This weblog entry keeps track, in reverse chronological order, of non-Muslim politicians in the West who closely associate themselves with the Koran – a complement to my earlier weblog entry, "Hijabs on Western Political Women." (December 22, 2008)
Tony Blair, now the former British prime minister and the Quartet's envoy to the Middle East, said in 2008: "I regularly read the Koran, practically every day." (Back in 2000, he merely asserted: "I carry a copy of this book with me whenever I can, to give me inspiration and courage.")
Tony Blair, a Catholic and British prime minister, wrote in 2007: "To me, the most remarkable thing about the Koran is how progressive it is. I write with great humility as a member of another faith. As an outsider, the Koran strikes me as a reforming book, trying to return Judaism and Christianity to their origins, much as reformers attempted to do with the Christian church centuries later. The Koran is inclusive. It extols science and knowledge and abhors superstition. It is practical and far ahead of its time in attitudes toward marriage, women, and governance."
Prince Charles of Britain has been praising Islam for many years and sometimes quotes the Koran to help make a point, as he did in a 2006 plea for environmentalism: "Only they pay attention who have hearts; only they believe who have hearts."
George W. Bush, U.S. president, bragged in 2005 that," for the first time in our nation's history, we have added a Koran to the White House Library."
Dennis Kucinich, a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, announced in the course of his 2004 effort to become the the Democratic Party's a candidate for president: "I keep a copy of the Quran in my office."
