Minister Questions Bush Administration's Muslim Accommodations

by Bill Fancher
November 9, 2004

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(AgapePress) - A Washington, DC-based religious leader is wondering why there seems to be a double standard when it comes to how Muslims and Christians are treated in the nation's capital.

Rev. Rob Schenck, president of the National Clergy Council (NCC), remembers the objections that led to the cancellation of a room that had been set aside for Bible studies at the U.S. Department of Justice. That is why he now wonders why the State Department is allowed to set aside a room for Muslims to use for prayer during Ramadan.

Schenck suspects this discrepancy may be attributed to the work of underlings in the Bush administration. "An awful lot of people who work for the president are actually opposed to the president's leadership," he says, "and I wouldn't be surprised if the White House knows very little about what's happening in this instance."

Also, the minister points out, there are 1,500 executive offices in the administration. Sometimes, he observes, such decisions are made at such a low level "that it's actually news to the president when he reads about it in a newspaper."

The NCC president and other religious leaders are giving Bush the benefit of the doubt, but many have been upset by his outreach to Muslims in the past. In fact, the U.S. president is hosting a dinner for Muslims Wednesday night at the White House.

While Schenck recognizes the need for diplomacy, he feels the Bush administration needs to be cautious. He notes, "I do think that the signals the president has tried to send to the Muslim world is that he is not anti-Muslim, which in the current climate is probably wise. But we have to be very careful that this is not mistranslated down the line so that bureaucrats are thinking that means we favor one religion over another."

Schenck, an ordained minister in the Evangelical Church Alliance, often describes himself as a missionary to elected and appointed officials. The NCC maintains a national office in Washington, DC, directly across the street from the Supreme Court, from which the group makes its concerns known to government officials, lawmakers, public policy analysts and the national media.