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Muslims bristle at Bush term "Islamic fascists"

By Amanda Beck Thu Aug 10, 6:15 PM ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Muslim groups criticized President Bush on Thursday for calling a foiled plot to blow up airplanes part of a "war with Islamic fascists," saying the term could inflame anti-Muslim tensions.

U.S. officials have said the plot, thwarted by Britain, to blow up several aircraft over the Atlantic bore many of the hallmarks of al Qaeda.

"We believe this is an ill-advised term and we believe that it is counterproductive to associate Islam or Muslims with fascism," said Nihad Awad, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations advocacy group.

"We ought to take advantage of these incidents to make sure that we do not start a religious war against Islam and Muslims," he told a news conference in Washington.

"We urge him (Bush) and we urge other public officials to restrain themselves."

Awad said U.S. officials should take the lead from their British counterparts who steered clear of using what he considered inflammatory terms when they announced the arrest of more than 20 suspects in the reported plot.

Hours after the news broke, Bush said it was "a stark reminder that this nation is at war with Islamic fascists who will use any means to destroy those of us who love freedom, to hurt our nation."

Bush and other administration officials have used variations of the term "Islamo-fascism" on several occasions in the past to describe militant groups including al Qaeda, its allies in Iraq and Hizbollah in Lebanon.

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff told MSNBC television the phrase reflected what he called Osama bin Laden's own vision of leading a totalitarian empire under the guise of religion.

"It might may not be classic fascism as you had with Mussolini or Hitler. But it is a totalitarian, intolerant imperialism that has a vision that is totally at odds with Western society and our rules of law," Chertoff said.

MUSLIM CONCERNS

Many American Muslims, who say they have felt singled out for discrimination since the September 11 attacks, reject the term and say it unfairly links their faith to notions of dictatorship, oppression and racism.

"The problem with the phrase is it attaches the religion of Islam to tyranny and fascism, rather than isolating the threat to a specific group of individuals," said Edina Lekovic, spokeswoman for the Muslim Public Affairs Council in Los Angeles.

She said the terms cast suspicions on all Muslims, even the vast majority who want to live in safety like other Americans.

Bush upset many Muslims after the September 11 attacks by referring to the global war against terrorism early on as a "crusade," a term which for many Muslims connotes a Christian battle against Islam. The White House quickly stopped using the word, expressing regrets if it had caused offense.

Mohamed Elibiary, a Texas-based Muslim activist, said he was upset by the president's latest comments.

"We've got Osama bin Laden hijacking the religion in order to define it one way. ... We feel the president and anyone who's using these kinds of terminologies is hijacking it too from a different side," he said.

"The president's use of the language is going to ratchet up the hate meter, but I think it would have caused much more damage if he had done this after 9/11," Elibiary said, adding that tensions were not running as high as they had been in the immediate aftermath of the 2001 attacks.

Muslims bristle at Bush term "Islamic fascists" (http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060810/us_nm/security_usa_muslims_dc)

Hmm.. what is that old saying... "if it walks like a duck... quacks like a duck..."

Hmm... Several things here.

First, the term isn't specific to the administration. It was in fact invented by conservative commentators.

Secondly, it seems to me CAIR is as bad in terms of political correct goose-stepping as is the ACLU.

Thirdly, I have studied Islam, and the term "Islamo-fascism" fits FAR better than most muslims know or would like to admit. However, I primarily use the term to refer to the specific ideollogy, and not the religion.

 CAIR (Council on American-Islamic Relations) Rally Against Israeli War on Lebanon and Palestine


At 3:30PM, July 28, 2006, about 75 people gathered in COLUMBUS, OHIO to protest Israel and U.S. support for Israel. There were no counterprotesters. One participant said that there was enough blame to go around on both sides, but 99% of the people there placed 100% of the blame on Israel for the current Israeli/Hizballah war. Dr. Al-Akhras, Vice Chair of CAIR-National, spoke to me and spoke several times at the rally, and twice shoved me and grabbed my camera trying to stop my filming. He also told people not to talk to me. I guess he didn't like my questions. I talked with a lot of the protesters and asked some challenging questions (which many didn’t like). You can get a feel for the anger and tone of the rally by watching the videos. By the end of the day I was called an Israeli spy, an Israeli terrorist, and told to go to ****.


Go to the following link to see the videos.

WARNING: Strong language may be encountered.


http://hourglass1941.blogspot.com/2006/07/cair-council-on-american-islamic_30.html

CAIR and the ACLU have teamed up, quite a few times.  Don't be suprised if they have teamed up again.

They have and they will again, after all many of the ACLU lawyers and leaders are muslims.

Ugh... Lovely.

Seems ACLU are preachers of tollerence for all... Except Christians.

Muslim leaders say foreign policy makes UK target

Will Woodward and Stephen Bates
Saturday August 12, 2006
The Guardian

Leading UK Muslims have united to tell Tony Blair that his foreign policy in Iraq and on Israel offers "ammunition to extremists" and puts British lives "at increased risk".

An open letter signed by three of the four Muslim MPs, three of the four peers, and 38 organisations including the Muslim Council of Britain and the Muslim Association of Britain, was greeted with dismay in Downing Street. It has courted the MCB and several of the signatories, such as key Labour MPs Sadiq Khan (Tooting) and ubgone19 Malik (Dewsbury), whom it believes can shape Muslim opinion.

The letter says: "As British Muslims we urge you to do more to fight against all those who target civilians with violence, whenever and wherever that happens. It is our view that current British government policy risks putting civilians at increased risk both in the UK and abroad.

"To combat terror the government has focused extensively on domestic legislation. While some of this will have an impact, the government must not ignore the role of its foreign policy.

"The debacle of Iraq and the failure to do more to secure an immediate end to the attacks on civilians in the Middle East not only increases the risk to ordinary people in that region, it is also ammunition to extremists who threaten us all.

"Attacking civilians is never justified. This message is a global one. We urge the prime minister to redouble his efforts to tackle terror and extremism and change our foreign policy to show the world that we value the lives of civilians wherever they live and whatever their religion. Such a move would make us all safer."

The signatories insisted they condemned those who planned the alleged attacks. Mr Khan told the Guardian that Mr Blair's reluctance to criticise Israel over the Lebanon attacks meant the pool of people from which terrorists found their recruits was increasing.

He said: "We simply cannot ignore the fact that our country's foreign policy is being used by charismatic [figures] to tell British Muslims that their country hates them. Current policy on the Middle East is seen by almost everyone I speak to as unfair and unjust. Such a sense of injustice plays into the hands of extremists."

Mr Malik said British foreign policy encourages the view in the Muslim community "where you forget about right and wrong, where you think two wrongs equals a right ... those events are diminishing my ability to put forward arguments against extremism".

Lord Patel of Blackburn said the US and British governments were applying "double standards" by failing to take on Israel.

Muhammad Abdul Bari, secretary general of the Muslim Council of Britain, said: "We hope the government will do more to ensure its policy doesn't allow people to believe that the lives of some civilians are worth more to it than others."

No 10 is frustrated by the letter, which it did not know about until last night. A spokesman said: "Al-Qaida starting killing innocent civilians in the 90s. It killed Muslim civilians even before 9/11, and the attacks on New York and Washington killed over 3,000 people before Iraq. To imply al-Qaida is driven by an honest disagreement over foreign policy is a mistake."

Two Muslim commentators blamed a lack of community leadership from foreign-born imams and mosque elders for the alienation felt by some younger Muslims. On the BBC's World at One Shiraz Mihir, a former member of the hardline Hizb ut-Tahrir group, said: "The mosques are not able to offer any effective leadership. At a time when there is a polarising debate about Muslim identity and how young British Muslims fit into the wider British society, there is a vacuum which is being filled by radicals and extremists."

Harris Rafique of the newly formed Sufi Muslim Council added: "We are seeing a huge politicisation of faith rather than (economic) circumstances. An ideology is taking hold of our youngsters."

Senior members of other faith communities voiced their practical support for a peace settlement in the Middle East. John Sentamu, the Archbishop of York, announced that he was cancelling his holiday and would embark on a week of prayer and fasting inside York Minster.

Alan McDonald, moderator of the general assembly of the Church of Scotland, called for prayers for peace and donate to charities such as Christian Aid.

Muslim leaders say foreign policy makes UK target (http://www.guardian.co.uk/terrorism/story/0,,1843114,00.html)

My view, as an American.................

In other words, if the government isn't to our muslim liking, we'll terrorize you until you change it. 

Sadly we can change our policies and it still won't change things. 3/11, 7/7 and 9/11 were not the first terror attacks to happen. There were others previously. The 1993 WTC attacks, Kobal towers, American Embassy in Africa, Cole bombing and more (and perhaps some events we didn't realize were terrorists attacks) were all before we went into Iraq. Before Israel began this war.

It's just an excuse. And rest assured if we give in here, there will be other excuses. After that for more terror down the road.

Unfortunately I am afraid our future leaders won't have the same will to fight terror.  :'(

Dreamweaver... To quote your last post:

BINGO!!!