Ambassadors & diplomats from 53 Muslim nations attended a break-the-fast dinner hosted by George W. Bush.
Imam Abdullah Muhammad Khouj led the group in prayer, with which neither Bush nor John Ashcroft had any apparent problems.
I’ve seen Bush criticized on this board about not respecting or reaching out to other faiths. Well, he’s coming around.
The debate – do such gestures affect Bush’s standing among American Muslims? Among Muslims worldwide?
My take is that it might, but sparsely. Really, only the higher-ups in the governments of Islamic nations would even be aware of this goodwill gesture. Many who do know about it may dismiss it as tokenism.
Still, I for one appreciate the effort. I feel this story has gone woefully under-reported.
IANAMuslim, but let’s see, it’s been 2.5 months since 9/11 and this would be the first public time Bush has done “something” muslim. Please correct me if I’ve missed him doing something else. Everything I’ve seen has called upon a Christian god. If I’m mistaken, please let me know. Otherwise, color me pretty unimpressed on the reaching out thing.
Just a factoid to put under your hats: the Christian God and the Muslim Allah, according to everything I’ve heard and read, are the same. Not on some higher plane where everything is rosy, but literally, technically, per experts in the Muslim faith. Muslims and Christian condiments and side orders differ, but the the entree is the same. In exactly the same way that the Jewish god and the Christian god are the same god.
I’m not commneting one way or another on George’s dinner party, just on this fact.
Yes and no. From what I’ve been reading (Karen Armstrong’s biography of Muhammad and her short book on the history of Islam), Allah was the chief god of the pre-Islamic Arab pantheon, who was identified with the Christian god, himself a deity was promoted from a polytheistic pantheon, by the Prophet.
So, yes, Allah is worshipped by Muslims as the God of the Bible, but as a result of cultural borrowing from Judaism and Christianity, mixed with native polytheism.
It’s primarily a PR gesture IMO, but there’s nothing wrong with that – any positive effort to reach out to Muslems can only be a good thing.
As for Bush pardoning of the Thanksgiving turkey, I’m slightly surprised – the guy didn’t have any qualms about executing mentally retarded folks on death row, after all.
I’ve been thinking that if we really want to win the war for the hearts and minds of the Muslim world Bush should just convert. I’m sure we’d have no problem getting the word out on that one. And would have the advantage of being a total surprise to everyone (including ObL and his cronies). It seems like there should be some historical precedent for this in the waves of invasions of Muslim lands.
I think that’s Bill Clinton and Rickey Ray Rector you are thinking about.
This is not the first time Bush has reached out to Muslims. Didn’t he attend a mosque for a service?
As for the gesture comment, what else can it be by a non muslim? Bush is a Christian and has made no bones about that. For him to attend or host a prayer breakfast with those of other faiths is nothing but a gesture, and there’s nothing wrong with that. It’s showing respect for their faith. I’m not Catholic but when I attend mass, I make sure to kneel and stand/sit when everyone else does. That is a gesture.
Did you miss the meaning of ** december**'s post?? The turkey is a Christian Conservative! Or Christian Conservatives are turkeys (I’m not sure which ;))
I for one am very happy to see this happening. I don’t think it would be happening under just any circumstances, but I also think that is true of his kowtowing to the religious (Christian) right: political circumstances, especially within the Republican party, dictated that, and our current situation gives him more leeway to make gestures such as described in the OP.
It’s a gesture, but it’s a useful and good gesture to make, just like every time he said in a speech following 9/11 that muslims are generally peaceful, that Islam is not an essentially terrorist religion, and that terrorists are political creatures using Islam for their own ends. It doesn’t really change anything, but it highlights what is correct to emphasize, and perhaps makes it harder for those who hate muslims to act publicly.
Now if Dubya observed Ramadan exactly as a muslim would, that would be an extremely meaningful act that would totally turn around my opinion of him.
Since
A) He’s not a muslim
B) the majority of citizens in the country he leads are not muslim
C) the majority of muslims in the situation are the enemy
As a Christian, I would have bowed my head and prayed to God in my own way, probably blocking out what was being said around me. If I am in a place that does something differently than me, I may do something similar, like bow my head; Not out of respect, but because that is what is expected of me.
I don’t claim to know what Bush was thinking at the time of the islamic prayer, but that may be what he did.
You are not a true Christian if you are open to exploring different religions. Bush has to be tolerant, he’s the President of a multi-cultural nation. I do believe so far that Bush is a true Christian.
I do not believe that Christians and muslims believe in the same God.
After Ishmael, the son Abraham, I think that some truths were distorted. There was a lot of resentment. There is intense hatred of the Arabs toward the Jews and it all stems from this time. After such resentment, people tend to alter truths to be different. I believe at one time they may have believed in the one true God.