Shortly after the attacks of September 11, Graham had commented, "I don't believe [Islam] is a wonderful, peaceful religion." Asked by NBC News on Friday to clarify his statement, he repeated his charge that Islam, as a whole, was evil.Posted on 11/21/2001 9:28:59 AM PST by truthandlife
In what is believed to be a first in American history, there were prayers to Allah last night at the White House where President Bush hosted a formal Ramadan celebration with dozens of Muslim leaders.
The Ramadan event was another effort by the Bush Administration to prove its war on terrorism is not a war against Islam. However, conservative voices like Gary Bauer have been sharply critical of that effort. He says he has heard from a number of people within the U.S. intelligence community who are shocked and demoralized that some of the Muslim leaders who have been spending time with the President have been known to speak out in favor of terrorism.
Bauer notes that while these people are getting the red carpet treatment at the White House, reports indicate the President is distancing himself from one of the country's best-known evangelicals. According to reports, Franklin Graham upset the Bush Administration when he recently referred to Islam as being "wicked, violent, and not of the same God."
Shortly after the attacks of September 11, Graham had commented, "I don't believe [Islam] is a wonderful, peaceful religion." Asked by NBC News on Friday to clarify his statement, he repeated his charge that Islam, as a whole, was evil.
"It wasn't Methodists flying into those buildings, it wasn't Lutherans," he told NBC News. "It was an attack on this country by people of the Islamic faith."
In a follow-up statement yesterday, Graham said he is deeply concerned with "the teachings of Islam regarding the treatment of women, and the killing of non-Muslims or infidels."
The son of Rev. Billy Graham and the designated successor of his father's extensive evangelical ministry, Graham delivered the benediction at Bush's inauguration in January. As NBC News observed, "A presidential friend and supporter now finds himself at odds with both the Muslim world and the message from the White House." But conservative columnist Chuck Baldwin calls Graham "a breath of fresh air" for standing firm and not apologizing for his statements.
Meanwhile, The New York Times reports a Muslim advocacy organization has sent a letter to Graham inviting him to meet with them to discuss his remarks. In the letter, Nihad Awad of the Council on America-Islamic Relations says, "Negative impressions of Islam are most often based on a lack of accurate and objective information."
Positive Outcome
As a national holiday approaches, President Bush says Americans of various faiths will be "joined in prayer" this Thanksgiving. "On this holiday, we give thanks for our many blessings and for life itself," Bush said. "Thanksgiving reminds us that the greatest gifts don't come from the hands of man, but from the Maker of heaven and earth. This week, American families will gather in that spirit."
Since the September terrorist attacks, church attendance has increased and there have been more prayer gatherings on Capitol Hill. Evangelist Pat Robertson believes people have been shocked into examining what their true values are.
"What we're seeing is that this awful attack, as horrific ... and as heart-rending [as it was], is bringing about one of the greatest spiritual revivals in the history of America," Robertson says. "[T]he churches are full ... people are turning to God, they're turning to their families, they're turning to the fundamental values, and they're getting away from all this fluff of the last decade."
Robertson made his comments today on CNN.
Apparently all of your learning came only from "watching and listening" on FR; this accounts for your narrowmindedness. Buy yourself a book sometime. Take a course at a university. Get a passport and travel to a far-away land. Get around more.
As for your Praise His Holy Name, I do not need to hear it from you; please take your prosyletizing and patronizing somewhere else.
I'd be happy to talk to you again after you broaden your horizons a bit. Until then, good-bye and have a very peaceful, happy Thanksgiving.
The true church of Jehova God will be raptured out of here leaving the liberal air head leaders to answer many questions about where the rest of us are that used to be around. The lies are already rehearsed and ready to be delivered. By not supporting this man of the cloth and preferring to believe a lie instead they will deal with the consequences of radical islam. Franklin Graham is right today and will be right for as long as this country remains around. If you don't know whats worth living for you will never know whats worth dying for. Religion is Not worth dying for; but Christianity & Jehova God deliver the goods to a starving world. Join the Feast!
Of course Methodist can be Christians.But most are not,proof is found in the compromised gospel they preach,and accept as members of the church.
Most Methodists are social christians..it seems W falls into that category too
"Hoever, to hold some holy book responsible for the attacks is as wrong as deducing that Christianity is evil becasue of the crusades."
If you studied history at all, you would know that the crusades were an answer to a 300 year blood bath carried out by Muslims.
The Koran is no 'holy book' it is a volume of intense, and unmitigated evil. - - To fail to announce this is dishonest.
I knew that Catholics required the private conression of sins to a priest. I did not know the rest of Christianity required a public confession of sins.
Clinton is probably my least favorite POTUS. Notwithstanding that, what he does in the privacy of his home (The White House) should not be any of the public's business.
It seems that I have been lied to by lots of people who called themselves Christians or by fake Christians...I am not sure which.
Your reaction is rather common: in the previous few posts we carried out a discussion, wherein I pointed out that one should try to reach a reasoned rather than prejudiced conclusion. When you run out of arguments, you attack the messenger.
That is exactly what I tried to caution you against: a misplaced hatred leads to more hatred. Of your own. And, ultimately, of yourself.
If you studied history at all, you would know that the crusades were an answer to a 300 year blood bath carried out by Muslims. Well, if you studied history, you would know that at the time Jerusalem belonged to the infidel, and the Christian soldiers were sent to liberate it.
This was not even my point, however (and, since I have reiterated it, to pretend otherwise is disingenuous on your part). I also mentioned that before reaching Jerusalem the crusaders "liberated" Europe of the Europeans --- pagans and Jews, who were slaughtered en mass. Surely, this has nothing to do with the Bible, a holy book.
You want examples outside of the context of crusades? Once Moors concurred Spain, there was no slaughter there whatsoever. Most scholars actually point to this period as almost exemplary in peaceful coexistence of Muslims, Christians, Jews, and even pagans. No warfare whatsoever until XXI century, when Christians started to push Moors back. It took a few hundred years, by and the reconquest was complete after the fall of Granada in end of XXIV century to Isabella the Catholic. Like crusaders, she was also not content by expelling the “foreigners.” She has proceeded to liberate Spain from the Spaniards: in 1492, under the threat of death, she has expelled all Roma people (Gypsies) and then the Jews. The second voyage of Columbus was largely financed by the property ceased from those expelled. What was their sin? What "300 year blood bath" did the Roma and Jews inflict on Ferdinand and Isabella? The only sin of these Spaniards was that they were "infidels." They were most certainly Spaniards: Jews and Phoenicians arrived in Iberia long before Goths like Isabella. My point is rather simple. In the past, we too carried many actions that we would not undertake today. We slaughtered the “infidels,” and fought many fratricidal wars for the “purity” of Christianity. Even here, in the States, in the XX century, the Catholics were not “properly Christian.” It would be wrong to attribute out prejudice, mayhem and murder to the Bible would of course be wrong. Jesus has not ordered the crusades; the Church did.
We have learned from our mistakes, and for quite some time have not had any religious wars. The Arab Muslim world has not yet learned that lesson. I say Arab Muslim world, because people like you conveniently forget about our good and loyal friend --- Turkey -- a Muslim country that is a democracy for much longer than Christian Russia, for instance. Turks are Muslim, democratic, Western, and very loyal to the U.S. They read the same Koran.
Our war is not with the religion as expressed in their holy books: it is with the “Muslim church” that declared “crusades” on us. We should fight back and give them no mercy until we prevail completely.
But our war is with people, not religions. I am not worried that we will hit them too much: nothing is too much for them. My worry is that, once we step on the path of comparing religions themselves and the holy books, there main damage we will do to ourselves. We shall start with the Muslims and continue to argue who the “proper” Christian is. We have been there before, and shed much of needless blood of our brothers and neighbors.
Golda Meir, who was the prime minister of Israel when signing a peace accord with the president of Egypt Sadat, said to him the following: “I can forgive you for killing my children. But I cannot forgive you for making me kill yours.” Think about that. I very often do.
I wish you all a very Happy Thanksgiving.
It is unfortunate though, that he did not at least find some neutral ground on which to meet to appease them, though I would feel much better if he felt he had no need to appease them. I have no doubt that God would have honored his refusal to hold idolators in high esteem.
Well said!
President Bush is more clever and shrewd than all ragheads bunched together. He prays to Allah with them and will be bombing them until the last head falls of the turban. Remember when Bush said "We will turn them against each other" it works!
I do not offend that easily or I would not post at FR..Perhaps the best demonstration of the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ would be a refusal to compromise it..you do not see the heathans compromising do you?
Jesus spoke with sinners,but He never participated with them in their sin. he offered them truth and freedom.
The only way to show true love is to bring the gospel.Tolerance is not love!
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