Source: The Denver Post
On March 20, 2003 The Denver Post printed an editorial stating that "in the tense days ahead, we urge Coloradans to resist any temptation to make our Muslim neighbors the focus of anger toward Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein... Although Hussein's Ba'athist Party is markedly secular - indeed, some may properly say the dictator has been anything but devout - he recently 'rediscovered' his Islamic roots in a transparent attempt to win sympathy among the world's 1.5 billion Muslims... It's important to keep in mind that Saddam Hussein's self-absorbed, avaricious lifestyle (he builds palaces for himself while Iraqi children starve) and utterly merciless brutality toward Shiite Muslims, Kurds or anyone he suspects of being disloyal aren't representative of the teachings of Islam... because this brute happened to be born a Muslim is no more a justification for condemning all practitioners of one of the world's great religions any more than it would be to damn all Roman Catholics because Adolf Hitler was born a Catholic or all Eastern Orthodox Christians because Josef Stalin once studied for the priesthood in that communion."