison to arrange for him to visit a mosque. For the men and women in that office, the stakes were instantly clear.

    “In the aftermath of 9/11, when every move the president made was being watched extremely closely, it was important to demonstrate that American Muslims were not the same people who attacked the U.S.,” said Matt Smith, the liaison office’s associate director at the time. “When you show that these people are Americans, it goes a long way.”

    One of several Muslim members of the White House staff was Suhail Khan, who worked in the liaison office and took a leading role in deciding which mosque the president should visit. The Islamic Center of Washington struck him as nearly ideal. President Dwight D. Eisenhower had laid its cornerstone in 1957, and its congregation included diplomats, business executives and other professionals. Unlike several other Washington mosques, it had been built for Muslim worship, not converted from a previous use. So television and still cameras would be able to capture the image of an American president in a visibly, indelibly Islamic setting.

    Within about 24 hours, the mosque was checked by the Secret Service for security, a briefing memo was prepared for the president and an advance team was dispatched to the Islamic center. Then, on the afternoon of Monday, Sept. 17, Mr. Bush and all the attendant news media went to the mosque.

    Mr. Bush removed his shoes, in accordance with Islamic practice, before entering the mosque’s prayer room. He met for about 45 minutes with leaders of several American Muslim organizations, including Nihad Awad, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. Afterward, standing before a tile wall of characteristically Islamic patterns and near a woman wearing a hijab, Mr. Bush, speaking in a grave and subdued tone, issued his appeal for tolerance and unity.

    “I think in those days, so many people here and around the world watched that clip,” Mr. Awad said recently. “And it should be played over and over to remind people that what made America great is respect for religious freedom and zero tolerance for hate crimes against innocent people.”

    <iframe width="640" height="480" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/uOySu8XlC8s" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

    http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/08/u...sary-worth-honoring.html?_r=3&ref=todayspaper
     
    #1 basso, Sep 11, 2012
    Last edited: Sep 11, 2012
    1 person likes this.
  2. glynch

    glynch Member

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    Islam is peace, but Dubya means war. Saw a couple of hundred Iraqis were killed just the other day due to what Dubya did.

    Why didn't Dubya give a crap about killing so many practioners of Islam?

    A daddy complex?

    Oil?

    Israel?

    General ignorance of the world?

    Traumatic brain injury from substance abuse?

    All of the above?

    Like a lot of Americans I still wonder.
     
  3. rimbaud

    rimbaud Member
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    This article is from the NYT and it is my understanding that the paper is garbage trash lies so I didn't read it.

    This particular speech and the one he gave as a kind of memorial (was it at Washington National Cathedral? I forget) were two of his best in my mind. Seemed personal and sincere. Before the macho talk and all that later nonsense.
     
  4. SunsRocketsfan

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    Obama doesn't have such a great track record also. He's continued the wars in the middle east. Only guy that would have pulled our troops out would be Ron Paul.. but too bad he won't ever get elected
     
  5. mc mark

    mc mark Member

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    Um...Iraq war has been over for more than a year.
     
  6. CometsWin

    CometsWin Breaker Breaker One Nine

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    On Sep 17th Bush went to a mosque and the day before he said this...


    This is a new kind of, a new kind of evil. And the American people are beginning to understand. This crusade, this war on terrorism, is going to take a while. And American people must be patient.
     
  7. JayZ750

    JayZ750 Member

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    W could have been 1,000 different presidents. In different histories with different people around him his presidency turns out differently each time. Which isn't necessarily true of all president's. Or VP's - Cheney is Cheney is Cheney. Clinton is Clinton is Clinton.

    Perhaps that characteristic of W is one that did not make him ideally suited to be the POTUS, though in a time of calm, peace and prosperity perhaps it mgiht have worked out great.

    But that's not how it went down...
     
  8. mc mark

    mc mark Member

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    So um...basso? Why did you post this today instead of the anniversary on the 17th?
     
  9. RocketMan Tex

    RocketMan Tex Member

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    Islam is peace....and Obama got Osama.
     
  10. glynch

    glynch Member

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    Not sure what this means.

    Dubya was somewhat of a blank sheet when he became president besides a sort of rich frat boy conservatism. Maybe if some
    of the more wordly advisors of his dad had been around him he would have not been such a **ckup, but we don't know.
     
  11. FranchiseBlade

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    Too bad the OP himself wasn't able to take in Bush's message in that speech. If only Commodore, basso, and the other usual suspects had, we'd have a different and better bbs today.
     
  12. Mathloom

    Mathloom Shameless Optimist
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    The problem I've found is that the neo-cons believe the ideology is violent, and the people are ok. For example, you will find IzakDavid saying he doesn't hate Muslims, but he hates their ideology all the while preaching love and peace to vulnerable people around the world.

    In reality, the ideology is not materially different than any other religious ideology, but there is a larger minority of those who follow Islam that are easily convinced to resort to violence. This is not unusual since the majority of 1-2 billion Muslims live in worse socio-economic conditions than most people.

    But to link the ideology to the actions of that minority, you have have to somehow show that it is the dominant factor - something which you can't do because differences in socioeconomic factors do change the level of violence according to evidence. For example, American Muslims are significantly different than Afghani Muslims, and hence highly conservative American Muslims are significantly different than highly conservative Afghani Muslims. They have different problems, and when those problems are filtered through their ideological precedents, the obvious result in different guidelines on how to act. The way to deal with discrimination in a land where you are a minority (for example) has different guidelines than dealing with colonial oppression/robbery of the majority of people in the land. Clearly, cross-border travel and immigration makes it such that these extremists are sometimes misplaced - so you will get the Afghani-minded extremists living in Germany, and you may get the German-minded extremist living in Afghanistan but that's a minority of a minority %.

    If these neocons would re-set their focus to the specific problematic segment of people, and do some digging about why they behave differently than the extreme minority of other largely similar ideologies, then they would have a clearly defined problem which can be solved with clearly defined goals.

    However, that would make the problem/solution finite and reduce the scope of problems to which it can apply (e.g. why do ARABS hate us?), and I'm not sure if that's in their interest. It does not mesh well, for example, with the economics they support, revenue aspirations, with the foreign policy on which they heavily rely on, with the resurrection of Jesus, etc.
     
    1 person likes this.
  13. otis thorpe

    otis thorpe Member

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    George Bush wants to convert Jews to bring about the second coming
     
  14. DwightHoward13

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    He's such a horrible, horrible person. A Christian acting like a Christian. :rolleyes:
     
  15. otis thorpe

    otis thorpe Member

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    I know screw how Jewish people feel about this.
     
  16. FranchiseBlade

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    As a Christian, that isn't what I think acting like a Christian is about.
     
  17. rocketsjudoka

    rocketsjudoka Member
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    I take GW Bush at his word that he does believe Islam is peaceful. The Bush family actually has had a lot more exposure to Islam than many in the US through their oil and diplomatic dealings. The problem with GW Bush wasn't that he wasn't earnest in his beliefs but that he had a very shallow view of the world and didn't really understand human nature, geo-politics or how to run a government that well.

    That is why I've always felt that GW Bush isn't a bad guy just one that wasn't equipped for the job of President and had bad advisers.
     
  18. otis thorpe

    otis thorpe Member

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    I bumped this thread because bush wants to bring the rapture by converting jews
     
  19. FranchiseBlade

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    I used to feel this way about GW Bush, that he wasn't a bad guy. Then he changed the amount of certainty needed to bomb "enemy targets" from 90% to only 50%. Making a move that would knowing kill wrong people as much as it killed the right ones removes him from the good guy category.
     
  20. basso

    basso Member
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    W was a wonderfully compassionate president, and an even better human being.

    [rquoter]The Value of Service
    Commentary by Lt. Col. Mark Murphy
    354th Maintenance Group deputy commander

    EIELSON AIR FORCE BASE, Alaska -- I learned a big lesson on service Aug. 4, 2008, when Eielson had the rare honor of hosting President Bush on a refueling stop as he traveled to Asia .

    It was an event Eielson will never forget -- a hangar full of Airmen and Soldiers getting to see the Commander in Chief up close, and perhaps even shaking his hand. An incredible amount of effort goes into presidential travel because of all of the logistics, security, protocol, etc ... so it was remarkable to see Air Force One land at Eielson on time at precisely 4:30 p.m.--however, when he left less than two hours later, the President was 15 minutes behind schedule.

    That's a big slip for something so tightly choreographed, but very few people know why it happened. Here's why.

    On Dec. 10, 2006, our son, Shawn, was a paratrooper deployed on the outskirts of Baghdad . He was supposed to spend the night in camp, but when a fellow soldier became ill Shawn volunteered to take his place on a nighttime patrol--in the convoy's most exposed position as turret gunner in the lead Humvee. He was killed instantly with two other soldiers when an IED ripped through their vehicle.

    I was thinking about that as my family and I sat in the audience listening to the President's speech, looking at the turret on the up-armored Humvee the explosive ordnance disposal flight had put at the edge of the stage as a static display.

    When the speech was over and the President was working the crowd line, I felt a tap on my shoulder and turned to see a White House staff member. She asked me and my wife to come with her, because the President wanted to meet us.

    Stunned, we grabbed our two sons that were with us and followed her back into a conference room. It was a shock to go from a crowded, noisy hangar, past all of those security people, to find ourselves suddenly alone in a quiet room.

    The only thing we could hear was a cell phone vibrating, and noticed that it was coming from the jacket Senator Stevens left on a chair. We didn't answer.

    A short time later, the Secret Service opened the door and President Bush walked in. I thought we might get to shake his hand as he went through. But instead, he walked up to my wife with his arms wide, pulled her in for a hug and a kiss, and said, "I wish I could heal the hole in your heart." He then grabbed me for a hug, as well as each of our sons. Then he turned and said, "Everybody out."

    A few seconds later, the four of us were completely alone behind closed doors with the President of the United States and not a Secret Service agent in sight.

    He said, "Come on, let's sit down and talk." He pulled up a chair at the side of the room, and we sat down next to him. He looked a little tired from his trip, and he noticed that his shoes were scuffed up from leaning over concrete barriers to shake hands and pose for photos. He slumped down the chair, completely relaxed, smiled, and suddenly was no longer the President - he was just a guy with a job, sitting around talking with us like a family member at a barbeque.

    For the next 15 or 20 minutes, he talked with us about our son, Iraq , his family, faith, convictions, and shared his feelings about nearing the end of his presidency. He asked each of our teenaged sons what they wanted to do in life and counseled them to set goals, stick to their convictions, and not worry about being the "cool" guy.

    He said that he'd taken a lot of heat during his tenure and was under a lot of pressure to do what's politically expedient, but was proud to say that he never sold his soul. Sometimes he laughed, and at others he teared up. He said that what he'll miss most after leaving office will be his role as Commander in Chief.

    One of the somber moments was when he thanked us for the opportunity to meet, because he feels a heavy responsibility knowing that our son died because of a decision he made. He was incredibly humble, full of warmth, and completely without pretense. We were seeing the man his family sees.

    We couldn't believe how long he was talking to us, but he seemed to be in no hurry whatsoever. In the end, he thanked us again for the visit and for the opportunity to get off his feet for a few minutes. He then said, "Let's get some pictures." The doors flew open, Secret Service and the White House photographer came in, and suddenly he was the President again. We posed for individual pictures as he gave each of us one of his coins, and then he posed for family pictures. A few more thank yous, a few more hugs, and he was gone.

    The remarkable thing about the whole event was that he didn't have to see us at all. If he wanted to do more, he could've just given a quick handshake and said, "Thanks for your sacrifice." But he didn't - he put everything and everyone in his life on hold to meet privately with the family of a Private First Class who gave his life in the service of his country.

    What an incredible lesson on service. If the President of the United States is willing to drop everything on his plate to visit with a family, surely the rest of us can do it. No one is above serving another person, and no one is so lofty that he or she can't treat others with dignity and respect.

    We often think of service in terms of sacrificing ourselves for someone in a position above us, but how often do we remember that serving someone below us can be much more important? If you're in a leadership capacity, take a good look at how you're treating your people, and remember that your role involves serving the people you rely on every day.

    - See more at: http://www.blackfive.net/main/2008/08/the-reason-to-d.html#sthash.th6yYzZB.dpuf[/rquoter]
     

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