[Prince Charles Promotes Islam to President Bush
In November 2005 Prince Charles visited Washington, DC. According to a report on the internet version of the Telegraph, one of the stated purposes of his trip was to "plead Islam's cause to Bush".
Why would Prince Charles be an advocate for Islam at the White House?
For answers and insight into that question, one only has to read the speeches of Prince Charles and read the media reports about his attendance at various Islamic events.
A number of speeches and remarks given by Prince Charles about Islam are published on his official internet web site. The first one in October 1993 is called Islam and the West. Other speeches have titles such as, A Sense of the Sacred: Building Bridges Between Islam and the West and An Example To All Faiths, a speech given at the launch of the London Muslim Centre Project at the East London Mosque. There is a another speech given while visiting the Muslim College in London.
The Prince's basic premise, that the West has lost a sense of that which is sacred, is a sentiment which is probably shared by a great many Christians in the West. His answer, however, is not to look to the teachings of Christ, but to instead look at the teachings of Mohammed!
Prince Charles clearly promotes Islam as the answer to the secularization problem of the West. In his July 1996 speech entitled A Sense of the Sacred in the Modern World, the Prince doesn't quote Christ or the Bible, but he does quote Mohammed, the Quran and a famous Arab Muslim historian.
In this speech at the Investcorp Dinner, he told his listeners,
I do so hope that you, as people who operate in the very modern world of business and finance, will use your influence to....promote the important principle of wholeness which Islam can still teach us in the West.1
In his December 1996 speech called A Sense of the Sacred: Building Bridges Between Islam and the West, he confidently uses phrases such as, "the memorable passage in the Qur'an" and "The Prophet Mohammed himself is believed to have said". He doesn't seem to have a problem quoting the Quran and referring to Mohammed as an authority.
Yet in a 1997 speech Prince Charles says, "I hesitate to speak with any authority on a subject as important and central as the Book of Common Prayer."2
The Book of Common Prayer is one of the basic Christian ****s for Anglicans and yet Prince Charles prefaces his remarks by proclaiming his hesitance to speak about a book which is so important to his Anglican Christian heritage.
But he's confident speaking about the message of Mohammed and so it's no wonder that in 1997 the Middle East Quarterly published an article asking the question if Prince Charles might be a secret convert to Islam.
And now, just a few months ago, Prince Charles comes to visit President Bush and promotes Islam's cause.
October 2006 update:
On July 19, 2006 Prince Charles spoke at the opening of the Jameel Gallery at the Victoria and Albert Museum, South Kensington, London. In his speech, Prince Charles once again expressed his admiration for Islam when he said,
But seeing these great masterpieces of Islamic Art and craftsmanship, so beautifully and intelligently displayed, I think serves as a timely reminder of the huge debt we in the West owe to Islam. I think it is a debt too often ignored or forgotten today.3
June 2008 update:
A dated, but relevant post on website of the As-Sunnah Foundation of America, an Islamic Sufi organization, shows the following photograph and caption:
HRH Prince Charles was photographed some time ago at
the Grand Opening of a new Ahl as-Sunna masjid in London.
Here accompanied by two shaikhs wearing traditional Sunni
turbans he waters a newly planted-tree symbolizing the
spread of Islam in England.
1 Prince Charles speech, July 10, 1996.
2 A speech by Prince Charles at the anniversary reception for the Prayer Book Society, St James's Palace, London, April 29, 1997.
3 Prince Charles speech, July 19, 2006, online, accessed, October 29, 2006, http://www.princeofwales.gov.uk/spee..._18072006.html.
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