Reference book, or holy book? Is Bush studying the Koran, or kissing it?

Diana West, whose column on Bush’s Koran-in-the-White-House announcement brought the matter to my attention, offers a useful analogy to help us understand its significance. Of course the Koran should be in a White House library for study purposes. But the way Bush put it, announcing it at an Iftaar (end of Ramadan) dinner to Muslim leaders gathered in the White House, accorded it an honor that gives one a sinking feeling—it is as if Franklin Roosevelt had convened the German-American Bund to tell them he was placing in the White House library a copy of Mein Kampf (another book meriting presidential study). More was projected in Bush’s announcement than the acquisition of a new reference book.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at October 26, 2005 05:14 PM | Send