Bush’s Legacy
Submitted by M A Khan on Sun, 01/25/2009 - 17:52
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PDF versionPresident George Bush leaves office on Tuesday, 20 January 2009, amidst a dismal 34% job-rating. His two terms in office has been a tumultuous period: the September 11, 2001 (9-11) attacks, his waging of global war on terrorism, wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. He leaves behind all his wars inconclusive, indeed, messy; he could not catch Osama bin Laden, the 9-11 mastermind. His waging of these wars also prompted, see critics, the worldwide jump in Islamic extremism and violence. The U.S. economy is left in doldrums, affecting the global economy in similar way. The charges of illegal detention of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay and harsh interrogation tactics and torture of prisoners in violation of international law, plus abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, further taint his presidency.
Most observers will undoubtedly view Bush’s presidency as a dark chapter, a disaster, in U.S. history. Still he leaves office defending his tenure as he told the nation in farewell speech: “I have always acted with the best interests of our country in mind”. He propped up defense of his presidency by touting: “America has gone more than seven years without another terrorist attack on our soil”.
In a country like the U.S.—highly conscious of its defense and security and investing so much resources in it, particularly since the WW II—attacks like the 9-11 by non-state actors like al-Qaeda would not occur easily under any President. So the claim that no further attacks like the 9-11 occurred during Bush’s presidency does not add up.
Bush said he would leave office with a “great sense of accomplishment”; Vice-President Dick Cheney agreed. He has repeatedly touted that history will judge his legacy, which he repeated in his closing press conference, saying: “I don't think you can possibly get the full breadth of an administration till time has passed”.
I subscribe to Huntington’s Civilization Clash thesis. Huntington talks about likely emergence of a multilateral clash between some eight civilizations. As a researcher of Islamic theology and history, I see the clash between Islam and the rest would stand out and overwhelm all others.
Huntington recounted ongoing conflicts of Islam with their neighbors all over the world; he most accurately retorted to the deniers of Islam-West conflict that “The relations between Islam and Christianity, both orthodox and Western, have often have been stormy. Each has been the other's Other.”
“The twentieth century conflict between Liberal Democracy and Marxist-Leninism is only a fleeting and superficial historical phenomenon compared to the continuing and deeply conflictual relations between Islam and Christianity”, he added.
Islam’s conflict with greater humanity is much wider in scope. Historically, Islam’s relationship has been much more conflictual with the pre-Islamic peoples of all creed, color and race—Pagans, Jews and Christians, Zoroastrians, Buddhists, Hindus, and Animists—of Arabia, West Asia, Persia, Africa, Central and Southeast Asia, and India. Many of these civilizations have completely succumbed to Islam: they have vanished; estimated 300 hundred million people perished to the sword of Islam, wielded since its birth in Arabia in the 7th century.
The civilizational clash is thus not new as far as Islam is concerned. Islam was born in Arabia as Islamic God Allah’s master-plan, His politico-military tool, for creating a global Islamic state by making Muslims His “agent and inheritor of the earth” [Quran 6:165] and promising to make Islam victorious over all peoples and places [Quran 8:39]. Since then, Muslims have divided humanity into two houses, nations, civilizations: Dar al-Islam (House of Islam) and Dar al-Harb (House of War). Islam’s mission has been to turn the non-Muslim Dar al-Harb into Dar al-Islam through Jihadi wars to realize Allah’s ultimate goal of creating a global Islamic state. Islam’s history reflects exactly that.
Muslims have achieved stunning success in this mission, but it remains unfinished. The ongoing conflicts of Islam—in Kashmir, Southern Thailand, Mindanao, Balkan, Chechnya, and parts of Africa—are a part of Islam’s continued civilizational clash with the rest of humanity. The Arab Islamic world’s war against Israel, Muslim immigrants’ conflict with the socio-political order of Western societies, the 9-11 attacks and the worldwide violence by numberless Islamist groups are a part of this age-old civilizational clash, too.
Remarkably, this clash has sustained 14 centuries since Islam’s founding at immense cost of innocent humanity. Bush’s legacy, for me, should be judged by whether his administration—in the backdrop of spectacular 9-11 attacks—understood that the attacks was part of this age-old civilizational clash of Islam with the rest of humanity; and whether he took necessary measures to fight it.
His administration probably understood the conflict reasonably well, but failed to undertake decisive measures. This war of Islam against the rest of humanity can only be fought by exposing what the clash is all about. His touting the slogan that ‘Islam is peace’ undermines the fight. His “war on terror” was a necessary component to neutralize the clash, but insufficient to kill it forever. Only by exposing Islam’s design—based on its religious foundations—against the rest of humanity can this age-old menace to humanity be neutralized forever.
Understandably, the world today is held hostage by oil-producing Muslim states; this constraint prevents the taking of necessary actions, namely pointing to where truly lies the root of this global conflict. Working under this constraint, the Bush administration could, undoubtedly, do much less than what is needed to win this battle decisively. Under the circumstances, another President, Al Gore for example, in all likelihood, would have done much less.
This is a war that must be won against immense odd, fighting huge ignorance of the global population. We have noticed the hypocrisy of Europeans: they overwhelmingly supported Barack Obama for his naïve but goody-goody gesture toward Islam, whilst a great majority of them feel uncomfortable with Muslims living amongst them: their attitude toward Islam is hardening, becoming unfavorable.
In a world, not ready to take an oil-shock, creating this awareness, this unfavorable attitude toward Islam, will be crucial—probably the first step—toward defeating Islam’s age-old war against humanity. Bush’s war on terror, wars in Afghanistan and Iraq—although failed to achieve short-term objectives—have undoubtedly played a central role in this vital “awareness creation” about Islam.
An unconditional conflict against wider humanity, waged by few hundred impoverished Arabs under Prophet Muhammad’s leadership, has sustained 14 centuries. And Islam has achieved much: today, Islam 1.4 billion volunteers push Islam’s civilizational clash forward in one capacity or another. It shouldn’t be difficult to understand the kind of vitality and resilience, Islam exudes into this battle.
It is not difficult either to understand the difficultly, the odds, global non-Muslim humanity faces in this battle with such staggering army of volunteers, so much of world’s vital resources on Islam’s side today, whilst its opponents are handicapped by restraints like international law and human rights etc., for which Islamists have nothing but contempt.
For a keen observer of Islamic history, who understands its theological foundations and cares for the immense sufferings it has caused to humanity, attempt at winning this battle decisively is much more noble than Bush administration’s lapses in upholding international laws and human rights of dreaded terrorists, who are hell-bent on, and take gleeful joy in, causing mass-murder of innocent men, women and children, inspired by a demented theological doctrine. Of the reformed, low-risk terrorists released from Guantanamo, 61 of them have returned to Jihadi trail for mass-killing of innocent people. Some measure of harsher tactics may even be essential to tackle these dreaded breed of mass-murderers, who deem dying in the hands of their perceived enemies most desirable, a martyrdom, which lands them in paradise.
It is a battle either side can win from here, but in historical context and present reality, the balance tilts in Islam's favor unless, extraordinary measures are being taken. Given the circumstances, the Bush administration made a reasonable attempt at neutralizing this dreaded enemy. This battle, lasting 14 centuries, cannot be won overnight; it will take decades if not centuries; more real, determined, measures must come. It can be won only by following the trail of Bush administration’s measures and strengthening the resolve further. Bush’s message to his successor—that “with the courage of our people and confidence in our ideals, this great nation will never tire, never falter, and never fail"—is probably the least that will be needed.
Whether Bush’s commendable, but insufficient, attempts at winning this war leads to sustained effective measures will determine the fate of this lasting civilizational clash of global expanse. We have to wait for decades to see the outcome. Bush is correct: only history can judge his legacy.
Harry Truman left office in 1953 with a miserable 32% approval-rating to the relief of most Americans amidst his unpopular war and gloomy economy, so is Bush’s departure. Yet in a decade, Truman became rated amongst nation’s top ten presidents. A movie was made entitled, “Give ’em Hell, Harry!”; Chicago group sang “America needs you, Harry Truman”.
Truman’s was a difficult, extraordinary, time in office; Bush’s was worse. Bush leaves office in similar circumstances, too. Will Bush bounce back like Truman? It all remains to be seen.
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MA Khan is the author of the forthcoming book, <b>Islamic Jihad: A Legacy of Forced Coversion, Imperialism and Slavery</b>. He edits the islam-watch.org Website. (1 vote)
All those lies, distortions,
All those lies, distortions, and false propaganda against Islam and Prophet Muhammad have been refuted by many Islamic sites long ago. Yet a bunch of blindfolded and stubborn sub-humans have been ganged up in this pro-Zionist terrorist site to preach lies, distortions, hatred, and false propaganda against Islam and Muslims. There are almost two billion Muslims in the world now. So, a bunch of sub-humans CANNOT do anything against two billion mentally powerful Humans who believe in One True God!
I am an ex-muslim now, but
I am an ex-muslim now, but during my time spent in Islam i knew many clueless individuals like A-MIM from the post above. Islam has turned many a human being into sub-human Islamist beasts who actually believe that what the world needs is more Islam and that Islam can be spread with violence if need be. This is actually what Mohammeds depraved religion teaches. Islam can brain wash some people with its fear to such an extent that they totally lack the decency and honesty needed to understand that Islam is humanities worst enemy.
It was the day before Ramadan
It was the day before Ramadan in August 2008 and my boyfriend Hamid and I were discussing the differences between our religions, I being raised as Catholic and he being raised as Muslim. After mine and Hamid’s discussion I discovered that there were many similarities and that the Muslim faith had a lot of respect for women. I had not really followed the Catholic religion since I was age 12 as it confused me and seemed to be very unclear on how Jesus was the son of God and I had great doubts about the religion.
Hamid said that he was going to fast in September as it was a sign to Allah that we are grateful to him for all the food we have, and also that we do not take things for granted.
A few days later Hamid was walking past a stall in Manchester which gave out DVD, books and pamphlets about the Muslim religion. He brought several DVD’s home, one entitled “The Similarities between Christianity and Islam.” I sat watching it, and as the minutes went by I realised the greater benefits of Islam and that Christianity is very vague in comparison. The sheikh on the DVD knew a lot, he was very wise, and any questions asked of him by Christians in the audience, he knew the answer to. I carried on watching a few more about women in Islam and the rights and respect women had. Now I have never been one to pay attention to the media but this came as a shock because all you see portrayed in the media is women being beaten by fundamentalists and treated like slaves. After watching this DVD I decided to learn more about it.
There was a website address on the back of one of the booklets Hamid had brought home for me, so I went to the website and discovered they were giving literature for free. I then ordered my most prize possession, The Glorious Quaran. When it arrived I read through the first Sura (chapter) and I realised I wanted to be part of this religion, but obviously I wanted to know more about it before I made my decision.
By this time I had decided I would cover my head with Hijab (a headscarf) as the DVD showed me that is brought more respect to women and dignity. I was also fasting for the whole month of Ramadan as I agreed that we should show we are grateful to Allah for what we are given.
The following Saturday Hamid and I were shopping in Longsight. The same stall that Hamid had been to had moved there, I approached the stall, intrigued by the amount of pamphlets and booklets that were on display. Hamid, along with the Muslim man on the stall helped me choose a DVD and some booklets that would benefit me in my search for knowledge.
The DVD I remember was about a woman who converted, she was a journalist and she had been captured by the Taliban in Afghanistan. Being a journalist she had heard only bad things about Muslim people and was under the impression that she would be hurt, beaten or raped, as the media would lead people to believe, but she soon realised the media couldn’t be more wrong!! She was amazed at how they treated her, she got treated with utmost respect and dignity and they would not look her in the eye. The main thing that shocked me was that they gave her the key to her own cell; she was able to open it or lock it as she pleased. She vowed to a Muslim Imam that if she could be released she would research more into Islam and possibly convert. So upon her release she started reading the Quaran and later on converted.
This made me realise that Muslim people were more respectful of others and were not all fundamentalist or violent. In fact, the DVD also stated the violence is forbidden in Islam.
There were a few more things I wanted to know before I officially converted. For example, why did the bible say that Jesus was the son of God and the Quaran didn’t?…Well as I read further into the Quaran I realised that Jesus was in it also but he is not portrayed as the son of God, he is portrayed as a messenger of God, which made more sense to me that what the bible had said. What the Quaran says about a lot of things in the bible makes more sense that in the bible itself. This was of great relief to me as I saw that the beliefs were all the same, it is the same God, only he is called Allah.
I spent the rest of the time learning for the internet, in the Quaran and through Muslim Chat rooms. I also became friends with a Muslim girl in my college class called Amina, she I now my best friend and has helped me a lot in my search for religion and also in becoming a more devoted Muslim.
Now I decided that, because I was wearing my Hijab as a permanent item of clothing that I had to tell my mother. At first she seemed shocked, weary and anxious as she explained her fears about fundamentalism and that people were targeting Muslims in the streets and attacking them. I knew that this was just media propaganda and calmly explained to her that I am still the same person, I am still her daughter, and I just have different beliefs and ethics. She seemed upset but there is no real way to tell your mother you have changed been considering changing your religion without causing upset. I left her the DVD I had seen about the woman who converted, and I went back home.
I then informed my uncles by text message as they are very open-minded individuals and have very rich full lives. My uncle in Derby said that if I am 100% sure and I am going to stick to it then he is happy as long as I am happy. My other uncle, who is an archaeologist had done work on Islamic architecture and was very inquisitive and asked lots of questions about it.
So now all that was left in close family was my grandparents, although my granddad had already been made aware by my mother. Obviously at his age he wasn’t very open-minded to the idea and had serious fears about it and being the type of person who doesn’t adapt easily to change either made it harder for him to accept.
It was just before Christmas that I told my nana, as she was suffering with back pain I did not want to give her the news until she was feeling better and also as I thought she would take it badly. But she was surprisingly interested in it and her intrigue into it made me smile. She asked a lot of questions and seemed to understand a lot more.
Hamid and I still went to see my family over Christmas and exchanged gifts and we enjoyed it a lot. I was under pressure to drink alcohol but I informed my granddad that it was forbidden in Islam to drink and the rest of the day went fine. I always thought since I became an adult that Christmas is far too commercial and although I would miss the family gatherings I knew that I wouldn’t mind not having Christmas again. Plus I knew that Muslim’s have Eid 2 times a year and they celebrate with family and enjoy nice food and exchange gifts.
I knew by now that all meat we eat has to be Halal, which means that it has to be blessed and killed in a humane way. This makes it more sacred and Muslim people believe it to be bad if you eat non-Halal meat. This however, doesn’t cause problems because there are a lot of Halal butchers in Manchester and one had just opened in Asda near to my house.
In January 2009 I made it one of my new year’s resolutions to be more religious and to have a better life. After researching online I discovered that to convert I have to say 7 words in Arabic and if they are said with conviction and believe then I will become Muslim.
Having read the Quran, watched DVD’s, looked online and spoken to a lot of Muslim people I then decided to convert to Islam.
On 18th January 2009 I took my Shahada (the Muslim testimony of faith) “La ilah illa Allah, Muhammad rasoolu Allah” which translates into “I testify that there is no true god (deity) but God (Allah), and that Muhammad is a Messenger (Prophet) of God.”
I know now, that I will never look back.
turntoislam dot com
Well here r some lovely
Well here r some lovely Quranic thoughts to make u feel good about Islam Qur'an 5:33 "The punishment for those who wage war against Allah and His Prophet and make mischief in the land, is to murder them, crucify them, or cut off a hand and foot on opposite sides...their doom is dreadful. They will not escape the fire, suffering constantly."
Qur'an 8:12 "Your Lord inspired the angels with the message: 'I will terrorize the unbelievers. Therefore smite them on their necks and every joint and incapacitate them. Strike off their heads and cut off each of their fingers and toes." Qur'an 33:36 "It is not fitting for a Muslim man or woman to have any choice in their affairs when a matter has been decided for them by Allah and His Messenger. They have no option. If any one disobeys Allah and His Messenger, he is indeed on a wrong Path."
I Geuss being young and in love has caused u a great deal of blindness
A-MIM why do you choose such
A-MIM why do you choose such a long winded way to tell us you have very little intellect and were easily brainwashed?
"A-MIM why do you choose such
"A-MIM why do you choose such a long winded way to tell us you have very little intellect and were easily brainwashed?"
Well, I want you to be humiliated seeing the fact that intelligent and decent minded people are accepting Islam as The Truth.
A-MIM, never have I heard
A-MIM, never have I heard such nonsensical garbage as this! Uneducated Muslims who are unable to research Islam on account of where they live at least have some small excuse for their ignorance.
But you cannot fall on that excuse, which means you must simply be brainwashed and deluded. It sounds like your bias is based on an emotional response to your boyfriend's faith, rather than logic on your part. Staying with him because of his faith is easier than confronting him about it and offending him, right? Open that glorious Qu'ran of yours and turn to the pages where wife beating is advocated and female mental deficiency is declared. I think you will see that your analysis of your so-called "faith" is quite incorrect. What kind of person are you to be speaking on the subject of Islam and wearing the hijab when you do not even understand the concepts of what you are trying to teach?
So, you think the Stockholm Syndrome exhibited by this woman held by the Taliban proves that Muslims respect women? Then, pray tell, what were these filthy rats doing keeping the woman as a prisoner in the first place? How do you explain the stonings that took place recently in Somalia against a 13 year old girl? Truly, the Muslim mind is a selective thing! A-MIM, please understand that you will NEVER be able to argue logically in favour of Islam and win any rational argument. All you can do is make yourself look like a fool every time you try.
"I then informed my uncles by
"I then informed my uncles by text message as they are very open-minded individuals and have very rich full lives. My uncle in Derby said that if I am 100% sure and I am going to stick to it then he is happy as long as I am happy."
A-MIM if the same thing could have been said about muslims who convert to christianity or any other religion no one would have wasted his time to comment on this website about the evil of Islam. We accuse Islam of killing apostates, of violating basic human rights, of pedophilic behavior of the prophet of Islam cult, and of sowing conflicts wherever it sets foot. You only converted to Islam primarily because you fell in love and secondly because you are too naive to understand what Islam is really is. Btw good luck in your 8ft X 10ft black tent!
Sense will come back to you
Sense will come back to you A-MIM when your boyfriend brings home three more women! Polygamy is permitted in Quran. Or may be, he texts you that he is leaving you (God forbid, I do not wish that to happen). But that is very likely because his most glorious religious allows him that luxury. Besides, a woman is considered a man's property in Islam. visit Saudi Arabia for a change. as a foreigner you may be allowed to travel around, but a saudi woman can't without a chaperon (only a male). she can't have a bank account too i suppose. Even if she does have, she can't walk into a bank. Didn't u read the other day, a Muslim cleric in Australia strongly advised his followers to beat their wives. ``If she is washing dishes and you want to have intercourse, drag her to the bed. She must oblige you. If she refuses, beat her,'' were his words. Wake up naive lady. don't lose your freedom. in whichever religion you are (except of course Islam), you have freedom to follow the ideals or principles and question them using your reason. Besides Islam is no scientific religion as you seem to think. Read Upanishads of Hinduism for instance. It is full of question and answers. Something is not accepted just because some deranged fool dreamt of it. I suggest that you read Swami Vivekananda's works particularly Jnana Yoga. I am not asking you to convert to Hinduism. there is no such thing in hinduism. you will get a better understanding of christianity. Why all this? read your country's history or American history. the march to freedom is an inspirational story. it is this freedom that Islam seeks to destroy. wake up and do something better in your life.
A-MiM wrote: "Well, I want
A-MiM wrote:
"Well, I want you to be humiliated seeing the fact that intelligent and decent minded people are accepting Islam as The Truth."
Calling us stupid for rejecting Islam? That is very elitist of you to insult the intelligence of people who reject Islam.
Also if the person who converted to Islam was really an intelligent being, she would have done her own research into Christianity and Islam, instead of believing what the Imam said about both religions. The reasons this person gives to converting to Islam is purely emotional rather then intellectual, which shows how intelligent this person is.
There are intelligent and decent human beings out there who are leaving Islam.
Also the fact that you have to resort to copying and pasting stories of people who converted to Islam, shows that you do not know how to defend Islam. Because you do not know how to defend Islam shows that you are not a very intelligent person.
Also her lack of knowledge of
Also her lack of knowledge of Christian doctrine showed how very little she knew about Christianity and therefore she was not able to make an informed and well thought of position of both Christianity and Islam.
Also her lack knowledge of
Also her lack knowledge of Christian doctrine showed she was only a Christian in name.
A-MIM, what you will learn if
A-MIM, what you will learn if you research Islam with due diligence is that Mohammed added many wise and respectable traditons (largely borrowed from other sources) into His extreemly cruel and fundamentally untrue totalitarian ideology/religion - He certainly could not have sold Islam to people if it were all poison, so to speak. Are you aware of how Islam really grew and spread? Are you aware of what the Quran and the Hadeeths contain? They contain far more than just the "pretty parts", to say the least.....
For such a serious decision as the one you're making, it seems prudent that a person should become fully informed through honest and objective study. It should be obvious to you that Muslims have a bias and that Islam is a proselytizeing faith. That being the case, it would seem wise to undertake a critical study of these matters, pouring over information from many sources. I am an ex-muslim who regrets His time spent in Islam. I failed to do the above and behaved very foolishly attempting to live and promote this religion. In retrospect i was essentially duped and was being self-dishonest. My story is quite similar to yours. This has been the common experience of many. I am now a non-religious person with spiritual leanings by-the-way. In truth Islam is a terrible irony. A dangerous and false belief system that should be discredited and abandoned. Take care and good luck to you. By the way, all my "friends" turned their back on me when i renounced Islam. Such is the way.
I am disappointed with this website
I just read a letter written by Ali Sina and I was very impressed, He was talking about love for mankind and freedom from religion, etc. but when I got to this website, I saw the contrary, you also preach hate.Rebuking the tyranny of Islam and then endorsing another tyrant (Bush) is hypocrisy.
What caused 9/11 wasn't Islam, though it was used as propaganda because nobody would commit such acts that resulted to the 9/11 attack.
Bush himself used religion as propaganda, rallying all the Christians to support his personal war and for his own personal gains (Haliburton).
Do not think that the the real reason of 9/11 was because Allah told them so in the Qur'an, Bin Laden already stated over and over again that they did this in retaliation of the 1982 Israeli Invasion of Lebanon, where they killed 17,000 people, and the continued oppression of the American-Israeli coalition against the Palestinians.
Look, they took the land of the Palestinians, drove away thousands of Palestinians, then when Lebanon accepted them in their land as refugees because they have nowhere to go, The American-Israeli coalition INVADED AND OCCUPIED Lebanon and killed thousands of Palestinians and Lebanese. What do you expect them to do, just sit down? Israel continue to build settlement in West Bank, driving away and making thousands of Palestinians homeless everyday.
I do not condone what Bin Laden did, but he did not do it because he was Muslim. Though I agree with you that the Islamic doctrine is unjust, I think you need to read your history books first before you take sides on this war. You are just siding with another tyrant.
Hate the doctrine, but good Lord, why are you preaching hate against people?
Bertrand Russel:
The tragedy of the people of Palestine is that their country was "given" by a foreign power to another people for the creation of a new state. The result was that many hundreds of thousands of innocent people were made permanently homeless. With every new conflict their numbers increased. How much longer is the world willing to endure this spectacle of wanton cruelty? It is abundantly clear that the refugees have every right to the homeland from which they were driven, and the denial of this right is at the heart of the continuing conflict. No people anywhere in the world would accept being expelled en masse from their own country; how can anyone require the people of Palestine to accept a punishment which nobody else would tolerate? A permanent just settlement of the refugees in their homeland is an essential ingredient of any genuine settlement in the Middle East. We are frequently told that we must sympathise with Israel because of the suffering of the Jews in Europe at the hands of the Nazis. [...] What Israel is doing today cannot be condoned, and to invoke the horrors of the past to justify those of the present is gross hypocrisy.
—Bertrand Russell, 31 January 1970