Tuesday’s CNN This Morning segment on this week’s 25th anniversary of 9/11 featured two Republicans with markedly different views of Islam. On one side, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, opposing Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s attendance at Friday’s ceremony. On the other side, former Bush White House aide Ashley Davis.
Host Audie Cornish said Giuliani would be offended if Mamdani were there and that he claimed Muslims were trying to take over the world. The Giuliani clip she played supported her take on his views:
“They have every desire to take us over. This isn’t [that] they wanna be just another religion. They want to dominate us. That’s what they’re taught from the day they begin their extremist religious education. Mamdani is a clear, a clear supporter of that.”
Cornish also played a clip of President George W. Bush at the Islamic Center of Washington on Sept. 17, 2001: “The face of terror isn’t the true faith of Islam . . . Islam is peace. These terrorists don’t represent peace; they represent evil and war.”
Davis embraced it: “One of the things that President Bush taught us, as staff, was that 9/11 wasn’t about the Muslim religion; it was a hijack on the Muslim religion . . . [He] made us understand the Koran as much as possible, that this was a calm, peaceful religion.”
But Davis then proceeded to undermine the view she had just expressed. Bush framed his remarks that way, she said, “because he didn’t want that divide in our country.”
That was a political motive, not a scholarly conclusion.
Davis then admitted that the Islamist threat continues to this day. The country has been “safe over the last twenty-five years,” she said, but “we are stopping attacks every day.” She described them as "different attacks: not airplanes or bombs on a plane." And she described herself as “so conservative on the immigration issue” not because of people who “wanna come over and live here peacefully,” but over “the people on the terrorist watch list.”
So who has more truth on their side? Giuliani saying Islam doesn’t want to be “just another religion,” but wants to “dominate us?” Or the Bush/Davis line that Islam is peace?
CNN Republican Embraces George W.'s 'Islam Is Peace' pic.twitter.com/MXFs2kBRg3
— Mark Finkelstein (@markfinkelstein) September 8, 2026
Many Muslims condemned 9/11. That was true in 2001 and is true today. What the panel treated as unsayable is the rest of the record.
A Pew survey found that 8% of Muslim Americans said suicide bombing and other violence against civilians is often or sometimes justified “to defend Islam.” And Pew now estimates that there are 5.5 million Muslims in the United States. Eight percent of that total is 440,000 people of all ages. Using Pew’s own count of about 1.9 million Muslim children, that is still roughly 290,000 adult Muslims in the US who support violence against civilians in the name of Islam.
Calm and peaceful?
Twenty-five years on, Davis still praises Bush’s “Islam is peace” line. A minute later, she is talking about attacks stopped every day and about watch-list traffic at the border.
The peace sermon and the security warning cannot both be the whole truth. Davis offered both. Only one matches the polling.
Here's the transcript. Click "expand" to read:
CNN This Morning
9/8/26
6:40 am EDT
AUDIE CORNISH: Mayor Zohran Mamdani says he is going to be at Friday's 9/11 memorial as he faces calls to stay away from former mayor Rudy Giuliani . . . So the question over Mamdani's attendance was raised by none other than Giuliani over the weekend who said he would be offended if Mamdani was there and claimed Muslims were trying to take over the world.
RUDY GIULIANI: They have every desire to take us over. This is not they wanna be just another religion. They, they want to dominate us. That's what they're taught from the day they begin their extremist religious education. Mamdani is a clear, a clear supporter of that.
. . .
ASHLEY DAVIS: Yeah, here's what-- I, I don't care what anybody says, whoever wants to go, this is exactly what Mamdani said and actually what you said, is that anyone should be there.
But this, going back to the Muslim religion, one of the things that President Bush taught us, a staff, was that 9/11 was not about the Muslim religion, it was a hijack on the Muslim religion.
CORNISH: Can I play him on 2001? 'Cause I actually have that, and I wasn't sure if we could, but I feel like you're bringing it up, so let's just give people a sense, 'cause maybe you weren't around then. This is what it was like on September 17th from the President of the United States.
GEORGE W. BUSH: The face of terror is not the true faith of Islam. That's not what Islam is all about. Islam is peace. These terrorists don't represent peace. They represent evil and war. Those who feel like they can intimidate our fellow citizens to take out their anger, they don't represent the best of America, they represent the worst of humankind, and they should be ashamed of that kind of behavior.
CORNISH: Would today's Republican Party agree with him?
DAVIS: It doesn't matter, because I think that it's just the leadership that he had. I mean, President Bush always said, "Let history judge me," and I think he was so right about. One of the things he made us remember, made us understand the Koran as much as possible, was that this was a calm, peaceful religion, because he did not want that divide in our country. So obviously there's major divide, and I blame both political parties for that. I mean, there's the antisemitic rhetoric that happens or anti-Israel rhetoric that happens --
CORNISH: But I'm asking specifically, 'cause Giuliani was like, the Muslims, right? He was not --
DAVIS: Yeah, that's what I'm saying. Like it's, it's all wrong. And so the fact that the mayor wants to go, great, go. I mean, anyone should be welcome to go and not lose sight of, of what the country's doing and how the country has reacted and united that day. Which, you made a point. Half the population doesn't even remember that.
. . .
As you guys know, I was in the White House 9/11, ended up becoming employee number one at the White House after Homeland Security. And this is my Super Bowl week, because it's something that's very important to me--not as a celebration--but just something that's very important.
That we have, we have been safe over the last 25 years. But I want to remind Americans that we are stopping attacks every day. And to make sure that we don't lose sight of, of, of that. And they're different different attacks. They're not airplanes, they're not, they're, they're not, things that we've done traditionally, they're not bombs on the plane.
CORNISH: Yes, but for today's Homeland Security, I think the threat is immigration, right?
DAVIS: Well, the, the, that's why one of the reasons I'm so conservative on the immigration issue, is not people that wanna come over and live here peacefully, but the people that were coming over that were on the terrorist watch list.
