Bush’s ‘why do they hate us’ question was circular reasoning inherited from Bernard Lewis

Evidence

In the speech, Bush assumed that Americans were asking one fundamental question: Why do they hate us? The question echoes Bernard Lewis’s concerns, discussed in chapter 3, about the “roots of Muslim rage.” Bush offered no critical analysis of how US policies and involvement in the Middle East have contributed to the grievances held by many in the region against the United States, not to mention why a small minority of Muslims may have acted on those grievances. Instead, he posited a clear divide between a benevolent and superior “us” and a malevolent and backward “them”: “They hate our freedoms: our freedom of religion, our freedom of speech, our freedom to vote and assemble and disagree with each other.” Bush invoked the kind of circular reasoning employed by Lewis on “Muslim rage.” Muslim terrorists hate us because, well, they are full of hatred (and, thankfully, “we” are not). The clash between “us” and “them” is therefore inevitable. — Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Introduction to…, 261

Categorization

• XREF: Directly connects back to chapter 3’s treatment of Lewis’s “roots of Muslim rage,” answering the reader’s question about the hinge where ideology became policy. — connects to: Bernard Lewis mentored the neoconservatives who planned the Iraq War — Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Introduction to…, 264