That's because the radical Muslims want a holy war. By saying they're a religion of peace, Bush isn't letting them have it. They want their holy war! Damn it!! They want their Jahad, but Bush is keeping their base quiet. They want their holy war!!! "Waaaa! Damn that Bush!"
He too is finding it awkward to deal with crackpot religious leaders. America's religious fundamentalists are Bush's core political constituency.
And they're smart enough to know if the President of the US condemned ALL muslims, they'd be bloodshed on every doorstop. He's a politician, not a preacher. That belongs to religious leaders. This author is an idiot liberal. They're not deep thinkers!
But just as I and others have held certain Islamic regimes -- Egypt, Saudi Arabia, etc. -- responsible for the hate speech of religious leaders, so will Bush be held responsible for the rantings of Falwell, Robertson, Graham and others.
Then he will certainly be blessed. "Well done, faithful servant."
You're basically right. But these are the EXACT words that Dubya used:
President Bush: "Islam --- as practiced by most Muslims --- is a peaceful religion."
Cohen: "Back in October the Rev. Jerry Falwell called Muhammad, the founder of Islam, a terrorist. This set off riots in India and may have contributed to the good showing of religious parties in the Pakistani election. About two weeks after he made the remark, Falwell retracted it. ... "Adolf Hitler was bad, but what the Muslims want to do to the Jews is worse," Robertson said recently. [Then] Robertson went on ABC's "This Week" and repeated it all to George Stephanopoulos."
I videotapedd it, so here is the excerpted exchange for those who didn't see it:
ABC This Week - Sunday - 12-1-02 with George Stephanopoulos
At the beginning of the segment with Pat Robertson, Stephie shows a clip of GWB (in answer to a reporter's question), saying:
President Bush: "There have been comments made by some prominent, well-known personalities that do not reflect the position of this Administration, nor the majority of the American people. Islam, as practiced by most Muslims , is a peaceful religion."
[INTERJECTION by M-PI: Please note that Dubya did NOT say that Islam is a "peaceful religion".
Please note that he DID NOT say anything about his personal "beliefs" But he DID SAY what THE POSITION of his Administration, and that of most Americans is.
What he did say is that most Muslims are peaceful in their practice of Islam.
MAJOR, MAJOR important difference!!! Those are wise words. To frame things any other way would be to incite, inflame and escalate terrorist activity, and gain them sympathy from other (so far *peaceful*) Muslims. NOT SMART -- STUPID, in fact.]
Stephie said to Pat Robertson, "It sounds as if you are saying that it [Islam] is evil at it's core."
[INTERJECTION by M-PI: I'm no fan of Robertson by any means, but Stephie was trying to put the word *evil* in Robertson's mouth for a reason.
For the first time, to his credit, Robertson made it a point to praise Dubya for the way he is framing the war (because of geo-political realities).]
Robertson replied, "I didn't say it is evil at its core, I said it is violent at its core. Bush is very smart not to set this up as a holy war, even though his words have caused confusion among many Christians. But they [his words] are politically smart because he's dealing with geo-political realities. His use of the terms is artful, but his base (Christians) know better."
Stephie said, "But his words have caused consternation among many in his base, so what do you think the consequences of that will be?"
Robertson said, "No consequences among his base because we all love him. We know that Bush doesn't want to make this a Muslim/Christian fight. And we know that the terrorists have always tried to make it that."