05 October 2007

Bush Says Islam Is a "Great Religion that Preaches Peace"

President tells Al Arabiya those who murder innocents are not religious

By Stephen Kaufman

USINFO Staff Writer

Washington -- Ahead of hosting an iftar celebration at the White House,
President Bush said the Islamic religion "is a great religion that
preaches peace,oe and that Americans are free oto worship any way they see
fit."

Bush spoke October 4 with Al Arabiya television and answered questions
concerning the War on Terror and the freedom of religion in the United
States.

Muslim extremists have "done a good job of propagandizing" the
idea that Americans do not like the Islamic faith, Bush said, stating his
own belief that the global community, regardless of individual faiths,
"prays to the same God."

The president later hosted an iftar event at the White House, celebrating
the daily breaking of the fast observed by Muslims during the month of
Ramadan.

"I believe that Islam is a great religion that preaches peace,"
Bush said, and Americans are free "to worship any way they see
fit."

"[Y]ou can be free to worship, and it's your choice to make. It's not
the state's choice, and you shouldn't be intimidated after you've made your
choice," Bush said, adding that religious freedom is "a right
that I jealously guard." (See related article.)

The president said he does not believe that those who murder innocent men, 
women and children for political objectives are "religious
people," whether they be suicide bombers in Iraq or self-proclaimed
Christians such as Timothy McVeigh, who killed 168 people in a 1995 bombing
in Oklahoma City.

"[T]hat's not a Christian act to kill innocent people," Bush
said, and those who carried out the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks
against New York and Washington "do not reflect the views of the vast
majority of peaceful people in the Middle East."

The president said "the last thing" he wants to be is a president
during wartime and added the war against terror "is not a struggle
against - the Muslim religion."

"[I]t is a struggle of honorable, peaceful people throughout the world
against the few who want to impose their vision" upon them, he said.

"I think people, if given a chance, will seize freedom," he said.

See transcripts of the president's interview with Al Arabiya and remarks at
the White House iftar.

(USINFO is produced by the Bureau of International Information Programs,
U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)

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Source: " USINFO"
http://usinfo.state.gov/xarchives/display.html?p=washfile-english&y=2007
&m=October&x=20071005143134esnamfuak0.9335138

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