Treat Muslims with Respect, Bush Says

Yahoo! News ^ | 9-17-01

[socal_parrot]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush (news - web sites) said on Monday that American Muslims must be treated with respect after last week's attacks, saying ``the face of terror is not the true faith of Islam.''

``In our anger and emotion, our fellow Americans must treat each other with respect,'' Bush said, standing in his stocking feet in the Islamic Center of Washington, a mosque in the heart of the nation's capital.

The president said he had heard reports that some Muslim American women who veil themselves are afraid to go out, fearing they will be harassed following last Tuesday's attacks on New York's World Trade Center and the Pentagon (news - web sites).

Muslim American groups have reported a surge in anti-Muslim threats, harassment and assaults since the attacks.

``Those who feel like they can intimidate our fellow citizens to take out their anger don't represent the best of America, they represent the worst of humankind and they should be ashamed of that kind of behavior,'' Bush said.

The United States suspects Muslim militants of launching the attacks against the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, which killed several hundred people and have left more than 5,000 people dead or missing.

``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,'' Bush said. ``The face of terror is not the true faith of Islam.''

Respecting Muslim custom, Bush, his White House aides and Secret Service agents removed their shoes before entering the mosque, which sits in a leafy neighborhood of the nation's capital surrounded by embassies.

At one point, the president quoted a translated verse from the Koran, saying: ``In the long run, evil in the extreme will be the end of those who do evil.''

Police in Dallas are investigating whether the weekend slaying of a Pakistani grocer was part of a string of backlash attacks against Muslims and Arab-Americans.

An Indian man running a gas station in Arizona was shot and killed on Saturday, prompting the Indian government to urge the United States to take steps to protect Sikhs, members of a religion based in northern India, in the United States.

[Conservative til I die]

Yowza! You mean I get to deport whole races of people based on the actions of 20 or so evil creeps who, if I am not mistaken, weren't nearly all American citizens.

Veiling racism behind patriotism and national security is so cool!

[Fleck78]

Well done GW. Only our enemies benefit if we make this a religious war.

I'm sure, what few words George does speek are not his own words anyways. Your right turning this into a religious war would only benifit our enemies THE TERRORISTS. Then they would have support by all muslim power. We want to be your friend..... Come live in America, turn over your evil asassin, gain american support. Just give us Bin Laden and all your resorces =)

[Conservative til I die]

Yeah, you tell that "filthy Ay-rab", Cletus! See you in front of the trailer park.

[Conservative til I die]

I'm sure that, on likeitis's list, Jews rank roughly about 1 notch higher than the Arabs and Hindus, which is to say, just below human

[Anonymous2]

god bless all americans. for anyone appeasing, sympathizing with, cheering, supporting, housing, feeding, financing or obstructing justice for murdereing terrorists, may god help you, because this is a 'no-quarter' deal.

[Anonymous2]

agreed. everyone is a potential enemy within american borders right now. thanks to 19+ radical islamics of middle eastern origin. radical muslims are black, white, red, brown and yellow. too many non-radical muslims have not responded very wisely to america's plight. many have. we need all americans to do their part and infiltrate and gather intel with whatever unique associations and relationships that they have.

[redrock]

Maybe we could force all the Muslims in the country to wear...I don't know...maybe....a yellow Star and Crescent on their clothing.

Then...maybe we could round them all up...and put them into "camps".

Of course we would have to de-louse them......anyone know the phone number of I.G.Farben???????(/sarcasm)

Look....GWB is correct.

Period.

redrock

[jmp702]

Re: 26 and 69

LOL. You're on a roll tonight.

[Robert-J]

Sounds to me like you're slandering likeitis. His comments were reasonable and well measured. And he said absolutely nothing derogatory towards Jews. You sound like a liberal disruptor.

[F.J. Mitchell]

We definately need to milk the cows udderly filled with the most relevent moo juice.

[Lizavetta]

[Conservative til I die]

Wrong-o! Likeitis has shown himself to be a knuckle-dragging lout when it comes to Muslims and Hindus. I think its reasonable to expect that he doesn't like Jews either.

[Conservative til I die]

The thinly veiled racism and bigotry shown here makes me absolutely sick. I can't believe these people are in my GOP, which was founded partially on ending institutional racism and on equality for all.

What makes it worse is that they use national security and patriotism as an excuse, basically using the deaths of 6000 people as an opportunity to rip on Arabs. They need to go join some nationalist group or something.

[Anonymous2]

makes sense to me, but then i grew up rural.