Posted on 09/26/2002 6:36:59 PM PDT by knighthawk
CHARLOTTE, N.C(AP) - America is gradually being "Islamized" even while Islamic countries squelch religious freedom within their borders, evangelist Franklin Graham said in his latest comments on Islam.
Graham spoke in an interview published Thursday by the Asheville Citizen-Times.
"Our country is slowly being, very quietly, being Islamized by huge contributions from Saudi Arabia to our universities to pay for Islamic studies, to support Islamic causes in this country," Graham told the paper's editors. "I don't have a problem with that, but I can't go to Saudi Arabia and take even a Bible. I can't go to Saudi Arabia with a Bible. They will confiscate it."
A Temple University professor of Islamic studies and comparative religion expressed concern about the thrust of the comments.
"It's really the tone of Mr. Graham's remarks and his general kind of sweeping statements that are most disturbing," Professor Mahmoud Ayoub said Thursday.
Saudi money donated to American universities usually comes from individuals who have studied in the United States and is not directed at spreading Islam, said Ayoub, a native of Lebanon whose position at Temple is not endowed.
"In fact, I have argued to donors like the Saudis and others that they should have a little more say in how their money is spent," Ayoub said. "They don't have any say."
Graham, 50, is the son of America's most famous evangelist, Billy Graham, and is his father's named successor.
Since the Sept. 11 attacks, Franklin Graham has made repeated comments on Islam, calling it "a very evil and wicked religion."
Last month, in a radio interview, he questioned why Islamic clerics have not apologized to the American people for the Sept. 11 attacks.
In Tuesday's interview with the Citizen-Times, Graham spoke at length about Islam, apparently angered by a recent bombing near a hospital in southern Sudan run by his Boone-based Samaritan's Purse relief organization.
Sudan's Islamic government is engaged in a long-running war on the country's southern population, which is primarily Christian.
Graham said the bombing occurred just before a Sudanese diplomat invited him to participate in peace talks there. Graham said he asked the diplomat to deliver a message to the Sudanese president to stop attacking civilians.
"So after I finished the conversation, on my way home from Arkansas, two fighter planes bombed a little Dinka village and killed 14 people," Graham said.
"They will lie to you at the same time talking peace: 'We want you to be part of the peace process,' Well, thanks a lot for dropping a bomb on my hospital."
Graham traced the roots of the Sept. 11 attacks to the 1979 revolution that brought the Ayatollah Khomeni to power in Iran.
"We in the west have never experienced this kind of behavior, have never seen this before, where religion is driving people to mass murder, where religion is killing innocent people," Graham said. "(This) Islamic revolution that has taken place, starting in Iran, is rising and getting stronger."
Ayoub said that, in reality, there is a deep divide between Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida group and the Iranian revolutionaries.
"Iran is a Shiite country and both the Saudis and al-Qaida (are Sunnis), they see the Iranians as infidels," he said.
Ayoub added, "I do not think that Christianity is free from religious violence. ... I'm not saying Muslims are saints, but nor are Christians."
Iranian revolutionaries like Khomeini are soooooo different from Osoam bin Laden:
The Ayatollah Khomeini responding to apologists for Islam (Taheri, Amir, Holy Terror, London 1987, pp. 226-7):
Islam makes it incumbent on all adult males, provided they are not disabled and incapacitated, to prepare themselves for the conquest of other [countries] so that the writ of Islam is obeyed in every country in the world. But those who study Islamic Holy War will understand why Islam wants to conquer the whole world...Those who know nothing of Islam pretend that Islam counsels against war. Those [who say this] are witless. Islam says: Kill all the unbelievers just as they would kill you all! Does this mean that Muslims should sit back until they are devoured [by the unbelievers]? Islam says: Kill them [the non-Muslims], put them to the sword and scatter [their armies]. Does this mean sitting back until [non-Muslims] overcome us? Islam says: Kill in the service of Allah those who may want to kill you! Does this mean that we should surrender to the enemy? Islam says: Whatever good there is exists thanks to the sword and in the shadow of the sword! People cannot be made obedient except with the sword! The sword is the key to Paradise, which can be opened only for Holy Warriors! There are hundreds of other [Koranic] psalms and Hadiths [sayings of the Prophet] urging Muslims to value war and to fight. Does all that mean that Islam is a religion that prevents men from waging war? I spit upon those foolish souls who make such a claim.
Islam-list
If people want on or off this list, please let me know.
Actually, that's exactly what the bible calls those who follow Christ....the saints. But all that aside, I'm still searching the files for the Christian terrorists that slammed planes into thousands of folks in Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, or Jordan.....
How unChristian!
M
Khomeini was no Christian. Khomeini spits on foolish souls (apologists) who think islam is about peace.
Thirty years ago, the moslem population of the US was around 100,000. Today, it is most likely around 3 million (in spite of moslem claims that it's closer to 6 million, which experts tend to disagree with).
In other words, in 30 years they have increased 30 times.
Which means, in 30 more years, if they keep up this same rate of increase, there will be 90 million moslems in the US. And I'm assuming our rate of increase will not keep up with theirs.
Think where this country will be then. By then they most likely will have imposed sharia on the US.
M
Hey Professor Mahmoud, you want the truth? Press here!
You can't take a Bible into our own institutions of education either. I do have a problem with this. I rather think he does too.
America is not being "Islamicized."
I'm really disappointed in Franklin Graham. Unlike his father, who spoke of Christ and Him crucified, Franklin is running down another belief.
The antidote to Islam is Christianity, and Franklin would do better to proclaim the Gospel.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.