Text 4894, 177 rader
Skriven 2007-06-27 23:31:00 av Whitehouse Press (1:3634/12.0)
Ärende: Press Release (0706272) for Wed, 2007 Jun 27
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President Bush Rededicates Islamic Center of Washington
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For Immediate Release Office of the Press Secretary June 27, 2007

President Bush Rededicates Islamic Center of Washington The Islamic Center
of Washington, Washington, D.C.

˙ /news/releases/2007/06/20070627-2.wm.v.html ˙˙Presidential Remarks
˙˙Audio

˙˙˙˙˙ Fact Sheet: Strengthening Our Friendship with the Muslim Community
Worldwide 11:08 A.M. EDT

THE PRESIDENT: Imam, thank you very much. Thank you for inviting me. I
bring my personal respect to you, sir. And I appreciate your friendship. I
do want to thank the governors of the Islamic Center. I welcome the
Ambassadors. Thank you all for coming. I appreciate other distinguished
guests who are here. It is an honor to join you at this rededication
ceremony.

As the Imam mentioned, half a century has passed since one of our great
leaders welcomed the Islamic Center into our nation's family of faith.
Dedicating this site, President Dwight D. Eisenhower offered America's hand
in friendship to Muslims around the world. He asked that together we commit
ourselves "to peaceful progress of all men under one God."

Today we gather, with friendship and respect, to reaffirm that pledge --
and to renew our determination to stand together in the pursuit of freedom
and peace. We come to express our appreciation for a faith that has
enriched civilization for centuries. We come in celebration of America's
diversity of faith and our unity as free people. And we hold in our hearts
the ancient wisdom of the great Muslim poet, Rumi: "The lamps are
different, but the light is the same."

Moments like this dedication help clarify who Americans are as a people,
and what we wish for the world. We live in a time when there are questions
about America and her intentions. For those who seek a true understanding
of our country, they need to look no farther than here. This Muslim center
sits quietly down the road from a synagogue, a Lutheran church, a Catholic
parish, a Greek Orthodox chapel, a Buddhist temple -- each with faithful
followers who practice their deeply held beliefs and live side by side in
peace.

This is what freedom offers: societies where people can live and worship as
they choose without intimidation, without suspicion, without a knock on the
door from the secret police. The freedom of religion is the very first
protection offered in America's Bill of Rights. It is a precious freedom.
It is a basic compact under which people of faith agree not to impose their
spiritual vision on others, and in return to practice their own beliefs as
they see fit. This is the promise of our Constitution, and the calling of
our conscience, and a source of our strength.

The freedom to worship is so central to America's character that we tend to
take it personally when that freedom is denied to others. Our country was a
leading voice on behalf of the Jewish refusniks in the Soviet Union.
Americans joined in common cause with Catholics and Protestants who prayed
in secret behind an Iron Curtain. America has stood with Muslims seeking to
freely practice their beliefs in places such as Burma and China.

To underscore America's respect for the Muslim faith here at home, I came
to this Center six days after the 9/11 attacks to denounce incidents of
prejudice against Muslim Americans. (Applause.) Today I am announcing a new
initiative that will improve mutual understanding and cooperation between
America and people in predominately Muslim countries.

I will appoint a special envoy to the Organization of the Islamic
Conference. This is the first time a President has made such an appointment
to the OIC. (Applause.) Our special envoy will listen to and learn from
representatives from Muslim states and will share with them America's views
and values. This is an opportunity for Americans to demonstrate to Muslim
communities our interest in respectful dialogue and continued friendship.

We have seen that friendship reflected in the outpouring of support
Americans have extended to Muslim communities across the globe during times
of war and natural disaster. Americans came to the aid of the victims of
devastating earthquakes in Pakistan and Iran, and responded with urgency
and compassion to the wreckage of the tsunami in Indonesia and Malaysia.
Our country defended Muslims in Bosnia and Kosovo after the breakup of
Yugoslavia. (Applause.) Today we are rallying the world to confront
genocide in Sudan. Americans of all beliefs have undertaken these efforts
out of compassion, conviction, and conscience.

The greatest challenge facing people of conscience is to help the forces of
moderation win the great struggle against extremism that is now playing out
across the broader Middle East. We've seen the expansion of the concept of
religious freedom and individual rights in every region of the world --
except one. In the Middle East, we have seen instead the rise of a group of
extremists who seek to use religion as a path to power and a means of
domination.

These self-appointed vanguard -- this self-appointed vanguard presumes to
speak for Muslims. They do not. They call all Muslims who do not believe in
their harsh and hateful ideology "infidels" and "betrayers" of the true
Muslim faith. This enemy falsely claims that America is at war with Muslims
and the Muslim faith, when in fact it is these radicals who are Islam's
true enemy. (Applause.)

They have staged spectacular attacks on Muslim holy sites to divide Muslims
and make them fight one another. The majority of the victims of their acts
of terror are Muslims. In Afghanistan, they have targeted teachers for
beatings and murder. In Iraq, they killed a young boy, and then
booby-trapped his body so it would explode when his family came to retrieve
him. They put children in the backseat of a car so they could pass a
security checkpoint, and then blew up the car with the children still
inside. These enemies bombed a wedding reception in Amman, Jordan, a
housing complex in Saudi Arabia, a hotel in Jakarta. They claim to
undertake these acts of butchery and mayhem in the name of Allah. Yet this
enemy is not the true face of Islam, this enemy is the face of hatred.

Men and women of conscience have a duty to speak out and condemn this
murderous movement before it finds its path to power. We must help millions
of Muslims as they rescue a proud and historic religion from murderers and
beheaders who seek to soil the name of Islam. And in this effort, moderate
Muslim leaders have the most powerful and influential voice. We admire and
thank those Muslims who have denounced what the Secretary General of the
OIC called "radical fringe elements who pretend that they act in the name
of Islam." We must encourage more Muslim leaders to add their voices, to
speak out against radical extremists who infiltrate mosques, to denounce
organizations that use the veneer of Islamic belief to support and fund
acts of violence, and to reach out to young Muslims -- even in our country
and elsewhere in the free world -- who believe suicide bombing may some day
be justified.

We need to rally the voices of Muslims who can speak most directly to
millions in the Arab world left behind in the global movement toward
prosperity and freedom. For decades the free world abandoned Muslims in the
Middle East to tyrants, and terrorists, and hopelessness. This was done in
the interests of stability and peace, but instead the approach brought
neither. The Middle East became an incubator for terrorism and despair, and
the result was an increase in Muslims' hostility to the West. I have
invested the heart of my presidency in helping Muslims fight terrorism, and
claim their liberty, and find their own unique paths to prosperity and
peace.

The efforts underway in Afghanistan and Iraq are central in this struggle,
but that struggle is not going to end the threats; it's not going to end
there. We believe the ultimate success of Afghans and Iraqis will inspire
others who want to live in freedom, as well. We will work toward a day when
a democratic Palestine lives side by side with Israel in peace. (Applause.)
We have already seen stirrings of a democratic future in other parts of the
Middle East, though it will take time for liberty to flower. A democratic
future is not a plan imposed by Western nations, it is a future that the
people of the region will seize for themselves. A future of freedom is the
dream and the desire of every loving heart.

We know this because of the 8 million people who braved threats and
intimidation to vote in Afghanistan. We know this because of the nearly 12
million people who cast ballots in free elections in Iraq. And we know this
because the world watched as the citizens of Lebanon raised the banner of
the Cedar Revolution, drove out their Syrian occupiers, and chose new
leaders under free elections. Even now the hope for freedom is felt in some
dark corners in the Middle East -- whispering in living rooms, and coffee
houses, and in classrooms. Millions seek a path to the future where they
can say what they think, travel where they wish, and worship as they
choose. They plead in silence for their liberty -- and they hope someone,
somewhere will answer.

So today, in this place of free worship, in the heart of a free nation, we
say to those who yearn for freedom from Damascus to Tehran: You are not
bound forever by your misery. You plead in silence no longer. The free
world hears you. You are not alone. America offers you its hand in
friendship. We work for the day when we can welcome you into the family of
free nations. We pray that you and your children may one day know freedom
in all things, including the freedom to love and to worship the Almighty
God.

May God bless you.

END 11:21 A.M. EDT
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