William Howard Taft Quotes
There is nothing so despicable as a secret society that is based upon religious prejudice and that will attempt to defeat a man because of his religious beliefs. Such a society is like a cockroach — it thrives in the dark. So do those who combine for such an end.
William Howard Taft, 1857-1930, 27th President of the United States (Republican, OH), Chief Justice of the U. S. Supreme Court, Speech to the Young Men's Hebrew Association in New York, December 20,1914
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
Son of Reverend Billy Graham. The statement was made in the aftermath of September 11.
Througout political history, including in America, opportunistic, unscruplous politicians have appealed to the prejudices and hates of subsets of the population for others (usually minorities) to get elected or obtain support for legislation and administrative action. In America this has been an element of all populist movements—an enemy. This quote is particularly enlightening in that it shows that the real need is to have a minority to focus the public against—which one is not as material as the fact that there is one.
He commonly incites Muslims to violence against other religions which he believes totally false. Therefore, in his interpretation of Islam, it is the obligation of Muslims to kill the heretics and blasphemers. See {620307}. He was one of the leading inciters of the Bali bombing which killed so many tourists. Notice the classic attempt to first dehumanize the people who are to be the targets of violence and atrocities to overcome the normal inhibitions of most humans to do violence to another.
William Howard Taft was the 27th president of the United States (1909–1913) and the tenth Chief Justice of the United States (1921–1930), the only person to have held both offices. Taft was elected president in 1908, the chosen successor of Theodore Roosevelt, but was defeated for reelection by Woodrow Wilson in 1912 after Roosevelt split the Republican vote by running as a third-party candidate. In 1921, President Warren G. Harding appointed Taft to be chief justice, a position he held until a month before his death.
