Letter to President Bush on CAIR

11 August 2006

Hon. George W. Bush
The White House
Washington, D.C. 20500

Dear Mr. President:

On behalf of all those who wish for your success in waging what can best be described as "the War for the Free World," I want to commend you for your forthright statement yesterday that "We are at war with Islamic fascists."

Such a statement is, of course, not only accurate. It is essential to the American people’s understanding of and support for this war that they grasp what we confront: A totalitarian ideological movement whose adherents are determined to destroy non-Islamist Muslims and non-Muslims alike.

You have been attacked by some who seek to obscure the difference between tolerant, peaceable and law-abiding Muslims and Islamofacists. But it is your critics who are misrepresenting the facts when they claim, for example, that you have "equated the religion of peace [Islam] with the ugliness of fascism." We believe that you are doing something altogether different – and laudable: You are making clear that those who use Islam to justify and provide political cover for their totalitarian aggression are at odds not only with America but with Islam, itself.

One other virtue of your depiction of our immediate foe as a totalitarian political movement is that it underscores the imperative of fighting it at the ideological level – the "war of ideas." There is much to be done with respect to this front, and we are eager to assist you in making progress there.

In fact, as you may recall, when I had the opportunity last February to present you with a copy of our book, War Footing: Ten Steps America Must Take to Prevail in the War for the Free World, I told you my colleagues and I had written it for you – to help you fight and win this conflict, using tools that had not yet been brought to bear as effectively as possible. To do that, however, it has been essential to "know the enemy." With your courageous declaration of yesterday, you have made great strides in that direction and set the stage for the other steps we have recommended.

Thank you for your leadership in this War for the Free World. Please redouble your efforts to inform and mobilize the American people so that our country can make common cause with anti-Islamist Muslims and non-Muslims the world over to defeat our common foe: Islamofascism.

Sincerely,

Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.
President & CEO