September (Web-only) 2004

ARTICLE TOOLS

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The other newsworthy 60 Minutes story
Lt. Gen. William Boykin yesterday granted his first major interview about accusations that he's anti-Muslim. Specifically, he talked about his comment, "I knew that my God was bigger than [that of Somali warlord Osman Atto]. I knew that my God was a real God and his was an idol."

"Let's go back to the day that we captured Osman Atto," Boykin told 60 Minutes on last night's broadcast (CBS has a 4-minute video clip that hits the highlights, but not everything). "He was a corrupt, evil warlord who was stealing from and robbing his own people. He was a man who worshipped graft, corruption, power and money. My reference to his God being an idol was not to Allah. My reference was to his worship of corruption, of power, of money. He was a thug. He was not a good Muslim."

Does the Council on American-Islamic Relations, one of Boykin's chief critics, want to dispute that? Weblog doesn't think so. So Boykin has put his detractors on the defensive: Either defend Atto as a true Muslim or lay off. There's a third option: Don't believe him. Say he's lying. Say he really meant to disparage Islam and promote Christianity.

Can't do it, says Boykin. "Look, I'm a Christian. I make no apologies for that," he said. "But I'm also not foolish enough to deliberately offend or in any way ostracize any religion. I'm not anti-Islam, I'm not anti-Allah."

Not mentioned in the CBS report—or any media report for an awfully long time—are Boykin's remarks to churches saying that terrorists aren't real Muslims.

The CBS report has some awfully annoying aspects. For example, it calls Boykin "a fundamentalist Christian" without any indication about what that might mean. Surely Boykin ...