Twisted Tangle in Middle East

The U.S. government pushes its war on “Islamic fascism” while supporting a Jewish government known for its lack of fair treatment of people of non Jewish faith. The State Department website, yes the U.S. State Department says:

“…problems continued to exist stemming from the unequal treatment of religious minorities, and from the State's recognition of only Orthodox Jewish religious authorities in personal and some civil status matters concerning Jews.

…”Government's handling of the Arab sector has been primarily neglectful and discriminatory," that it"did not show sufficient sensitivity to the needs of the Arab population, and did not take enough action to allocate state resources in an equal manner."

Of course there is lots of qualifying language but these words are clearly stated in the first few paragraphs.

American Muslims are offended by the President’s use of “Islamic fascism” while ignoring Christian and Jewish versions. A leader said the use of “Islamic only” adds to a misunderstanding of the religion. The President of the Islamic Society of North America said:

"I'm convinced that it is not only inaccurate, but unhelpful. If our major concern is security, security of this country, this is a term that has very bad resonance in the Muslim majority world and makes us feel uncomfortable here."

Fortunately a Defense Department representative happened to be in attendance. Unfortunately his comments reveal how flatfooted the current administration is on this very issue.

"American Muslims will play an important role as the Pentagon improves its training of the military on Islamic culture. They understand their culture, obviously, much better than we do. We have not done a very good job in the past and we need to do better."

He also called on Muslim Americans to spread to the world the word about freedom, citing the success of Muslim businesspeople and professionals in the United States.

What does he suggest the Muslims without religious freedom in Israel and the occupied territories do? Using the same Bush criteria, the Muslims in Israel are not free. They are suffering under Judeo fascism.

We aren’t even talking about who supplies who with money and weapons.