WASHINGTON, 20 November 2002 — President Bush’s recent show of support of Islam and Muslims has been praised for his rebuff of right-wing evangelical leaders who made a series of offensive, ignorant and racist statements against Islam and Prophet Mohamed.
It now appears the president’s statement came after a series of serious nudgings by the Muslim-American community, who felt Islam was being deliberately slandered.
“Basically we have been seeing this rising tide of anti-Muslim rhetoric in the US — from right-wing commentators and evangelical Christian leaders – and there has been a barrage of anti-Muslim hate speech.
“There was a resounding silence from the president and other elected officials — and we felt that their silence equaled acceptance. On several occasions, we asked the president to speak out on this issue, and he, and Secretary of State Colin Powell, finally did,” said Ibrahim Hooper, national communications director at CAIR, the Washington-based Council on American Islamic Relations.
“I think it was clear that this rhetoric was so damaging to America’s image around the world, that they just had to do something,” said Hooper. He said he didn’t know if the president would continue to speak out in defense of Islam. “We don’t know, but when they start a policy line like this, other officials carry it forward, so hopefully that’s the case, here.”
“It is encouraging that President Bush responded, and that (Secretary of State) Colin Powell also spoke out positively. We welcome it and we appreciate it,” said Rizwan Jaka, president of ADAMS (the All Dulles Area Muslim Society), in Herndon, Virginia.
“It is something that was needed, because people were starting to wonder why the administration had not responded thus far.
“There were definitely a lot of people in the community who were starting to feel quite frustrated and disappointed that these attacks were occurring against Muslims, and nobody in the administration was responding.”
