On Islam bashing
Islam bashing seems to be popular again. The Religious Right has always felt Righteous Indignation against Islam but Former Senator Rick Santorum has heated up the wires with a speech that basically says that Islam cannot support a democratic society because Mohammed won’t let it.
President Bush used Islam bating to start an unecessary war and ruin 200 years of international relations with the World.
But back in 2002, after Jerry Falwell and Franklin Graham has issued their racist hate speech on Islam and before Bush had fully collected enough misinformation to send us to war, the Rev. C. Welton Gaddy, president, Interfaith Alliance and Baptist Minister,wrote a letter to President Bush to warn him against using Islam bashing as a political tool.
In my letter, he made the president: “First, please divorce yourself from Muslim-bashing rhetoric and assure American devotees of Islam and other members of the interfaith community that you do not condone nor will you tolerate such hate-laced and erroneous speech.”
To be fair, there is videotape that will let Bush off the hook on this one. He tried to say that there are many good Islamic people who aren’t terrorists. But there is a lot more videotape where he was demonizing Arabs. And, of course, we all know that he eventually attacked the wrong country and didn’t give two hoots about what it would mean to unbalance the Middle East.
The Rev. Gaddy continued, “Second, please assure the American people that you are not developing foreign policy on the basis of a fundamentalist biblical theology that requires cataclysm in Israel in order to guarantee the return of Christ and the conversion of Jews. If you do not take the initiative in offering such assurance, a linkage between you and the kind of radical thought related to Islam, Israel, and a particular interpretation of Christian apocalyptic scriptures will continue at the expense of weakening the moral authority of the White House.”
Bush never spoke about this. He actually believes in a very literal reading of the Book of Revelation and so, arming Isreal and pushing for an world-destroying Armegeddon seemed perfectly normal as a way of rushing Christ’s return.After all, Bush saw himself as the Arm of God.
Bush never responded to Gaddy’s letter and there is no reason to believe he ever read it or seriously considered the remarks of this major thought leader.
By God’s grace, we survived the Bush administration, but just barely. It is alarming how a small cabal of crazed fanatics can, in no time, wage war and create fear and hatred in the hearts of millions of otherwise peace loving people - and I ain’t talking about Islams.
