Bush has finally gone off the deep end. I am not sure who taught him the word Caliphate ( Khilafat ), but they should have fully explained it to him. The idea of the caliph has been done and buried since 1924, and even then it was only being kept alive by the questionable linage of Ottomans. It was good it was done with, because liberty finally won the day over who should lead the Ummah. Instead of basing the leadership on heredity, like the Umayyads or Abbasids, the Muslim world now uses the Organization of the Islamic Conference to lead the Ummah, but even it has limited influence. It would be like if the Pope still ruled all of Christendom.
The only one even trying to claim the title of Caliph is one Mullah Mohammed Omar, of Taliban fame. So in effect, Bush is actually heaping great authority onto the one-eyed cleric, even though Omar doesn't even claim to have legal standing or authority over Muslims. It is the words of Bush, by evoking the defunct Caliphate, that is making Omar into the Caliph. It is absurd at best.
The problem with bringing back the Caliph, and therefore the Caliphate, is with over fifty very different nation-states belonging to the Ummah, there is no way a consensus can be reached as to who, what, how and where this Caliph is to come into power and what powers he is to hold. See, Islamic republicism and local liberty have gotten in the way, with many mainstream political parties in Muslim nations currently more interested in pan-Islamic unity and instituting Islamic Law. They are more concerned with what a modern Islamic state should look like, as opposed to some arcane idea Bush is now throwing in their face.
Of course, the root of the problem is that Muhammad did not set out guidelines on how the Ummah was to be governed after his death. So the Caliphs, translated into a Western notion, would be a sort of Divine Right. Now they are trying to move on to hammering out centuries-old religious doctrines to the reality of the modern world, with the idea of the Caliph getting little serious attention in even conservative and devout Islamic scholarship. That was until, of course, Bush opened his fool mouth.
Bush is emboldening the worst and most marginal Muslim groups, like Omar, the one-eyed sheik, or the totally backwards Hizb ut-Tahrir, whose global ideas would even make Salah al-Din Yusuf Ibn Ayyub shudder. By evoking the Caliphate no less than four times today, Bush has made three things known to the Ummah:
1) He has no idea what the current state of affairs and concerns are among Islamic religious scholars and institutions.
2) He believes Mullah Mohammed Omar is the leader of the Ummah under the title of Caliph, leading the Caliphate.
3) He believes the Khilafat still exists, even though it was abolished in 1924, meaning Bush knows jack about the Islamic community.
Since Bush did not know there were different types of Muslims in Iraq before we invaded, this does not surprise me. But Bush should fire the person who brought up the Caliphate, and hire someone who can help us restore our dialogue with the Ummah. Since there are Muslims in the USA, one can even argue we are part of that community, so let's give it a whirl instead of empowering madmen who are already marginalized within their own religion. If we did properly address and listen to the Ummah, we might even learn why they are so angry with us, because they do have a reason that I hope one day all Americans understand and together we can all move forward to peace.
Otherwise, Bush is on a crusade, and we know how all those ended. So let's address the Ummah, and never mention the Caliphate again, as if we all lived in the rational world.