Bush says 'Islam is a great religion that preaches peace'

WASHINGTON: US President George W Bush has said he  believes that Islam is a ''great religion that preaches peace,'' and that Americans are free ''to worship any way they see fit.''

Speaking to Al Arabiya television, he also answered questions concerning the war on terror and the freedom of religion in the United States.
 
The president later hosted an iftar event at the White House, celebrating the daily breaking of the fast observed by muslims during the month of Ramadan.
 
''You can be free to worship, and it's your choice to make.  It's not the state's choice, and you shouldn't be intimidated after you've made your choice,'' Bush said.
  
The president said he did not believe that 'those who murder innocent men, women and children for political objectives are religious people,' whether they be suicide bombers in Iraq or self-proclaimed Christians such as Timothy McVeigh, who killed 168 people in a 1995 bombing in Oklahoma City.
 
The president said the last thing he wants to be is a president during wartime and added the war against terror is not a struggle against the muslim religion.
 
''It is a struggle of honorable, peaceful people throughout the world against the few who want to impose their vision"'' upon them, he said.
 
''I think people, if given a chance, will seize freedom,'' he said.