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White House rebukes `Satan` general: The Asian Age
Washington, Oct 21: US national security adviser Condoleezza Rice on Sunday effectively rebuked a senior Pentagon officer for comments viewed as demeaning to Islam and Muslims, including a comparison of the war against Islamic militants to a battle with Satan.
Washington, Oct 21: US national security adviser Condoleezza Rice on Sunday effectively rebuked a senior Pentagon officer for comments viewed as demeaning to Islam and Muslims, including a comparison of the war against Islamic militants to a battle with Satan.
"The President’s views on this are absolutely clear," Ms Rice said on ABC-TV. "This is not a war between religions. No one should describe it as such."
She was alluding to comments made by Lt. Gen. William Boykin of the Army, deputy undersecretary of defence for intelligence, who found himself ensnared in the controversy last week after the Los Angeles Times and NBC News reported several comments he had made, while in uniform, to fundamentalist Christian groups. Gen. Boykin had said, among other things, that Muslims worship an "idol," not a "real God," and that America’s enemy in the fight with Islamic extremism was "a guy called Satan." His comments, captured on videotape, have been aired repeatedly on US television. The general, who considers himself a born-again Christian, apologised on Friday to "those who have been offended by my statements." But Ms Rice, in the ABC interview, made plain the displeasure of the White House.
"This is a group of people, a group of killers and murderers, who take a great religion like Islam and pervert its teachings to kill and maim," she said. "Islam is a peaceful religion. The
President is respectful of those who practice the Islamic faith."
Yet she twice sidestepped questions about whether Mr Bush had explicitly condemned Gen. Boykin’s comments, as critics including Senator Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut, a Democratic presidential candidate, have called on the President to do. Fundamentalist Christians are an important source of conservative support for the President’s Republican Party.
Since the terror attacks of September 2001, President George W. Bush has used public comments and meetings with Muslim leaders to convey the message that he does not blame mainstream Islam for such acts, and that the US war on terror is not a war on Muslims.
But American politicians and leaders have become more prone, particularly since the terror attacks, to make religious references in ways that might seem shocking in Europe. Gen. Boykin’s boss, defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld, declined on Thursday to criticise his underling’s comments, pointing instead to the general’s "outstanding" military record. As a special operations officer, Gen. Boykin was involved in the failed attempt to rescue Americans held hostage in Iran in 1979, and in the 1993 incident in Somalia made famous by the book and movie Black Hawk Down. Now highly decorated, he was an early member of the elite Delta Force commando unit. Mr Rumsfeld, asked at a briefing whether it had been appropriate for a high-ranking Pentagon official like Gen. Boykin to make pointed comments on religion, said: "There are a lot of things that are said by people in the military, or civilian life, or in the Congress, or in the executive branch, that are their views, and that’s the way we live. We’re a free people." And Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, said that Gen. Boykin’s comments appeared to fall into a "very wide gray area" of what is permitted and that "at first blush, it doesn’t look like any rules were broken."
Gen. Boykin, a three-star general, now heads an office that focuses on finding high-interest targets in the war on terrorism, including Osama bin Laden, the Al Qaeda leader, and ousted Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. Gen. Boykin, in one speech, said Mr Bush was in the White House despite having receiving fewer popular votes than his Democratic rival Al Gore "because God put him there for a time such as this." He once said that after a 1993 battle in Somalia with Osman Otto, a Muslim warlord, "I knew that my God was bigger than his. I knew that my God was a real god, and his was an idol." In a statement on Friday, the general said he had meant to refer to Otto’s "worship of money and power," not his religion. "I am neither a zealot nor an extremist," Gen. Boykin said, "only a soldier who has an abiding faith."
He added, however, that "my references to Judeo-Christian roots in America and our nation as a Christian nation are historically undeniable." The Pentagon has given no sign that it plans to dismiss or reassign Gen. Boykin.
"The President’s views on this are absolutely clear," Ms Rice said on ABC-TV. "This is not a war between religions. No one should describe it as such."
She was alluding to comments made by Lt. Gen. William Boykin of the Army, deputy undersecretary of defence for intelligence, who found himself ensnared in the controversy last week after the Los Angeles Times and NBC News reported several comments he had made, while in uniform, to fundamentalist Christian groups. Gen. Boykin had said, among other things, that Muslims worship an "idol," not a "real God," and that America’s enemy in the fight with Islamic extremism was "a guy called Satan." His comments, captured on videotape, have been aired repeatedly on US television. The general, who considers himself a born-again Christian, apologised on Friday to "those who have been offended by my statements." But Ms Rice, in the ABC interview, made plain the displeasure of the White House.
"This is a group of people, a group of killers and murderers, who take a great religion like Islam and pervert its teachings to kill and maim," she said. "Islam is a peaceful religion. The
President is respectful of those who practice the Islamic faith."
Yet she twice sidestepped questions about whether Mr Bush had explicitly condemned Gen. Boykin’s comments, as critics including Senator Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut, a Democratic presidential candidate, have called on the President to do. Fundamentalist Christians are an important source of conservative support for the President’s Republican Party.
Since the terror attacks of September 2001, President George W. Bush has used public comments and meetings with Muslim leaders to convey the message that he does not blame mainstream Islam for such acts, and that the US war on terror is not a war on Muslims.
But American politicians and leaders have become more prone, particularly since the terror attacks, to make religious references in ways that might seem shocking in Europe. Gen. Boykin’s boss, defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld, declined on Thursday to criticise his underling’s comments, pointing instead to the general’s "outstanding" military record. As a special operations officer, Gen. Boykin was involved in the failed attempt to rescue Americans held hostage in Iran in 1979, and in the 1993 incident in Somalia made famous by the book and movie Black Hawk Down. Now highly decorated, he was an early member of the elite Delta Force commando unit. Mr Rumsfeld, asked at a briefing whether it had been appropriate for a high-ranking Pentagon official like Gen. Boykin to make pointed comments on religion, said: "There are a lot of things that are said by people in the military, or civilian life, or in the Congress, or in the executive branch, that are their views, and that’s the way we live. We’re a free people." And Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, said that Gen. Boykin’s comments appeared to fall into a "very wide gray area" of what is permitted and that "at first blush, it doesn’t look like any rules were broken."
Gen. Boykin, a three-star general, now heads an office that focuses on finding high-interest targets in the war on terrorism, including Osama bin Laden, the Al Qaeda leader, and ousted Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. Gen. Boykin, in one speech, said Mr Bush was in the White House despite having receiving fewer popular votes than his Democratic rival Al Gore "because God put him there for a time such as this." He once said that after a 1993 battle in Somalia with Osman Otto, a Muslim warlord, "I knew that my God was bigger than his. I knew that my God was a real god, and his was an idol." In a statement on Friday, the general said he had meant to refer to Otto’s "worship of money and power," not his religion. "I am neither a zealot nor an extremist," Gen. Boykin said, "only a soldier who has an abiding faith."
He added, however, that "my references to Judeo-Christian roots in America and our nation as a Christian nation are historically undeniable." The Pentagon has given no sign that it plans to dismiss or reassign Gen. Boykin.