No Welcome Mat
Soon after the 9/11 attacks, President George W. Bush went to a local Islamic Center. As he would do repeatedly in the weeks and months to follow, the Republican commander-in-chief took pains to let the world know that a grieving and angry America would not take out its furor on the Muslim faith and those who follow its peaceful tenets.
“The face of terror is not the true faith of Islam. That’s not what Islam is all about. Islam is peace. These terrorists don’t represent peace. They represent evil and war,” Bush said less than a week after the al-Qaida attacks killed 2,977 on American soil. His FBI director, Robert Mueller, pledged to investigate and prosecute hate crimes against U.S. Muslims targeted after the tragedy. “Vigilante attacks and threats against Arab-Americans will not be tolerated,” Mueller said. Meanwhile, the Council on American Islamic Relations stepped into the spotlight, immediately and vehemently condemning the “vicious and cowardly acts” of the 9/11 terrorists, and urging people to separate the acts of those who claimed to act in the name of Islam from the true teaching of the religion itself.
Source: www.usnews.com