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What I have found interesting on these threads is that the anti-Graham folks have stated what Rev. Graham *said* is reason for him to be censored. But I think the true source of their ire is what Rev. Graham *thinks*.

What exactly do you mean by that? That's crazy talk.

Graham thinks a lot like President Bush--he's a conservative Christian. What he thinks about Islam is probably different than what Bush thinks, and what he says about it is unacceptable for a public figure representing our government in any capacity. He isn't being brought to the Pentagon to share his tactical genius or give a presentation about a new weapons system, he's there to share his opinion, and it's an odious opinion.

My question is, how can Bush and Rumsfeld be so STUPID as to allow this to happen? This is INCREDIBLY STUPID. Muslims the world over are going to see Franklin Graham, avowed and unapologetic Islam-hater, invited to the PENTAGON to talk with our top guys. Muslims around the world are going to say this is proof there is a crusade against Islam. This is STUPID, SHAME on whoever planned this and SHAME on whoever isn't taking action to stop it.

What exactly do you mean by that? That's crazy talk.

I meant exactly what I typed.

And "crazy talk"? I like how C. S. Lewis put it (my thanks to aruanan for the quote--it seems fitting here):

"A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic--on the level with a man who says he is a poached egg--or else he would be the devil of hell. You must make your choice. Either he was and is the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon; or you can fall at his feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to."

While we obviously disagree, I support your right to call whomever you wish "stupid" or "bigot." Thank God we still have the freedom to think and speak as we wish.

Muslims the world over are going to see Franklin Graham, avowed and unapologetic Islam-hater, invited to the PENTAGON to talk with our top guys. Muslims around the world are going to say this is proof there is a crusade against Islam. This is STUPID, SHAME on whoever planned this and SHAME on whoever isn't taking action to stop it.

You're making a grave error in analysis. I'm still not sure whether or not it's deliberate. Franklin Graham is an avowed and unapologetic critic of Islam, but he's not a Muslim-hater. I can tell you right off the bat that he has done more good to more Muslims than most people ever hope to be able to do. As far as crusades go, the ones everyone refers to were a belated and less than successful response to Muslim assaults against Europe. Neither Christianity nor Judaism has a theological imperative to plunder and destroy the infidel. Islam has had such since the first few decades of its existence. It's to their credit that many Muslims ignore these edicts or spiritualize them. But they are indeed there and have shaped the Muslim interaction with the rest of the world.

I know Muslims at school. My church has helped Muslim refugees from Bosnia and from the Sudan. I've had Muslim friends all the way back into high school, but that still doesn't stop me from making the following observation and, its deliberate hyperbole notwithstanding, being substantially correct:

Any thoughtful person who knows history and religion would be anti-Islam. Along with Communism, Naziism, and the Black Death, Islam has been responsible for more death and destruction on the face of the planet than just about anything else since the last asteroid impact. Islam was started by predators. It has spread by predation. It has lived off the decaying corpses of the civilizations it has destroyed. It is a vast, ancient sea of corruption, oppression, fanaticism, and ignorance lapping up against the shores of the present, kept alive by the fortuitous accident of living above huge reserves of petroleum.