My piece on Wilkes and the CIA will appear in a couple of hours -- I've put it off so long that some of my "new" details have already peppered other people's work, alas. But right now, I want to comment on the Daily Kos diarist who presents evidence that as late as 2003, George Bush did not know that a difference exists between the Shi'ite and Sunni versions of Islam.
This isn't the first time the claim has been made. My question is -- how the hell could even a "favorite son" like Bush make it into Yale without acquiring so basic a piece of information?
Back in (say) 1969, many Americans would not have known of the distinction. But that situation changed after the oil shocks, the Iranian revolution and the hostage crisis forced our media to pay attention to Islamic affairs. Younger people may not recall the coverage of those events. But trust me -- between the years 1976-1980, if you opened up any kind of a newspaper or flipped through the major news magazines, you would have encountered article after article after article which explained that the Ayatollah Khomenei was a Shi'ite, and that being a Sh'ite differed from being a Sunni.
This was no obscure factoid. 60 Minutes talked about it. Radio news reports talked about it. Preachers talked about it. Back then, everybody in America -- housewives, cab drivers, loudmouths on barstools, people who spent the better part of each day stoned out of their brains -- they all got it.
"In Christianity, you got yer Cat-licks and yer Protestants. In Islam, you got yer Sh'ites and yer Sunnis." Perfectly understandable, even to the dullest of the dullards. A popular redneck t-shirt of the time read "Khomenei is a Shi'ite-head."
How could George W. Bush not know?
Another question: Are the red staters of today just as ignorant as their leader (until recently) was? In other words, are today's stupid people even stupider than were the stupid people of twenty-five yeas ago?
7 comments:
Keep talking thru your ass, buddy, just like your gods kerry, gore, pelosi and co.
You'll set yourselves up very nicely for more losses in '06 and '08.
And God Help Us if your mind-set do win those elections. The Caliphate will come hard on the heels of each and every mistake which I fully expect your gods to make once ensconced in office.
Then you won't care about Sunni or Shi'a either. You'll be too busy working to stay at Second-class status.
Is the population less intelligent? Couldn't tell you. Less culturally literate? Unfortunately, I feel quite comfortable saying yes. In my neck of the woods, a half-way economically stable suburban atoll where approximately 55% of the adult population had the opportunity to complete four-year degrees and half that number finished a post-graduate program, I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of educated people I've spoken with in the last three years who can even pronounce the word "Islam" properly, let alone demonstrate any meaningful knowledge about this rich, complex faith or its many practitioners. Which is very sad.
What saddens me more is that from what I've observed, Bush's lack of awareness about anything that sounds even remotely like it might represent (gasp!) understanding about or respect for Muslims in Iraq, Iran or other nations--would not only not stun his supporters, it probably comforts them. I'm actually not one to denegrate the intellectual capacity of Red Staters, even ones who voted for Bush, but that doesn't mean I've seen much evidence that they're using that capacity to rise above their prejudices, including xenophobia and a just plain shameful lack of interest in those from cultural groups outside the narrow societal circle Bush's "base" (88% of which was white in 2004) calls home. Even the majority of Blue Staters I know won't or can't do that. Again, sad.
More evidence that George is just a "mouthpiece" and they really don't want him to "know" very much...
George W.Bush. according to reports. never had an inquiring mind. Some people do, some don't. He got what he wanted by relying on the Bush name and he drank to blot out his inadequacies.
He replaced his drinking with snother addiction: born-again Christianity. And still, he had no inquiring mind. He never looked deeply into the meaning of life, into politics or into religion. What he got from being born-again was that he was the member of an elite group, God's favorites.
That suits GWB. He reads nothing except the sports pages. He used to get all the support he needed from Mom and Dad. Now he gets all the support he needs from Karen, Condi, Karl and God who he believes raised him to his exalted state.
GWB never wanted an education or to learn. He still seeks no knowledge about anything because God has put him where he is.
No need to look further than that for the answer to why he doesn't know things. He has always gotten what he wants by not knowing things.
Joy Tomme
http://ratbangdiary.blogspot.com
Bush couldn't tell you the difference between Buddhists, Hindus, and Muslims.
Heck, he probably doesn't know the difference between Baptists, Episcopalians and Roman Catholics.
I's jist a dumb ol' G.R.I.T and I knew the difference!
See how dumb I is? That's G.R.I.T.S. (Girl raised in the south)
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