US presidents invoked shared Abrahamic kinship even while their security policies targeted Muslims.

Evidence

Anwar El Sadat and Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin, President Jimmy Carter stated, “Let us now lay aside war. Let us reward all the children of Abraham who hunger for a comprehensive peace in the Middle East. Let us now enjoy the adventure of becoming human, fully neighbors, even brothers and sisters.” Twenty years later, President George W. Bush’s first inaugural speech (nine months before 9/11) explicitly referred to American Muslims: “Church and charity, synagogue and mosque lend our communities their humanity, and they will have an honored place in our plans and in our laws.” Yet Bush’s national security practices targeting Muslims directly contradicted his acknowledgment of Muslims’ religious freedom rights and allusion to a common Abrahamic tradition. — Sahar F. Aziz, The Racial Muslim, 998

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the broader pattern of the book: inclusive rhetoric coexisting with exclusionary policy — a theme echoing how discursive inclusion masks structural exclusion in other identity-politics contexts.
• CANDY: The juxtaposition of Bush’s inaugural promise to mosques and his post-9/11 security practices is a succinct, shareable irony.