Spiritual Discernment Quotes
Al-Maarri’s quotations are not only meaningful in their own right, but they illustrate the openness and free thinking that was allowed in the early days of Islam before about 1100. If anyone wrote such things today in most Islamic countries he would at least be jailed if not executed for blasphemy. And if any Christian in Europe made the same statement, he would have been excommunicated at least if not tortured and murdered.
Bush made religion a driver of his Presidency and policies in a way far in excess of other American Presidents. See {633550}. There has always been some debate as to whether he actually believed that or he was just saying it to pander to the religious conservatives who formed an important component of his base.