Petrelis Files

Hughes: Bush Adds Koran to WH Library; He May Be Reading It

Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy Karen P. Hughes was interviewed last month by a reporter with Berita Harian newspaper in Malaysia and the State Department today posted a transcript of the interview. Have a look at this nugget of news:

[...]KHAIDIR: Talking about books, President Bush in the Iftar in the White House – the White House finally has a Koran in the library….

UNDER SECRETARY HUGHES: That’s right, he’s put a Koran in the library for the first time.

KHAIDIR: Has he started reading it yet?

UNDER SECRETARY HUGHES: I don’t know! I know a lot of us - I know my husband and I started reading the Koran in the aftermath - I think after September 11th and after some of the discussions of, you know, after hearing some of what the terrorists were saying, and then hearing other Muslims saying that what the terrorists did, did not represent the Islamic faith, that a lot of Americans became very interested in learning more about Islam. And so I know I’ve read some of the Koran, and I’m sure the President has as well since he got the copy of the Koran to place in the White House library, so.

KHAIDIR: It’s good for him, because we have been misunderstood. [...]

I must have missed the MSM coverage in October when Bush placed a Koran in the White House library, which Hughes claims is the first instance of the book earning a spot on those shelves. Frankly, I find it hard to believe that up until last month, the White House library lacked a copy of the Koran.

Nice to learn of this news, and I sure wish a MSM reporter would ask Scott McClellan at a daily press briefing if the president has read some of the book.

By the way, I've Googled this phrase from Bush's announcement, "And for the first time in our nation's history, we have added a Koran to the White House Library," and no MSM hits for it were returned.