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Bush: ‘Freedom is the future’

U.S. President Bush speaks at Galatasaray University in Istanbul on Tuesday. Bush, standing at the historic Bosporus waterway that separates Europe and Asia, defended his push for Middle East democracy. (Associated Press / The Spokesman-Review)
The Spokesman-Review
U.S. President Bush speaks at Galatasaray University in Istanbul on Tuesday. Bush, standing at the historic Bosporus waterway that separates Europe and Asia, defended his push for Middle East democracy. (Associated Press / The Spokesman-Review)

ISTANBUL, Turkey — President Bush urged the Muslim world on Tuesday to put aside suspicion and hatred toward the West and embrace democracy, saying that does not mean Arab nations have to accept American pop culture.

A day after an interim government took political control in Iraq, Bush said “freedom is the future of the Middle East.” Mideast leaders, including “some friends of the United States, must recognize the direction of events,” he said.

While advocating freedom, Bush has raised no objection to the new Iraqi prime minister taking hard-line measures to deal with militants. On Tuesday, Prime Minister Iyad Allawi said he will soon announce emergency measures — steps that could temporarily curb Iraqi liberties.

Coming from a NATO summit aimed at raising defenses against terrorism, Bush spoke outdoors at Galatasaray University under a bright sun on the shore of the Bosporus. Military gunboats patrolled the water and a low-flying security helicopter swept noisily overhead. Outside the summit, police fired tear gas into a group of 1,000 anti-NATO protesters after demonstrators threw rocks at officers.

At Bush’s urging, NATO agreed to provide training for Iraq’s beleaguered police and security forces. The accord was a modest victory for Bush as he returned home to Washington. He once had hoped that allies would send more soldiers to Iraq.

Bush’s call for Mideast democracy has been criticized by some Arab leaders who accuse the United States of trying to impose its views while not doing enough to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Acknowledging a clash of cultures, Bush said, “Some people in Muslim cultures identify democracy with the worst of Western popular culture and want no part of it. And I assure them, when I speak about the blessings of liberty, coarse videos and crass commercialism are not what I have in mind.”

Similarly, Bush said democratic values do not require people to abandon their faith.

“No democracy can allow religious people to impose their own view of perfection on others, because this invites cruelty and arrogance that are foreign to every faith,” the president said.

Bush decried prejudice and fears in America as well as the Middle East.

“When some in my country speak in an ill-informed and insulting manner about the Muslim faith, their words are heard abroad and do great harm to our cause in the Middle East,” Bush said.