Former President Bush Urges Americans to Resist Anti-Islamic Backlash

HOUSTON (Reuters) - Former President George Bush urged Americans on Thursday to resist an indiscriminate backlash against Arab Americans and Muslims following the terror attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

"We must guard against painting with such a broad brush that we cause innocent Arab Americans or Islamic believers anywhere to come under unfair attack,'' the father of the current president said in a statement released through his office in Houston.

"There will be a tendency in some quarters to lump in with the terrorists all those who believe in Islam. This we must strongly condemn,'' he said.

Bush, who led the coalition of Western and Arab states that drove invading Iraqi troops out of Kuwait 10 years ago, said he had every confidence the current president would "do the right thing.''

The United States should review the executive orders and laws that its intelligence agencies operate under, with the goal of enhancing "human intelligence capabilities,'' he said, adding that sources and methods must be protected.

"I hope God will continue to give our president the strength he and his team need to continue to lead us and the rest of the world in getting to the bottom of these terrorist attacks and, then, in bringing the culprits to justice,'' Bush said.


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