G.W. Bush Legacies: Illegal Immigrants, Amnesties, Fairytale Islam, Naïve Foreign Policy and Political Correctness

Part 1 of 2

Mike Scruggs

Few realize this, but President George W. Bush and President Barack Obama have allied views on the top two issues in this year’s election: immigration and Islam. On immigration, Bush pushed hard for several major amnesties, the last one being Kennedy-McCain in 2007. All failed because of public protest and conservative Republican opposition in Congress. Illegal immigration under Bush was 4.4 million, while it has been only 2.5 million to date under Obama. Obama supported the 2013 Schumer-Rubio amnesty and legal immigration surge bill, but it failed because of public outrage and lack of support by House Republicans. But now Obama has given his unconstitutional amnesty, which could be open-ended if not stopped.

It should have been stopped by Republicans in the House by defunding it, but Republican Speaker John Boehner decided that cooperating with Obama and pleasing the U.S. Chamber cabal of cheap-labor-big-donor lobbyists was safer than facing the voters, who he thought would soon forget his treason. He was wrong. Public protest soon resulted in his replacement as Speaker. Unfortunately, this conservative victory was quickly lost to the Chamber cabal’s promises of substantial campaign financial help and direct or implied threats to use their dark money mega-PACs to unseat conservative dissenters. The big-donor establishment was able to elect amnesty and massive foreign-worker surge advocate Paul Ryan as Speaker. Hence grass-roots conservative voters are in justifiably angry revolt.

George W. Bush and Barack Obama both hold to the fairytale that Islam is a religion of peace and tolerance:

"The face of terror is not the true faith of Islam," said the president, escorted by Islamic clerics into the ornate mosque full of Turkish tile, Persian rugs and Egyptian paintings. "Islam is peace."
--G.W.  Bush, 9-17-2001.

“Islam brings hope and comfort to millions of people in my country, and to more than a billion people worldwide. Ramadan is also an occasion to remember that Islam gave birth to a rich civilization of learning that has benefited mankind.”
—G W. Bush,12-4-2002

“There are thousands of Muslims who proudly call themselves Americans, and they know what I know — that the Muslim faith is based upon peace and love and compassion.”
—G.W. Bush, 9-28-2001

“The world sees a nation at prayer -- Christian, Jew and Muslim, alike -- praying for strength to an almighty and merciful God.”
--G. W. Bush, 9-27-2001

“The Islam that we know is a faith devoted to one God, as revealed through the Holy Quran. It teaches the value and the importance of charity, mercy, and peace.
—G.W. Bush, 11-15-2001.

Many of President Obama’s quotes on Islam are similar. There is even a quiz on PBS Newshour online, dated February 19, 2015, entitled, Who said it? Bush vs. Obama on Islam. Here is an Obama quote that seems to be a continuous theme for both of them:

“This great religion in the hands of a few extremists has been distorted to justify violence.”
—Barack Obama

Here are a few condensed quotes from Obama, one of which sounds a bit threatening:

“The future must not belong to those who slander the Prophet of Islam.” “The sweetest sound I know is the Muslim call to prayer.” “Islam has a proud tradition of tolerance.” America and Islam are not exclusive and need not be in competition. Instead, they overlap, and share common principles of justice and progress, tolerance and the dignity of all human beings”.

I hope George W. Bush has changed his mind on Islam. Otherwise, what Bush believes about Islam is hardly distinguishable from what Barack Obama confesses to believe about Islam. Unfortunately, this politically correct version of Islam is contradictory to the Quran, the teaching and example of its Prophet, Muhammad, nearly 1400 years of violent Muslim history, and bloody conflict wherever Islam touches the West today.  Islam does not mean “peace,” as Bush and Obama have often stated, and it is certainly not a religion of tolerance.  It means “submission, surrender, or to resign oneself.”

 The Arabic word “salaam” (peace) shares three consonants with Islam. My opinion is that Bush has been duped, while Obama is being deceptive. Islamic Law (Sharia) dominates every part of the Muslim life. Radical Islam is the real Islam of the Quran, including its doctrines of Jihad (holy war against all unbelievers) Islamic Supremacy (world domination), Hijra (immigration for conquest), and Takkiya and Mudarat, doctrines of deception. It is completely incompatible with and extremely dangerous to Christianity, Judaism, or any belief but Islam. Not every Muslim is a Jihadist, despite the 109 verses in the Quran that make Jihad compulsory.

One in every 7.9 verses in the Quran condemns both unbelievers and unfaithful Muslims to hell.  According to numerous surveys, only about 25 percent are sympathetic enough to Jihad to pose some future threat to non-Muslims, but substantially more than half would impose Islam and Islamic law on Western countries, if they became a majority Most of the rest are silenced and held captive by fear of militant Sharia. The penalty for criticism of Islam can be death. You cannot be familiar with Biblical Christianity and the Quran and hold that Allah of the Quran and the God of the Bible are the same. We ought to be rescuing people from Islam, not praising lies about it.

I believe Bush did the right thing by striking back at al-Qaeda bases in Afghanistan after 911. He also did it with minimum manpower and risk. His misunderstanding of Islam, disregard of the difficult demographics of the pseudo-nation of Iraq, and naïve ideas about nation building and making democratic republics out of predominantly Muslim nations, however, quickly mired the U.S. in a difficult and costly situation to solve without long-term commitment.

Bush’s multiculturalist mindset also played into making the U.S. more vulnerable to the 911 terrorist attacks.  During his 2000 presidential campaign, Bush was duped into making a high-ranking member of the Muslim Brotherhood his campaign coordinator for Muslim outreach.

Following his victory, key Muslim Brotherhood members became gatekeepers for Bush’s understanding of Islam and the Middle East. In June 2001, Bush’s plan to give amnesty to three million Mexicans had already passed the House, and immigration controls were being relaxed.

Responding to political pressure from Muslim Brotherhood front groups and liberal Senate Republicans, the Bush Administration relaxed airport screening standards to ensure Arabs would not be profiled or disproportionately searched or detained at airport security stations. 

In 2005, Michael Tuohey, the U.S. Air ticket agent who checked in Mohammad Atta, leader of the nineteen 911 airline terrorists, surfaced on the Oprah Winfrey show. He was later interviewed by David Hench of the Portland Press Herald (Maine). Here is one of Tuohey’s statements:

“I said to myself, ‘If this guy doesn’t look like an Arab terrorist, then nothing does. Then I gave myself a mental slap, because in this day and age, It’s not nice to say things like this.

When I looked at their tickets, they had first-class, one-way tickets, $2500 tickets. Very unusual. I guess they’re not coming back. Maybe this was the end of their trip.”

You know the rest of the story. Political correctness trumped common sense and public safety, and thousands died, just as we are now taking in suspicious and unvetted Syrian refugees and putting American lives and national security at risk.