BUSH HOSTED RAMADAN DINNER AAT WHITE HOUSE (Mired in controversy)

Yahoo ^ | 10/28/2003 | Staff

[JesseHousman]

WASHINGTON (AFP) - George W. Bush hosted a Ramadan dinner with US Islamic leaders, as the White House was besieged with demands to fire an army general whom made comments some say makes the US-led war on terror out to be a war on Islam.

General William Boykin's comments surfaced two weeks ago, in which he likened the US battle against terror to a battle between Christiandom and the Muslim world, placing the Bush administration in an uncomfortable position.

While the Pentagon (news - web sites) has opened its own investigation, it has also said that it does not expect to ask Boykin to resign. He continued to serve as a undersecretary of defense for intelligence, in charge of tracking down Osama bin Laden (news - web sites) among others.

Bush invited Muslim leaders to an Iftar, the evening feast that breaks the dawn-to-dusk fast Muslims observe during the month of Ramadan. He organized the first White House Iftar after bin Laden and al-Qaeda launched the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington.

"America is a land of many faiths and we honor, and welcome and value the Muslim faith," Bush said in opening remarks before the meal.

At a mid-day press conference earlier Tuesday, Bush said that the controversial Boykin "doesn't reflect my point of view or the view of this administration."

"Our war is not against the Muslim faith."

"Americans think terrorists are evil people who have hijacked a great religion," Bush said, responding to a reporter's question.

Such statements, however, did not quell the Boykin controversy.

"The obvious response to the Boykin case is to say that because he is now under-secretary of defense for intelligence, he should be relieved of his post," The Washington Post said in an editorial Tuesday.

Boykin made his questionable speeches while wearing his military uniform before conservative Christian groups whom Bush will woo as part of his 2004 reelection campaign.

"It is highly likely that Bush himself, a genuinely devout Christian by all accounts, agrees with at least some, perhaps much, of what Boykin said," the Post speculated.

The US president had just returned from a tour of Asia, which included a three-hour stopover in Indonesia, which has the world's largest Muslim population. He also met with several leaders of Muslim countries at the Asian-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC (news - web sites)) forum.

"Muslims are completely wrong to think that the US is engaged in a war against Islam," New York Times columnist Paul Krugman said.

"But that misperception flourishes in part because the domestic political strategy of the Bush administration -- no longer able to claim the Iraq (news - web sites) war was a triumph, and with little but red ink to show for its economic plans -- looks more and more like a crusade."

[Luis Gonzalez]

YOUR fan club?

You've been hanging around The Toddler much too often.

Every contact between you and I is initiated by you, not me. Every time you post to me, you do the FR equivalent of holding a lit cigarrete lighter aloft, and pay homage to Darkdrake.

You called MY radio show.

Buddy, the only thing left for you to do is to send me a postcard asking for an autographed picture.

And by the way, I've lost the weight, but you can't grow the teeth back...can you?

[a_Turk]

I get it.. So there's no pope either, since the Catholics and Orthodox split up, not to mention the protestants..

Hell, we learned that "the original four caliphs" stuff in grade school. Doesn't mean that the whole Caliphate tool wasn't used for centuries to control the populations after his Excellency Ali's death. It was finally abolished in 1924 by the Turks who were the last ones to hold it.

[Luis Gonzalez]

"Gotta love me, that is for sure auto club."

I don't think it has anything to do with any autos, maybe he has a friend named Bill W.

[Luis Gonzalez]

The Catholics of the world recognize the Pope as the spiritual leader of the Church, but Muslims have not recognized one Caliph in centuries. Anyone can name himself Caliph, but if not recognized, then he has no power.

My statement stands as I meant it...Islam has not had a unifying Caliph in nearly 1500 years.

It appears that the Turks held something no one recognized as valid. If that were not so, they would have not been able to abolish it without serious challenges within the Islamic world.

[Radioactive]

You said..."Should have had a Ramadan luncheon instead."

i say... Yeah!

How about pork ribs with pork & beans with bacon and ham!

And then we can all play a little football game with the old pig skin.

[AAABEST]

Spoken as a Salon Bolsheviki. Why don't you yourself start decapitating these children, instead of calling for other people to do what you want seen done?

You mean these future mass murderers?

See these larvae eventually turn into these parasites:

Please, just bring me the axe and the chopping block along with their sick-dog parents and let the problem solving begin. After I was done with them you would never see a disgusting display like this in public ever again. Promise.

The reason why you hold the sentiments you do is because of emotion and because you don't understand how these people think.

Yes CJ, they really do hate everyone but themselves. Yes they do want you and your family dead and yes they do want to see the destruction of Israel.

We've at this point tried everything to deal with these half-apes equitably, they've had their chance. Now it's time to start thinking outside of the box.

[a_Turk]

>> The Catholics of the world recognize the Pope as the spiritual leader of the Church, but Muslims have not recognized one Caliph in centuries.

Here we go.. Catholics to Sunni as Christianity to Islam. Look at your sentence. According to it, Christians have not recognized one pope for centuries..

By the time The Turks abolished the Caliphate it had become weak, corrupt, and a joke, there you are right. It was worse than useless, it was dangerous to keep around.

[Luis Gonzalez]

"According to it, Christians have not recognized one pope for centuries."

I never claimed that they did, I specifically wrote Catholics.

You are the one claiming that a Caliphate not recognized by the majority of the Islamic world was the Caliphate that united all Muslims.

[Cultural Jihad]

Well, you will discover that conservatives are really big on American-style justice wherein we judge each and every individual based on their own character apart from which ethnic group they happen to belong to. What you are advocating is tribal justice, wherein if one individual harms another, then everyone in his tribe is guilty and can be punished by anyone in the tribe whose member was harmed.

Furthermore, to claim that a child is a "future murderer" and should therefore be preemptively executed, based upon some faint notion of divination, is really a sin against hope, as well as against justice.

[nmh]

It's not the responsiblity of the government to endorse or FINANCE religion. I extend that to this "faith based" nonsense. Unlike you I am NOT interested in having my tax dollars find muslims or any other religion.

I fund our church and other charities that we approve of. If you don't mind funding muslims who hate Jews and Christians, atleast that is what the Koran calls for, then more power to you.

[rintense]

They don't want Islamic law. That's why they left Pakistan for the freedom of America. Sorry, try again.

[a_Turk]

>> You are the one claiming that a Caliphate not recognized by the majority of the Islamic world was the Caliphate that united all Muslims.

Not my claim. Hell, the pope can't unite all catholics either, they practice birth control and commit abortions.. And as the clergy keeps raping kids his influence diminishes. Similar to the caliphate.

The official title of caliph was held by the Turkish sultans starting with Selim the first, and that practice was ended when the monarchy and the caliphate were abolished in Turkey in 1924. Whether or not and to what extent said calips influenced whom and during what period of time could be a topic of discussions for multiple doctoral papers..

[rintense]

Again, sorry, but the Muslims I know aren't making it a point to kill infidels, or to even remotely condone it, as I'm sure many here would love to believe. They do believe in peace, and are trying very hard to distance themselves from the militants.

[rintense]

I suggest you right yourself as well, triple A. The will to take a life, no matter how many, in the name of any religion is wrong. And I *am* making sense. Because if what you and many others here say is true about all of Islam, this entire country would be at war with every single Muslim living here in the United States. Now, you may believe that day is coming in the US. I don't.

[rintense]

Now you're bringing up something entirely different. I also fund many organizations. And yeah, there are many government programs I hate funding with my tax dollars. All I can do to change that is to make my voice heard through my congressmen, and continue to be a loud voice for change. So what are *YOU* going to do about your displeasure over the faith-based initiative? Continue hating? Well have fun with that.

[Cultural Jihad]

Well said. People flock here from all over the world in order to leave the age-old hatreds and strifes of the Old Country and pursue their right to pursue happiness, and it's not just ethnic, racial, religious, or national. It could be as simple as which village you were born into. We don't have to tell them about freedom. They know what freedoms they enjoy here.

[rintense]

Exactly. They wouldn't have it any other way.

[FreedomCalls]

Unlike you I am NOT interested in having my tax dollars find muslims or any other religion.

Then you might be interested in this:

Your Taxes for PLO Propaganda

[Mortimer Snavely]

Here's an old story that seems to be appropriate here:

================================

How Hot Is It In Hell?

A thermodynamics professor had written a take home exam for his graduate students. It had one question:

"Is Hell exothermic (gives off heat) or endothermic (absorbs heat)? Support your answer with a proof." Most of the students wrote proofs of their beliefs using Boyle's Law (gas cools off when it expands and heats up when it is compressed) or some variant. One student, however, wrote the following:

'First, we need to know how the mass of Hell is changing in time. So, we need to know the rate that souls are moving into Hell and the rate they are leaving. I think that we can safely assume that once a soul gets to Hell, it will not leave. Therefore, no souls are leaving. As for how many souls are entering Hell, let's look at the different religions that exist in the world today. Some of these religions state that if you are not a member of their religion, you will go to Hell. Since there are more than one of these religions and since people do not belong to more than one religion, we can project that all people and all souls go to Hell.

With birth and death rates as they are, we can expect the number of souls in Hell to increase exponentially. Now, we look at the rate of change of the volume in Hell because Boyle's Law states that in order for the temperature and pressure in Hell to stay the same, the volume of Hell has to expand as souls are added. This gives two possibilities:

#1 If Hell is expanding at a slower rate than the rate at which souls enter Hell, then the temperature and pressure in Hell will increase until all Hell breaks loose.

#2 Of course, if Hell is expanding at a rate faster than the increase of souls in Hell, then the temperature and pressure will drop until Hell freezes over.

So which is it? If we accept the postulate given to me by Ms. Therese Banyan during my Freshman year, "That it will be a cold night in Hell before I sleep with you," and take into account the fact that I will NEVER have any sexual relations with her, then #2 cannot be true, and so Hell is exothermic. '"

The student got the only A.

[Happy2BMe]

"I really really hated to see pictures of this PC celebration of Ramalamadingdong in the White House -- it made me sick to my stomach."

Do you believe Bush is burning precious bridges of support within the Christian community for the sake of trying to gain the favor of Islam?