CAIR urges Bush not to offend Muslims

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The Council on American-Islamic Relations demanded President George W. Bush to avoid using "loaded and imprecise terminology" when he refers to Islam in his State of the Union address.

In a letter sent to the American President, CAIR Board Chairman Parvez Ahmed urged Bush to be careful to "avoid the use of hot-button terms such as 'Islamo-fascism,' 'militant jihadism,' 'Islamic radicalism,' or 'totalitarian Islamic empire'" in his annual State of the Union address.

Ahmed also reminded the president that the “War on Terror” is not a war on Islam and that the use of "loaded" terminology promotes this negative perception.

"I believe the repeated rhetorical linkage of Islam to terms of violence and extremism is counterproductive and complicates our legitimate foreign policy initiatives," Ahmed told the president in the letter.

"American Muslims stand ready to serve as a bridge of understanding to the Islamic world. We can best fulfill that role by offering advice that can help prevent misperceptions and misunderstandings between different nations and cultures," he added.

Last October, President Bush used all these provocative terms in a speech to the National Endowment for Democracy.

"Some call this evil Islamic radicalism; others, militant Jihadism; still others, Islamo-fascism. Whatever it's called, this ideology is very different from the religion of Islam,” he said, referring to terrorism.

The American President used the term "Islamic radicalism" more than once during the same speech.

Source: CNSNEWS.COM