Op/ed: "Calling Them Islamic Fascists Can't Help"

August 26, 2006

Source: ScrippsNews

http://www.scrippsnews.com/node/11721

On August 26, 2006 ScrippsNews published a commentary by Parvez Ahmed, board chairman of the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Washington, "After 9/11, President Bush described our fight against terrorism as a 'crusade' _ a statement he later retracted. In his first press conference after the recently thwarted terrorist plot to blow up planes flying from Britain to the United States, the president said, 'This nation is at war with Islamic fascists.' The phrase 'Islamic fascists' has drawn the ire of the American Muslim community. We use 'Islamic ethics' to mean ethics based on Islamic teachings that guide our behavior. Similarly, Islamic art draws its inspiration from Islamic teachings that discourage certain types of art (immodest imagery or certain life forms). When the president uses 'Islamic fascists,' it conveys that fascism is rooted in or inspired by Islam. This is the way the Muslims see it, regardless of what Bush may claim he really means. Bush earlier said that Islam is a religion of peace. Now, caving in to extreme right-wing pressure, he's equated the religion of peace with the ugliness of fascism. Such rhetoric contributes to fear of and backlash against American Muslims. A recent Gallup poll shows four out of 10 Americans feeling 'prejudiced' against Muslims. Prejudice against Muslims allowed our politicians to whip up a frenzy in rejecting the proposal of a Dubai firm to operate U.S. ports. Conservative columnist David Brooks wrote, 'But it is certain that the xenophobic hysteria will come back to harm the United States. ... (The Mideast) is a region in the midst of traumatic democratic change. The strongest argument the fundamentalists have is that they are engaged in a holy war against the racist West, which imposes one set of harsh rules on Arabs and another set of rules on everybody else. Now comes a group of politicians to prove them gloriously right.'"