Posted on 11/16/2001 9:52:01 PM PST by KQQL
Christian leader condemns Islam
Preacher Franklin Graham calls Islam ‘wicked, violent
On the first day of Ramadan, Franklin Graham's comments last month about the Muslim faith are causing problems for the Bush administration.
By Jim Avila
NBC NEWS Nov. 16 — The Bush administration continues to be careful about what it says concerning the religion of Osama bin Laden. However, it turns out that one of Bush’s close friends in the American religious establishment has had some very harsh words for the Muslim faith. There is fallout from such remarks made last month by Franklin Graham.
FRANKLIN GRAHAM is one of America’s most powerful Christian leaders. He delivered the benediction at George W. Bush’s inauguration. His father, Billy, counseled a long list of presidents. But now Franklin is in trouble with political friends for comments made recently, calling the entire Islamic religion “wicked, violent and not of the same God.”
“I don’t believe this is a wonderful, peaceful religion,” said Graham. “When you read the Koran and you read the verses from the Koran, it instructs the killing of the infidel, for those that are non-Muslim.”
Asked by NBC News to clarify his statement, Graham repeated his charge that Islam, as a whole, is an evil.
“It wasn’t Methodists flying into those buildings, it wasn’t Lutherans,” said Graham. “It was an attack on this country by people of the Islamic faith.”
Meanwhile, Ramadan, the holiest season of the Muslim year, has begun. Graham’s comments came as Bush, himself a deeply religious Christian, wished the world’s 1 billion Muslims, “health, prosperity and happiness during Ramadan.”
“Islam never teaches hatred, Islam never teaches terrorism,” says Imam Hassan Al-Qazwini of the Islamic Center of America.
The White House also distanced itself from Graham’s remarks Friday, saying the president “views Islam as a religion that preaches peace,” and that the terrorists do not represent what Islam teaches.
None of the other Christian leaders contacted by NBC News, including Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson, would comment on Graham’s attacks.
“Obviously, Mr. Graham is tone deaf in this respect,” says Newsweek religion editor Ken Woodward. “He’s certainly not his father’s son in terms of discretion.”
A presidential friend and supporter now finds himself at odds with both the Muslim world and the message from the White House.
Nonsense. The Torah is the Holy book. The Mishnah is the written codification/compilation (written apx 200 AD) of the oral tradition that Jews followed and passed on by word of mouth since the giving of the Torah, to help fill in the gaps found in the written law. The Mishnah explains the practice of the written Law found in the Torah. (i.e. the procedure for following the "thou shall not cook a calf in it's mothers milk" commandment). Over the next four centuries (apx 200 AD-600 AD) this law underwent discussion and debate in both of the world's major Jewish communities (in Israel and Babylon), and the commentaries on the Torah and Mishna from both of these communities eventually came to be edited together into compilations known as the Talmud. It is remarkably similar to the socratic method, whereby many leading rabbis of that era are quoted regarding a specific law as written in the Torah or the Mishnah. The point is, the Talmud and the Torah will never "disagree" as you said. The Talmud is commentary on the law itself... like FR is commentary on the news of the day, the Talmud is commentary on the Torah and Mishnah and how it related to the Jewish experience and practice at the time it was written.
Orthodox Jews of today do not really practice the Law in the way of the Talmud, although they do study it intensely as a source of the law. In fact their methods for practicing the law come much later. And some of these later practices draw from the earlier ones, which draw from the Talmud but do not necessarily concur with the practices of the Talmudic era. Again, the point is the Talmud is important but mostly as a method for understanding thought processes. A lot of the later practices were influenced by Maimonades (late 1100's) who injected logical reasoning into the laws for better understanding. He was heavy on metaphysics and science in relation to the Laws.
"You are a loser"
"You are another racist."
"You are are on my ignorant list."
Are you sure about that?
I have also seen evidence of the teachings of the Mullahs who demand uprisings against the Jews and the Christians. I have talked to people who hold that belief. Perhaps the Koran does not teach that (even in our Bible we can read passages that seem to call for an uprising against others) but there are factions that use the Koran (or the Bible) to support their fanatism. To say that all Islams or all Christians or all Jews are holding beliefs similar to those of fanatics is wrong, imo.
Well .... all those Moslems are learning their hatred and terrorism from somewhere. Anyone who thinks that Islam teaches people tolerance should see how "dhimmitude" works in Moslem countries.
the preacher at the Amman University mosque in Jordan. He called on God to wreak vengeance on "Americans, Jews, their allies
"The Americans are digging their own grave and, God willing, our holy warriors in Afghanistan will bury them soon,"
senior Shi'ite Muslim cleric, told worshippers at a south Beirut mosque that the United States was trying to crush the Taliban regime in order to establish a "strategic base" in Central Asia
away from the pulpit there was no shortage of sentiment in favor of bin Laden and his al Qaeda terrorist network
Your example is not the only one. There are schools throughout the Middle East who teach their children from a very young age to hate Americans and Jews. That is basically the only thing that is taught. Those people wake up in the morning and go to bed at night with hatred primary in their minds, I am sure. I have heard it from someone I know who lives in America but believes that Allah is the only true God and Jews must be killed. I do not believe that he himself would kill a Jew, but he certainly would cheer if someone else did. I see that as a very sick and demented attitude.
No, but a significant proportion of them seem to, and the "moderates" seem to be the ones who aren't publicly calling for elimination of infidels. Look at the history and practice of this religion; it is not a pretty thing.
If the so-called Muslim moderates were, in large numbers, denouncing their radical breatheren and helping root them out, it would be one thing. They aren't.
At heart, the teachings of the Koran are hateful and cause large numbers of devout Muslims to engage in killing to expand the religion. The actions of the founder of this religion, Muhammed, were demonstrably evil and perverted by the standards of many reasonable belief systems and people. This is the core of the problem, and until Muslims are whacked hard enough for large numbers of them to reset their thinking, the world will continue to have problems with this murderous tyrannical cult of personality masquerading as a religion.
I understand what you are saying, and I agree that the Muslims who do not believe in the same hatred need to rise up and take a position against those who do. I also realize that I still have a lot to learn about this. My whole point remains that as a Christian I can not take the position that just because someone's belief in God is different than mine, that that person is evil. Hatred is evil. Terrorism is evil. We need to be careful that in our fear and disgust we do not cross that very same line.
I couldn't agree with you more. It is high time our government speak the truth, also.
In theory, everything is the same. In reality, it is all different.
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