Bush, Spreader of Islam

While the U.S. program to spread Islamic rule has become explicit U.S. policy over the past months, a policy supported by the Republican party, let us remember that the program did not begin during the Obama years.

I just came upon in my files an AP story from January 8, 2008 which reported:

President Bush gave Turkey’s bid to join the European Union a glowing endorsement on Tuesday and called the Islamic nation a “constructive bridge” between the West and the Muslim world, offering a much-needed boost to U.S.-Turkish relations. “I think Turkey sets a fantastic example for nations around the world to see where it’s possible to have a democracy coexist with a great religion like Islam and that’s important,” he said.

If the EU had done what Bush wanted, 70 million Muslim Turks would have been instantly enabled to settle anywhere in Europe.

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LA writes:

A reader sent this statement of Bush’s from an interview in July 2007:

There is such thing as the universality of freedom. I mean, I strongly believe that Muslims desire to be free just like Methodists desire to be free.

But of course Islam is not belief in freedom. Islam is, first, belief in submission to Allah and to the Islamic law, and, second, belief in forcing all humanity to submit to Allah and the Islamic law.

Therefore, if Bush’s statement that “Muslims desire to be free” (as strongly as Protestants do) has any meaning in the real world, it means that Muslims desire to overthrow Islam.

But of course most Muslims do not wish to overthrow Islam. They wish to strengthen and spread Islam, as Islam commands.

For eight years we had a president whose signature policy was based on rank ignorance and delusion. And for eight years, whenever this policy wasn’t receiving the passionate support of mainstream conservatives, the strongest criticism he ever received from them was polite little impotent disagreements. Never did a mainstream conservative seriously challenge Bush’s policy or declare forthrightly that it was based on a delusion and was utterly wrong.

Wanda W., who sent the Bush comment, writes:

Bush said in the same interview:

The other debate is whether or not it is a hopeless venture to encourage the spread of liberty. Most of you all around this table are much better historians than I am. And people have said, you know, this is Wilsonian, it’s hopelessly idealistic. One, it is idealistic, to this extent: It’s idealistic to believe people long to be free. And nothing will change my belief. I come at it many different ways. Really not primarily from a political science perspective, frankly; it’s more of a theological perspective. I do believe there is an Almighty, and I believe a gift of that Almighty to all is freedom. And I will tell you that is a principle that no one can convince me that doesn’t exist.

That told me that Bush was beyond reach. This was his faith, his religion—that we’re really all the same underneath. And nothing would change his mind. He’ll go to his grave proclaiming this gospel, because he has to. To renounce it would be like renouncing Christianity—actually, I think it would be the same as renouncing Christianity, because I think his faith in the uniformity of human desires in this world has been seamlessly woven into his belief in Jesus.

I wrote at the time:

I supported (and defended) Bush for a long time after 9/11, because he seemed, by his actions, to understand what was at stake, and have the nerve to face it. The “religion of peace” stuff I put down as typically good-hearted American fairness; of course you distinguish the innocent from the guilty, and don’t start egging on people to scapegoat and and launch pogroms. Besides, my knowledge of Islam was pretty hazy; I’ve seen the Taj Mahal, I know Islam did produce great art and culture once upon a time. Sure, that was almost 400 years ago, but still, I figured Islam must still have some credit in the bank. Six years have taught me a lot.

We’re almost twice that many years on, and they don’t seem to have taught George W. Bush a thing.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at August 22, 2012 12:38 PM | Send