Does Bush Get It?
Bush Honors Muslims at White House Dinner
AP:WASHINGTON — President Bush marked the end of the daily fast during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan Monday night by honoring Muslims living in the United States and Islamic nations that are helping in the War on Terror.
Bush stated "Ramadan is the holiest time of the Muslim year and an important holiday when Muslims take time for prayer, fasting and personal sacrifice," said the US President. "Ramadan is also an opportunity to gather with friends and family and show thanks for God's blessings through works of charity."
Bush has hosted an iftar dinner annually for the last six years in the State Dining Room. This year, he opened with the traditional Ramadan greeting of "Ramadan Karim" and praised Islam for bringing "hope and comfort to more than a billion people around the world."
Hope and comfort? Charity? Ramadan has continually been one of the deadliest months of the year. Insurgent and sectarian attacks in the Iraqi capital have shot up during Ramadan, the Muslim holy month of fasting and atonement, according to U.S. military statistics released last Thursday.
Since the beginning of the holiday three weeks ago, the number of violent incidents has averaged 36 a day. That compares with about 28 a day since mid-June, when U.S. and Iraqi security forces began a high-profile security crackdown aimed at stemming the violence between Sunni Arabs and Shiite Muslims.
In the last week Baghdad has seen 22 car bombs, with 10 on a single day - last Friday. Not far from Baghdad, at Musayyib, between Hilla and Karbala, nearly 100 Shia Muslims were killed.
In today's news, a series of six bomb attacks in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk has killed at least 10 people and injured dozens of others, police say.
And police found at least 40 corpses in the town of Balad and close to another 30 in Baghdad, in an apparent fresh wave of sectarian killings.
Earlier in Baghdad, two bombs hit the convoy of a senior interior ministry official, killing seven people.
In the last four days sectarian slaughter has killed at least 91 people in Balad, a town near a major U.S. air base an hour's drive north of the capital.
Ramadan isn't limited to sectarian violence. Throughout history, Ramadan has been a month of war between Muslims and nonbelievers. The following is a list of battles fought during Ramadan by Muslims.
* 624 - Battle of Badr. On 17 Ramadan, Muhammad led his forces in Arabia to victory over Makkan idolaters. "The great battle of Badr" or "Conquest of Mecca", was the first battle between believers and infidels.
* 627 - The Battle of the Ditch. Muslims trained for this battle during Ramadan, though it occurred in the following month of Shawal.
* 630 - Battle of Tabouk (also called the Battle of Tabuk). The soldiers of Islam, under the leadership of Muhammad, established a training and fighting camp in Tabouk during the month of fasting, and attacked the Byzantine army.
* 653 - Conquest of Rhodes. Muslims plundered the Colossus of Rhodes, melted it and turned it into arms for the soldiers.
* 710 - Muslims led by Tarek bin Ziyad, invaded Spanish southern frontier cities on the Andalusian coast defeating King Roderick. They stayed for eight hundred years, disseminating Islam. From there, Islam spreads out through Europe.
* 1099 - Battle of Ascalon. Took place on 22 Ramadan (August 12), the newfound crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem defeated Fatimid Egypt.
* 1187 - Battle of Hattin. Took place at dawn -- after the Night of Power (Lailat ul-Qadr); a night during the last ten days of Ramadan when tradition says that the angel Gabriel descended and God called Muhammad to be His messenger. (It is sometimes translated as the Night of Destiny.) Sultan Saladin (Salah Al-Din Al-Ayubi) wiped out the Frankish army and went on to reclaim Jerusalem for Islam. The battle took place on July 4.
* 1260 - Battle of Ain Jalut. Qutuz defeated the Mongols in Palestine.
* 1962 to 1970 - Yemeni Civil War. Fighting continued through nine Ramadans.
* 1973 - Ramadan War (Elsewhere known as the Yom Kippur War). Egypt and Syria launched their attack on Israel it was called Operation Badr, and foot soldiers were given religious slogans. The Yom Kippur War is also known as the 6th of October war of 1973 and the 10th of Ramadan War.
* 1975 to 1990 - Lebanon's civil war. Fighting took place over the course of seventeen Ramadans.
* 1981 - Iran rejected Iraqi offers for a Ramadan cease-fire.
* 1982 - Iran launched an attack on Iraq that they explicitly called "Operation Ramadan."
* 1986 - Christian forces called for a Ramadan cease-fire, which lasted two weeks.
* 1987 - Iran again rejected Iraqi offers for a Ramadan cease-fire.
* 1987 to 1993 - The first Palestinian Intifada was waged over six Ramadans.
* 1990s - There were at least 20 examples of Ramadan violence by Muslims during the Algerian civil war.
* 2000 - Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee stated that India would initiate a unilateral cease-fire in observance of the holy month of Ramadan as a step towards peace in Kashmir. Nonetheless, widespread fighting continued between Indian forces and the guerrillas in Jammu-Kashmir.
* 2000 - Al-Qaida operatives tried to bomb a U.S. destroyer, USS The Sullivans, in the harbor at Aden, Yemen. It was the Night of Power. The suicide boat was overloaded with explosives and sank.
* 2000 - Al-Qaida successfully bombs the USS Cole in the same harbor at Aden.
* 2003 - After the 2003 Iraq war, suicide bombers struck at four locations, including the Red Cross headquarters, killing at least 35 people.
posted by American Crusader @ 9:52 AM
21 comments
21 Comments:
hey AC!..I was just going to post this..but it makes me too sick to look at...what kind of diplomacy is the Pres advocating?..denial?
Denial sounds about right. Self-delusion would also fit.
the picture above says it all. Bush, the DHIMMI, with Khatami, well fed and nourished whilst on tour. But we should never forget:
Regardless, much is known about what transpired during Khatami's reign:
* Iran continued its role as one of the primary state sponsors of jihadist terrorist organizations throughout the world
* Iran sent extensive arms and financial support to Hezbollah, which unleashed the former on Israel in mid-July, and is now using the latter to continue buying support from poor Lebanese
* Iran continued its efforts to develop nuclear weapons, both independently, and in conjunction with other repressive regimes, including North Korea
* Iran supplied arms and advanced IEDs to al Quada and insurgents in Iraq, which were used to kill and injure U.S. and coalition soldiers, as well as Iraqi civilians
* Iran stoked religious and ethnic tensions in Iraq, in an attempt to further destabilize the flowering democracy that the U.S. spent blood and treasure to bring about
* Iran systematically repressed, tortured and murdered internal dissidents and students who questioned or opposed its domestic and foreign policies, and strict Islamic doctrines
All of the above was copied and pasted from this blog:
http://uva-watch.blogspot.com/
Not reading the full story here, IMO perhaps Bush does not want to alarm the Muslims because we are fighting a war against a radical element of Islam, though the Quran itself calls for such atrocities against infidels.
After all this is a free nation and you are granted rights to believe what you will. There is a large population here in America. Most Muslims are living a peaceful co-existance within America.
On the other hand, you have heard Bush's speach on the war on terror, the world over. And he knows what we are up against and has plainly stated.
FTGF!
this is heartwrenching i tell you - i know several people between the ages of 30 - 65 who voted for the VERY FIRST times in their lives for him as did my husband and myself.
he'd better start calling a spade a spade before we forget we're conservatives.
it's sickening to my soul when he equates alamode the pervert with christianity or ANY other religion. peace, my arse!
So much damn violence during Ramadan...it's crazy. And I'm told THIS is the religion of peace?
GW Bush is on the frontline in the War on Terror. I give him full marks.
I can understand your frustration AC, especially when you see a pic like that but I think we can't alienate those Muslims who also want to fight the nutjobs like Bin Laden. We need to recruit more Muslims to infiltrate radical Islamic groups and mosques so that we can nab these guys before they have a chance to carry out their perverted plans of mass murder.
That damn Iran...don't get me started!
Thanks for the comment regarding CAIR on my site. The more I read about these guys, the more sick my stomach gets.
"The greatest source of criticism has involved CAIR's ties to terrorism and terrorist groups. As of 2006, at least four CAIR officials have been charged with terrorism-related offenses. CAIR has also been accused by the FBI of raising money for terrorist groups through fraudulent means. Officials of CAIR have been reported advocating for the establishment of an Islamic theocracy to replace the current United States government, and praising controversial groups such as Hamas.
CAIR has also been accused of doctoring photographs and reporting fraudulent statistics about the Muslim population of the United States in support of its own private agenda. Finally, another source of criticism is that CAIR attempts to suppress criticism of Islamic terrorism and intolerance through accusations of racism and anti-Muslim bias.
Among books donated to libraries in CAIR's "library project" were a version of the Quran that was subsequently found to contain numerous anti-Jewish commentaries and was banned by the LA school system [3]and Paul Findley's 'Silent No More', which included complementary views of convicted terrorist Abdulrahman Alamoudi and alleged neo-Nazi William Baker." (wiki)
In time justice will prevail or on an etheral plain.
I agree with you old soldier!
Bush has to be Diplomatic in nature, as well as Commander In Chief.
Though we might not agree with everthing he says an does.
He deserves respect as President of The United States.
FTGF!
Not much to add to this. I agree with Old Soldier and FTGF, but I also wish that we would hear a lot more from moderate Muslims than we have been hearing. That would make me feel a whole lot better about them.
Frankly, I am disgusted with the pic of Bush and Khatami. I blogged on this today. I can't buy the excuses about Bush any longer. Granted, he's all we have until '08, and right now, if I were to vote on someone for president, I honestly do not see any viable candidates because I don't think any of them have the balls to close CAIR down or put a clamp down on Muslim activities.
Gayle,
Waiting for these so-called "moderate" Muslims reminds me of the day I waited for a bus in San Diego. It never showed up.
Moderate Muslims are merely those that have not yet read their Quran or understand it.
I think old soldier and FTGF both make good points in that most Muslims living in America do so peacefully.
But on the other hand, I've read reports that up to 90%(?)of the mosques here in America are funded by Saudi Arabia and teach radical Islam. See here
and here
There are plenty of other sources denying this, but most are connected in one way or another to Islamic sources.
I worry that to be a "good Muslim" means following the Koran literally and we all know the danger in that.
There are verses in the Koran that I believe constitute "hate speech".
Hard questions to answer.
What the ever-elusive "moderate Muslim" fails to understand is that when "radical" Islam finishes up with the infidel, they're coming for those who aren't Muslim enough...
Bush is making my stomach hurt here lately.
Gayle- my sentiments exactly! And I too await a more forceful approach of the Moderate Muslims against the extremists steve.
And I agree with crusader, you cannot deny the teachings of the Quran. Anyone who is not a Muslim is an enemy of Allah.
To all- I want to respect everyone's opinons here. And this is a great way to express them. Though we may not agree, freedom is worth defending and fighting for. If there is more that we can do, than lets do it!
On a political front, if Democrats have any good alternatives in fighting this war on terror, we should implement them.
Thanks American Crusade for your website and the experiences you bring. I respect your Coastgaurdsman experiences and appreciate your thoughts.
FTGF!
I have added you to my American Patriots blog roll crudsader!
Welcome aboard!
FTGF!
I believe that is a misrepresentation of who you think Bush is. Foremost he is a Christian and secondly he has not acknowledged Muslim supremacy.
He may not want to offend the PEACE LOVING Muslims, but he wants to KILL the Extremists.
This video seems to indicated that GWB is a universalist.
As a Christian, I do not worship the same God as Muslims.
Peace-loving Muslims in the United States need to take definitive steps to show their loyalty to this country. They also need to distance themselves from CAIR and MAS.
Ohh, it was late last night an went to bed zzzzzz...
I read the book, 'The faith Of George Bush' and another book on him, and I did not see any references to Him being a UU. To say he is a universalist is quite a wide range of a belief system that one would refer him to be in.The inference is rather vague at best. Could you be more specific?
Your key word here 'seems'.
'Seems to be', 'in my opinion', 'could be', are not sound etymologically suitable words to describe something that you 'know', as something to be known as true.
The video was not there, and you don't qoute the source of the Youtube video.
My point here is that President Bush for obvious reasons cannot say we are at war with Islam; for one, we are not, and for two; it will incite violence with the Muslim world.
It is plain to see that He knows what we are up against, citing his remarks of the jihadist intent.
I agree with you on the moderates in the Muslim world. Though there has been strides of cooperation in the Arab world as a whole.
George Bush is a Methodist. To shed some light on his beliefs, this is a good interview about his faith.
http://www.beliefnet.com/story/149/story_14930_1.html
FTGF!
AOW said...As a Christian, I do not worship the same God as Muslims.
Neither do I. The Muslim God is dead. Mohammed is the last prophet and the Koran is God's final words.
I prefer to believe in a living God.
FTGF said...My point here is that President Bush for obvious reasons cannot say we are at war with Islam; for one, we are not, and for two; it will incite violence with the Muslim world.
I also believe this is true. But holding hands with Saudi royalty and celebrating Ramadan is going too far.
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