Prince Charles is coming to the United States this week to argue that Islam is better than we think.
Prince Charles to plead Islam’s cause to Bush (Telegraph)
The Prince of Wales will try to persuade George W Bush and Americans of the merits of Islam this week because he thinks the United States has been too intolerant of the religion since September 11. The Prince, who leaves on Tuesday for an eight-day tour of the US, has voiced private concerns over America’s “confrontational” approach to Muslim countries and its failure to appreciate Islam’s strengths.
The Prince raised his concerns when he met senior Muslims in London in November 2001. The gathering took place just two months after the attacks on New York and Washington. “I find the language and rhetoric coming from America too confrontational,” the Prince said, according to one leader at the meeting.
It is understood that Prince Charles did not – and does not – believe that the actions of 19 hijackers should tarnish the reputation of hundreds of millions of law-abiding Muslims around the world.
[…]
Prince Charles, who is about to embark on his first official foreign tour since his marriage to the Duchess of Cornwall, wants Americans – including Mr Bush – to share his fondness for Islam. He has agreed to attend a seminar on religions at Georgetown University, Washington, on Thursday: the only event where he will not be accompanied by the Duchess.
[…]
Prince Charles has done more than any other member of the Royal Family in history to understand Islam. He said in 1994 that when he became Supreme Governor of the Church of England, he would rather be “defender of faiths” than “defender of the faith”. A year earlier Prince Charles made a speech, acclaimed throughout the Arab world, on relations between Islam and the West. He urged the West to overcome its “unthinkable prejudices” about Islam and its customs and laws. He spoke warmly of the West’s debt to the culture of Islam and distanced moderate Muslims from misguided militants. “Extremism is no more the monopoly of Islam than it is the monopoly of other religions, including Christianity,” he said.
It seems to me that President Bush has gone beyond the bounds of rationality in asserting that Islam had no part in the 9/11 attacks and that, despite millions of Muslims rooting for Osama bin Laden and his ilk, it is a Religion of PeaceTM.
