George W. Bush: again with the “religion of peace”
For the 25th anniversary of 9/11, George W. Bush said this:
“This decision, shortly thereafter, was to go to a mosque,” Bush said on Wednesday evening. “I did so because I was deeply concerned about stories of women in coverings being harassed at shopping centers, particularly in Michigan.”
Bush revisited his 9/11 response during a conversation with former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice at “A Legacy of Service: America at the 25th Anniversary of 9/11,” held at his presidential center in Dallas. …
“I want you to talk about a couple of those events. You talked about going to the Islamic Center and trying to make sure that our Muslim American citizens knew that we didn’t blame them for what had happened,” said Rice.
“I also made it clear that Islam was a religion of peace, not a religion of war, and that these people subverted their religion,” Bush added.
That turned out to be a greatly-criticized statement, for obvious reasons. At the beginning, however, it’s understandable he didn’t want vigilante justice wreaked on ordinary Muslim-Americans. But that could have been done by just saying it – that ordinary Muslims were not terrorists and should not be attacked in retaliation. To characterize Islam itself as a “religion of peace” was absurd then and is absurd now.
That’s not to say there aren’t Koran verses supporting peace, but there are Koran verses for almost anything, including many supporting war. Nor is the religious text the only point, although the Koran probably has more advocacy of war than exists in other religions. More importantly, it’s pretty obvious that, at least in the last few decades, people acting in the name of Islam are involved in an enormous amount of the terrorism and war-making in the world, both internal (Muslim on Muslim) and internationally.
Polls are an indicator of how much support violence has in the Muslim world, including in the US. For example, in a 2024 poll (obviously taken post 10/7), 37% of Muslims in the US saw Hamas positively. And in July of 2026 the Hamas approval rate among Muslims in America had risen to 44%.
Those are, quite simply, terrible figures.
A mealy-mouthed dope, Bush was.
The sad truth is that those Muslims who reject the violent aspects of the Koran and Sunnah are the ones subverting the religion. May their numbers increase.
Nothing peaceful about Islam but submit.
It was the stupidest thing he ever said.
What a profound disappointment he has been in many was, but then Algorithm was the first alternative followed by the medal-chucking mediocrity, Mr. Silver Spoon.
To have lived in interesting times ….
Our elites still think that if they just believe hard enough, the world will behave exactly as their ideologies and prejudices require.
That’s how they got Trump. And they’ve learned nothing.
Bush and his father were/are huge disappointments.
The more I learn about “W” the more I despise him.
Thanks for using the old-school, intuitive transliteration of the name of the Muslim holy book, rather than the weird-ass politically correct version with the Q and the apostrophe. The latter makes my brain hurt.
“That’s how they got Trump”
Thank G-d!
Marisa, I bet you still spell the name of that country “Turkey” lol
CC™-R (Bauxite risible) awakes to chuck another nerf harpoon at The Great Orange Whale.
Who is the “we” that lives in CC™-R’s noggin?
I just read an article by Lee Story at TabletMag.com, titled
“9/11 Never Happened: The fantasy-fed denialism of George Bush’s Freedom Agenda has metastasized into a dangerous suppression of our most basic survival instincts in the face of a foe we can no longer name, but who is sure to attack us again”
As Kate stated on a post yesterday & many of us agreed, Bush’s immediate “religion of peace” lie was unwise, and led to many negative consequences.
Lee Story’s article is a full bullseye, with no political correctness, thankfully.
Here:
https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/911-never-happened
Wow, it was too bad that Condoleezza Rice didn’t manage to object to Bush’s “religion of peace” when those 2 discussed what needed to be conveyed.
So many were so short-sighted about priorities and the importance of words!!
…
I actually think speaking at a mosque was a poor choice, too. Pure salt in very raw wounds!!
Obama did such crap all the time. EG:, elevating his CAIR buddies.
Bush … should have done much, much better.
W, sitting in his 4000 acre Texas ranch and protected by the Secret Service as all ex-presidents are, is a profoundly, disturbing man. I wonder what influence his wife has on his uninformed thinking.
The article by Lee Story in Tablet mag concludes with:
” The idea that there are barbarians who live outside the gates has long been part of the Western inheritance. The idea that bringing the barbarians inside the gates might result in the destruction of Western civilization was equally part of that inheritance, even if it was now forbidden to think it.”
It is time to forget tolerance and deal with the enemy “inside the gates”.
Cicero, I agree, 100%.
And many natives in foreign countries wish they had done so.
A recent, obvious one: Spain’s “autonomous” city “Ceuta, where in early August, 2026, approximately 60,000 migrants from Morocco invaded.
Spain’s leaders are traitors to their people, just like Angela Merkel, et al.
I’m not entirely convinced Bush – probably both + Clinton – were not complicit, or at least had some advance knowledge of – the 9/11 attacks.
Maybe not, but …
We’ve (actually our politicians) been digging ourselves into this hole since Daddy Bush took over in ’88. Or sooner as Reagan deteriorated. Trump’s been upsetting the apple cart, like him or not.
When Bush the Younger allowed (encouraged) Saudi nationals (possibly complicit) to leave America very soon after 9/11, the media at the time didn’t make much ado about it IIRC (contemporary memory is foggy because so much has been revealed piecemeal over 25 years).
My understanding is that he was trying to preserve good relations with the King, and therefore the oil producers, because of Papa Bush’s connections.
I could have this all wrong, of course.
A few relevant memes from Sarah Hoyt.
Her essay on 9/11 was worth reading.
https://accordingtohoyt.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/1943052351598452736.jpg
https://accordingtohoyt.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/964c584e0314f26ab7fdc323655e02504bb115d42c817071b23568d20f544811.png
The classic tweet from Norm Macdonald
https://accordingtohoyt.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/muslimnuke.jpg
Perhaps a trifle snarky, but IMO appropriate if you think “somebody did something.”
https://accordingtohoyt.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/1ede6ebe807fb1c1b3264921656c15848f6f91bf707e85b627b5f49edf2113f0.png
— DT
Based on what? There’s no one single thing that suggests such a thing on either one’s part, nor did either one stand to gain anything by 911.
It’s easy to forget the details of 911 after a quarter century, the moreso because both the Left and parts of the Right have lied about it over and over since.
Overall, GWB did a very good job of handling the early stages. He neither lost his head like the morons screaming to ‘bomb Mecca!’ nor did he roll over and ask ‘What did we do to deserve this?’ He refused to listen when businessmen started screaming that he had to reopen the border and let the planes fly again within 24 hours of the event, because their ‘just in time’ inventories were empty.
Likewise, he handled the initial military phases of the matter well in both Afghanistan and Iraq. He walked circles around the news media that was even then trying to spin it all as America’s fault. (Later on he lapsed and let them set the agenda, disastrously. But there again it was because he couldn’t entirely let go of what his father had taught him.)
Where he ran into trouble was the same weakness he shared with his entire social/economic class, a lack of imagination to understand cultures and beliefs outside their frame of reference. He was actually better at this than most of his fellow Republicans and almost all the Dems, but he still wasn’t good enough. The problem, basically, was the stuff his father and family had taught him, esp. on immigration.
That’s why he allowed what should have been a straightforward ‘state building’ exercise to be twisted into a ‘nation building’ exercise. The former is difficult but doable, and we have done it repeatedly over the centuries. The latter doesn’t work unless you’re building something similar to what went before.
— Bauxite
True.
I’ve come to realize that the entire Boomer-age educated cohort that makes up the West’s governing class (and some younger people too who share the same cultural background) simply cannot let go of the underlying sentiment of John Lennon’s Imagine and the old Coca-Cola commercial:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8o96qi5eIdo
They don’t process the world in terms of ‘does this vision make sense?’, they process it in terms of ‘how do we make it happen?’ and ‘what it preventing it from happening?’
Not that they parse it out that way consciously, but their overall behavior suddenly makes sense if analyzed in those terms.
(Along with their pragmatic financial and status interests, of course, but that’s true of all ruling classes.)
HC68: I rank the Bushes right up there with Obama and Clinton. That foursome ruined this country. That … bad words … Biden was Obama III.
As far as “boomers”, check the ages of some of the current senior leadership; they’re of the generation before the boomers. Grassley the oldest was born in 1933; at least 10 born before the end of WWII.
But it’s OK to be jealous of Boomers; we know we lived through the best of times that future generations (not yours) will label a golden age. Our sadness is that things got worse since, not better.
HC68: Amen, brother. You said it well.
— DT
No doubt they all shared a lot of the same harmful cultural beliefs. To make it worse, Bill Clinton was a grifter and Obama actively hates his own country, which is not true of either of the Bushes or (I think) Biden back when he was mentally all there.
But none of that suggests any collaboration or preknowledge of 911. Neither Clinton nor Bush II had anything whatever to gain from the destruction of the twin towers or 3000 deaths. Suggesting that they did without evidence feeds the same nonsense that Tucker Carlson trades in, the same impulses that say that Oswald was a patsy and FDR planned Pearl Harbor.
Granted, Clinton claimed immediately afterward that he ‘knew’ it was bin Laden behind it as soon as it happened, but we can dismiss that as spin.
You can argue that Clinton was guilty of ignoring a growing general Islamist danger, and that would be true, but it would be true not just of him but the entire bipartisan ruling class in the 90s. They were all caught up in their respective Lefty and Righty ‘One World’, ‘post-history’ cultural assumptions.
Never ever EVER forget that Islam supports slavery. PREACH IT!
Ask Muslims if they are down with slavery. If they say no, ask why they contradict the Koran.
Islam is a violent totalitarian political system dressed up like a religion. Religion of peace my ass.
Every time he’s opened his mouth since 2009 he’s revealed himself to be an insipid creature. In his public remarks (conjoined to his public silence) he’s also shivved everyone who ever defended him. The Bushes can do the country a favor and stay out of public life from now to the Millennium.
Such pre-9-11 intel reports as have been made public are in the nature of “Muslims want to do bad stuff to us, possibly including airplanes.” What a POTUS is to do about that except order the intel guys to work extra shifts is not obvious. Nobody, as far as I know, changed an attitude about Islam based what Bush said. Nor, afaik, did it affect policy internationally. Likely wouldn’t have nuked Mecca even if Bush hadn’t said that
Islamophobia is like arachnophobia. Depends on circumstance. In Australia, arachnophobia is indistinguishable from simple prudence. Are we, metaphorically speaking, in Australia?
I liked both Bushes. Having only registered (as Rep) and voted for first time soon after 9/11 (voted in midterm) I never voted for the first Bush; however, I thought he did a good job and actually thought about finally registering to vote.
IMHO, I thought the GOP had cheered Bush 43 out onto the limb and then helped the Dems saw it off behind him. I re-registered as an Independent or Libertarian (I forget which or if both?!?) and learned a little more about those two parties/whatever also. More I learned, it seemed that Indies sorta leaned Left mostly, and the Libertarians seemed more like Dems when they called me or emailed me. Quit it/them and went NPA in Florida.
Before registering in 2001 or 2002 (after 9/11) I had witnessed how the media was portraying that Gore had won. Well, I was on the way home from work (around 4:30+ PM) and news came across the truck radio that Gore had won.
Not ever being much into politics I wondered how Gore had already won when voting was still going on in Florida!? Heck, humble me wondered, they were still voting all across America!? Over the next month I had relatives call me and ask what was going on in Florida. ‘I dunno. I don’t vote.
Bush 43 ended up winning, and then 911 happened — AND the media started asking where Bush was after the attacks!? Like maybe he should be a sitting duck during the attacks and come out in public so EVERYONE knows where he is.
Politics — geez…
followed by the medal-chucking mediocrity, Mr. Silver Spoon.
==
Richard Kerry was a salaried employee of the U.S. State Department. His wife had some wealthy relatives (among them an aunt who financed the education of at least one of his children), but his particular household was not wealthy. What’s interesting about Kerry is his talent for landing women with eight figure sums of money behind them. He’s done that twice.
==
Kerry himself has no Irish ancestry. His father’s family’s Jewish (and was disinclined to discuss that with anyone) and his mother’s is blueblood. The name ‘Kerry’ was concocted by his grandfather and great-uncle before they migrated from the Hapsburg dominions to the United States.
==
Many years ago Michael Kinsley offered that ‘in Washington, a man’s reputation expands – like a gas – to fill whatever office he occupies’. Kerry has certain talents at self-presentation as do other politicians (and that includes a talent for working a room). He was a combat veteran, though features of his service were witlessly exaggerated for public consumption (for which Kerry himself is largely to blame). He was a very ordinary lawyer. His boss at the Suffolk County prosecutor’s office put him to work on administrative tasks, then fired him. He spent six years in private practice (with one partner) taking any kind of case. After his wife gave him the gate, he landed in the sack with his law partner.
==
The best said about the medal-chucker was his silver spoon facade, that his main talent has been finding wealthy, undiscerning women to marry; well, why pile on?
Swift Boats Vietnam War, the other JFK. Genghis Kahn in Congressional testimony, his other day of infamy.
— DT
True but irrelevant.
The cultural zeitgeist at any given time is not set by an individual politician or public figure, though such a person may express it or embody it. It’s set by the Elder generation, the people in the last quarter of life, more or less. Right now that’s the Baby Boomers.
Note too that the people I’m talking about are not even the entire generation, it’s the college-educated cohorts that were the hippies in the 1970s, the yuppies in the 1980s, etc. Now they are the elders and setting the cultural tone in the same way the G.I. Generation did in the 60s and 70s early 80s, and the Silent Gen did in the 90s and 2000s.
These people aren’t even necessarily in cultural step with the rest of their own generation, but they are setting the national and international ‘tone’ right now, that and the opposition to them.
Relevant information about Islam and the Koran: Mo wrote/relayed (as told to him by the angel Gabriel) the K’s verses piecemeal, over a period of 23 years.
The earlier revelations fit his circumstances as a powerless minority and were more conciliatory. The later verses fit his circumstances as a successful warlord and head of state. They contain much material justifying war, booty, treaty-breakers, and relations with other communities.
It’s not a clean split, but it is noteworthy. Also, the harshest criticism of Jews and people of the book occurred later on.
@RigelDog: The earlier revelations fit his circumstances as a powerless minority and were more conciliatory. The later verses fit his circumstances as a successful warlord and head of state. They contain much material justifying war, booty, treaty-breakers, and relations with other communities.
It’s not a clean split, but it is noteworthy. Also, the harshest criticism of Jews and people of the book occurred later on.
_______________________________
Well said and worth underlining.
A classic trick of Muslims and their apologists is to quote the early Peace verses of the Quran while ignoring the later War verses of the Quran.
I find little intellectual integrity from Muslims or their apologists. Islam is about Submission, but more importantly the Power to enforce it.