“Most American must realize by now that President Bush will claim almost anything to justify the constantly escalating tragedy of his Iraq policy. So atop his long refusal to drop the implied linkage of Saddam Hussein to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Bush’s vision of an attempt to create a ‘radical Islamic empire that spans from Spain to Indonesia’ is not surprising…. The frightful terms with which Bush warns of rampant Islamism recall the ‘yellow peril’ that once obsessed U.S. opponents of immigration from Asia, and the tales of Mohammedan conquest that fueled the Crusades…. The Osama bin Ladens have not managed to take over a tiny Persian Gulf fiefdom much less an actual country in their regions of maximum strength…. The Islamic ’empire’ promises to be a storybook affair for many decades after Bush has left the White House.”

Editorial in the San Francisco Chronicle, reproduced by Muslim News, 14 October 2005