Representatives of about 300 Islamic madrassa schools, meeting in New Delhi in April, decided that Muslims could not buy health insurance because the Quran forbids gambling (although they said they would continue to explore ways of reconciling Sharia law with health care financing).
"While the path of Islamic fundamentalism so often leads to evil and terror" said George W. Bush in a prepared statement, "Today I applaud the leaders of them medrussas and their opposition to a sane, rational health care system for their people. It is a commitment I share. I also admire their work in letting religious dogma be the basis of ignorant and counterproductive public policy that is detrimental to the interests of their own citizens."
"Truly, there is sometimes more that unites our two cultures than divides them." Concluded Bush.
The madrassa leaders later put out an addendum to their declaration to state they had no problem with John McCain's health care proposal, as to qualify as gambling, pissing money away has to have at least an astronomical chance of payoff.
The madrassa story is real. The Bush quotes and endorsement of McCain are not.
