[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 43, Number 26 (Monday, July 2, 2007)]
[Pages 865-867]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks at a Rededication Ceremony at the Islamic Center of Washington

June 27, 2007

    The President. Imam, thank you very much. Thank you for inviting me. 
I bring my personal respect to you, sir.
    Imam Abdullah Khouj. Thank you, sir.
    The President. And I appreciate your friendship. I do want to thank 
the governors of the Islamic Center. I welcome the Ambassadors. Thank 
you all for coming. I appreciate other distinguished guests who are 
here. It is an honor to join you at this rededication ceremony.
    As the Imam mentioned, half a century has passed since one of our 
great leaders welcomed the Islamic Center into our Nation's family of 
faith. Dedicating this site, President Dwight D. Eisenhower offered 
America's hand in friendship to Muslims around the world. He asked that 
together we commit ourselves ``to peaceful progress of all men under one 
God.''
    Today, we gather with friendship and respect to reaffirm that pledge 
and to renew our determination to stand together in the pursuit of 
freedom and peace. We come to express our appreciation for a faith that 
has enriched civilization for centuries. We come in celebration of 
America's diversity of faith and our unity as free people. And we hold 
in our hearts the ancient wisdom of the great Muslim poet, Rumi: ``The 
lamps are different, but the light is the same.''
    Moments like this dedication help clarify who Americans are as a 
people and what we wish for the world. We live in a time when there are 
questions about America and her intentions. For those who seek a true 
understanding of our country, they need to look no farther than here. 
This Muslim center sits quietly down the road from a synagogue, a 
Lutheran church, a Catholic parish, a Greek Orthodox chapel, a Buddhist 
temple--each with faithful followers who practice their deeply held 
beliefs and live side by side in peace.
    This is what freedom offers: societies where people can live and 
worship as they choose without intimidation, without suspicion, without 
a knock on the door from the secret police. The freedom of religion is 
the very first protection offered in America's Bill of Rights. It is a 
precious freedom. It is a basic compact under which people of faith 
agree not to impose their spiritual vision on others and, in return, to 
practice their own beliefs as they see fit. This is the promise of our 
Constitution and the calling of our conscience and a source of our 
strength.
    The freedom to worship is so central to America's character that we 
tend to take it personally when that freedom is denied to others. Our 
country was a leading voice on behalf of the Jewish refuseniks in the 
Soviet Union. Americans joined in common cause with Catholics and 
Protestants who prayed in secret behind an Iron Curtain. America has 
stood with Muslims seeking to freely practice their beliefs in places 
such as Burma and China.
    To underscore America's respect for the Muslim faith here at home, I 
came to this center 6 days after the 9/11 attacks to denounce incidents 
of prejudice against Muslim Americans. Today I am announcing a new 
initiative that will improve mutual understanding and cooperation 
between America and people in predominately Muslim countries.
    I will appoint a special envoy to the Organization of the Islamic 
Conference. This is the first time a President has made such an 
appointment to the OIC. Our special envoy will listen to and learn from 
representatives from Muslim states and will share with them America's 
views and values. This is an opportunity for Americans to demonstrate to 
Muslim communities our interest in respectful dialog and continued 
friendship.
    We have seen that friendship reflected in the outpouring of support 
Americans have extended to Muslim communities across the globe during 
times of war and natural disaster. Americans came to the aid of the 
victims of devastating earthquakes in Pakistan and Iran and responded 
with urgency and compassion to the wreckage of the tsunami

[[Page 866]]

in Indonesia and Malaysia. Our country defended Muslims in Bosnia and 
Kosovo after the breakup of Yugoslavia. Today, we are rallying the world 
to confront genocide in Sudan. Americans of all beliefs have undertaken 
these efforts out of compassion, conviction, and conscience.
    The greatest challenge facing people of conscience is to help the 
forces of moderation win the great struggle against extremism that is 
now playing out across the broader Middle East. We've seen the expansion 
of the concept of religious freedom and individual rights in every 
region of the world--except one. In the Middle East, we have seen 
instead the rise of a group of extremists who seek to use religion as a 
path to power and a means of domination.
    These self-appointed vanguard--this self-appointed vanguard presumes 
to speak for Muslims. They do not. They call all Muslims who do not 
believe in their harsh and hateful ideology ``infidels'' and ``betrayers 
of the true Muslim faith.'' This enemy falsely claims that America is at 
war with Muslims and the Muslim faith, when in fact it is these radicals 
who are Islam's true enemy.
    They have staged spectacular attacks on Muslim holy sites to divide 
Muslims and make them fight one another. The majority of the victims of 
their acts of terror are Muslims. In Afghanistan, they have targeted 
teachers for beatings and murder. In Iraq, they killed a young boy and 
then boobytrapped his body so it would explode when his family came to 
retrieve him. They put children in the backseat of a car so they could 
pass a security checkpoint and then blew up the car with the children 
still inside. These enemies bombed a wedding reception in Amman, Jordan, 
a housing complex in Saudi Arabia, a hotel in Jakarta. They claim to 
undertake these acts of butchery and mayhem in the name of Allah. Yet 
this enemy is not the true face of Islam; this enemy is the face of 
hatred.
    Men and women of conscience have a duty to speak out and condemn 
this murderous movement before it finds its path to power. We must help 
millions of Muslims as they rescue a proud and historic religion from 
murderers and beheaders who seek to soil the name of Islam. And in this 
effort, moderate Muslim leaders have the most powerful and influential 
voice. We admire and thank those Muslims who have denounced what the 
Secretary General of the OIC called ``radical fringe elements who 
pretend that they act in the name of Islam.'' We must encourage more 
Muslim leaders to add to their voices, to speak out against radical 
extremists who infiltrate mosques, to denounce organizations that use 
the veneer of Islamic belief to support and fund acts of violence, and 
to reach out to young Muslims--even in our own country and elsewhere in 
the free world--who believe suicide bombing may someday be justified.
    We need to rally the voices of Muslims who can speak most directly 
to millions in the Arab world left behind in the global movement toward 
prosperity and freedom. For decades, the free world abandoned Muslims in 
the Middle East to tyrants and terrorists and hopelessness. This was 
done in the interests of stability and peace, but instead the approach 
brought neither. The Middle East became an incubator for terrorism and 
despair, and the result was an increase in Muslims' hostility to the 
West. I have invested the heart of my Presidency in helping Muslims 
fight terrorism and claim their liberty and find their own unique paths 
to prosperity and peace.
    The efforts underway in Afghanistan and Iraq are central in this 
struggle, but that struggle is not going to end the threats; it's not 
going to end there. We believe the ultimate success of Afghans and 
Iraqis will inspire others who want to live in freedom as well. We will 
work toward a day when a democratic Palestine lives side by side with 
Israel in peace. We have seen stirrings of a democratic future in other 
parts of the Middle East, though it will take time for liberty to 
flower. A democratic future is not a plan imposed by Western nations; it 
is a future that the people of the region will seize for themselves. A 
future of freedom is the dream and the desire of every loving heart.
    We know this because of the 8 million people who braved threats and 
intimidation to vote in Afghanistan. We know this because of the nearly 
12 million people who cast ballots in free elections in Iraq. And we 
know

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this because the world watched as the citizens of Lebanon raised the 
banner of the Cedar Revolution, drove out their Syrian occupiers, and 
chose new leaders under free elections. Even now the hope for freedom is 
felt in some dark corners in the Middle East, whispering in living rooms 
and coffee houses and in classrooms. Millions seek a path to the future 
where they can say what they think, travel where they wish, and worship 
as they choose. They plead in silence for their liberty, and they hope 
someone, somewhere will answer.
    So today, in this place of free worship, in the heart of a free 
nation, we say to those who yearn for freedom from Damascus to Tehran, 
you are not bound forever by your misery. You plead in silence no 
longer. The free world hears you. You are not alone. America offers you 
its hand in friendship. We work for the day when we can welcome you into 
the family of free nations. We pray that you and your children may one 
day know freedom in all things, including the freedom to love and to 
worship the Almighty God.
    May God bless you.

Note: The President spoke at 11:08 a.m. at the mosque. In his remarks, 
he referred to Imam Abdullah Khouj, director, the Islamic Center of 
Washington, DC.