Bush Urged to Slam Islam Harder
One of the few unqualified praises I can accord to President Bush in his handling of the current crisis is how he has consistently and sincerely resisted the tempation to characterize the struggle against Islamist terror as a struggle against Islam per se or against Muslims, either at home or abroad. This appears to be motivated by a pragmatic desire not to alientate potential allies in the Islamic world, as well as by Bush's reluctance as a man of nearly fanatical faith himself to criticize the sincere faith of anyone else. While both of these motives may seem a little bit sketchy, their effect has been to discourage outbursts of racist, nationalist ugliness that have characterized America's responses to previous wars against foreign foes. However much the Administration has failed in the practice of tolerance toward Muslims - in terms of arrests and profiling - it has at least tried to maintain a tone of restraint and not created an atmosphere of hatred and hysteria. For that, let's give Bush his props.
Needless to say, any hint of softness in any regard is bound to go down ill with the hard right. In one of the few places where you can see daylight between rightist ideologues and the Administration, it appears that Bush is coming under increasing criticism for his unwillingness to characterize Islam itself as an aggressive ideology and to position the struggle as a "clash of civilizations" between the Judeo-Christian West and the Islamic East.
A piece in today's Seattle Times (originally from the Washington Post) quotes right-wing activist Paul Weyrich as saying: "Islam is at war against us. I have had much good to say about President Bush in recent months. But one thing that concerned me before September 11th and concerns me even more now is his administration's constant promotion of Islam as a religion of peace and tolerance just like Judaism or Christianity. It is neither."
This view is apparently typical of many on the right: fundamentalist Christians who are spoiling for an armageden-like showdown with the Anti-Christ in the Middle East, ideologues looking for a new meta-conflict to replace the Cold War, and sympathizers with Ariel Sharon's brand of Israeli expansionism. One wonders how long Bush's apparently natural tendencies toward interfaith tolerance can hold up against the rising clamor of his most ardent supporters.
3:48:49 PM 
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