A
Senate Republican aide came under fire this week for what members of the
Muslim community called his bigoted remarks on Islam. But Idaho Sen. Larry E.
Craig, the number three ranking Republican in the Senate, rejected calls to
fire the aide, citing his right to free speech.
James George Jatras, a foreign policy staff analyst on the Senate Republican
Policy Committee, said Islam has a "fraudulent self-depiction as a pacific
creed," arises from "the darkness of heathen Araby" and rivals communism as
one of the "gigantic Christian-killing machines."
In an apparent reference to historic Islamic descriptions of heaven, Jatras
added that "it is beyond me what spiritual values any Christian has in common
with someone whose idea of beatific bliss is boinking an endless parade of the
well-rounded houris said to inhabit the Muslim paradise."
Jatras made his remarks at a May 1998 conference co-sponsored by the Rockford
Institute, a conservative think tank. Those comments were later printed in the
Christian Activist, a journal devoted to the heritage of the Eastern Orthodox
Church.
The excerpts were preceded by a disclaimer saying Jatras's views "do not
represent those of any Senate member or office." The magazine described him as
a member of St. Katherine's Greek Orthodox Church in Falls Church.
In a letter Tuesday to Craig, who is chairman of the Senate Republican Policy
Committee, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) demanded that
Jatras be fired, calling it "disturbing" that someone with his "extremely
offensive and inaccurate" remarks is involved in formulating U.S. foreign
policy.
"I absolutely condemn any sort of bigotry or intolerance," Craig said in his
reply to CAIR a day later. But "the exchange of opinions and ideas . . . that
some might find disagreeable is an important part of the workings of free
society."
For him to dismiss Jatras, Craig added, "would not constitute the censuring of
bigotry, but its practice."
Craig also told CAIR that U.S. foreign policy is not based on religious or
cultural considerations, adding, "I trust you do not mean to suggest that my
opposition to the Clinton administration's policies in the Balkans, notably in
Kosovo . . . is based on any other consideration."
The Idaho senator has been an outspoken critic of U.S. handling of the Kosovo
crisis, in which about 800,000 predominantly Muslim refugees were expelled by
Serbian forces. Most Serbs belong to the Eastern Orthodox Church.
Jatras did not return two calls to his office seeking comment. Several experts
on Islam criticized Jatras's views. Rather than dismissal, "the more fitting
action would be for him to learn something about Islam," said Charles E.
Butterworth, an expert on medieval Islamic philosophy at the University of
Maryland. "It's pitiful ignorance . . . he wouldn't be in very good shape if
he said something like that about Judaism."
There are an estimated 3 million to 5 million Muslims in the United States and
Islam is one of the fastest-growing faiths in this country.
Rep. David E. Bonior (D-Mich.) said Jatras's views "reflect a total ignorance
of Islam as a faith and Muslims as human beings. Such extreme, ill-informed,
bigoted views should disqualify anyone from a foreign policy position."
John Voll, professor of Islamic history at Georgetown University, said
Jatras's description of how Muslims imagine paradise is overblown and not
reflective of contemporary Muslim thought. "The sexual aspects emphasized in
this description are not . . . the most important part of the Muslim vision of
paradise."