By Kashif Hoda

Even as US President George Bush insisted in his address, to world leaders at the U.N. General Assembly, that war on terror is not War on Islam, the latest report from a Muslim civil rights and advocacy group indicates an almost 30 percent increase in the total number of complaints of anti-Muslim bias from 2004 to 2005.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations' (CAIR) report contains 1,972 incidents and experiences of anti-Muslim violence, discrimination and harassment in 2005, the highest number of civil rights cases ever recorded in the Washington-based group's annual report. According to the study called "The Struggle for Equality," that figure is a 29.6 percent jump over the preceding year's total of 1,522 cases.

CAIR also received 153 reports of anti-Muslim hate crime complaints, an 8.6 percent increase from the 141 complaints received in 2004. As in past years, CAIR said factors contributing to the sharp increase in reported incidents included the lingering impact of post-9/11 fears, increased awareness of civil rights issues in the Muslim community and a general increase in anti-Muslim rhetoric in American society.

CAIR began documenting anti-Muslim incidents following the 1995 attack on the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City.

"We believe the biggest factor contributing to anti-Muslim feeling and the resulting acts of bias is the growth in Islamophobic rhetoric that has flooded the Internet and talk radio in the post-9/11 era," said CAIR Legal Director Arsalan Iftikhar, the report's author.

These talk shows are extremely popular among Americans who find their main stream media "liberal." Talk shows are less discreet about their opinion and are usually extreme right to right of the center in their opinion. They cater to important Republican vote bank. The term "Islamo-fascim" first began to be used in talk show circuits and now famously used by President Bush.

Bush's closeness with these right wing talk show hosts is not limited to the choice of words. Even as President tried to calm Muslims that the US is not leading a war on Islam, reports came out that Mr. Bush secretly met with some of the prominent right wing talk show hosts. Mike Gallagher, one of the hosts revealed that he along with Neal Boortz, Laura Ingraham, Sean Hannity and Micahel Medved met the President for an hour and 45 minute session.

Gallagher reportedly said that Bush's strategy is to put War on Terror to be about right versus wrong, "because if it's about Christianity versus Islam, we'll lose."

In United Nations speech on September 19th, Bush said, "My country desires peace. Extremists in your midst spread propaganda claiming that the West is engaged in a war against Islam. This propaganda is false and its purpose is to confuse you and justify acts of terror. We respect Islam."

This is not the first time that President Bush has said good things about Islam but any listener to the talk shows on radio will tell you they regularly attack Muslims and Islam. One of these hosts, Neal Boortz has gone out of his way to describe Islam a "violent, violent religion" and has said harsh words about the Prophet.

Considering the wide gulf between Bush's words and actions it will be difficult to imagine that anyone will take Mr. Bush's UN speech seriously.