NEVER KNEW HOW GOOD YOU HAD IT:

AS a Briton who, like millions of my compatriots, opposed the American-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, I did not expect to ever find much to admire about President George W. Bush. But as a Muslim who has come to work in America, I have recently had to revise my opinion.

Less than a week after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks that killed 2,996 people, President Bush held a news conference at the Islamic Center of Washington. "The face of terror is not the true faith of Islam," he said, flanked by imams and community leaders. "Islam is peace."

It was a message repeated often in the months and years afterward. "Our war is against evil," the president said, "not against Islam."

Fourteen years later, such remarks seem distant, if not improbable, amid the miasma of anti-Muslim hate and fearmongering fostered by the Republican candidates for president.

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