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.
I looked in two bibles and did a net search. I could not find any reference to that statement with the word "this" in it.
You Chirstians really do confuse me. You tell me the Bible is the word of god. You tell me it is the literal word of god. You tell me nothing has been lost in translation because god is watching. THEN
You tell me a common biblical phrase has been translated wrong.
I really am truely confused.
I believe Clinton would have prayed to whatever he thought would get his sorry a** out of whatever jam it happened to be in at any given time. He was, in my opinion, an idolator in every way.
Really? I suppose if W prayed for guidance that God would have instructed him as the leader of the free world to publically condemn Islam as Rev. Graham did, and inflame an already extremely antagonistic and volatile situation.
Just as Osama bin Laden attempted to do.
Start a holy war.
That would have be great.
Thank God W doesn't consult you for guidance.
We should let the libs know we will not take their bull any longer in everyway we can.Libs are NOT our friends and never will be.
I Thank God for Bush every day. And I pray God gives him wisdom in all his decisions. I am very proud of Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and I truly feel they are doing a great job. I love the way Rummy stands up to the media.
Speaking of FR message board Pharisees on parade......(gag)
I've been watching Bush very closely, he's a political genius, but not a moral one.
Oh, PUULLEEEZZE!
ROFL!
I wonder how well Rosie and Babs and Brittany will adapt to the burqa.
Incidentally, the words I quoted should have moved a person with a heart, regardless of who the author of those words was. But your heart was replaced by a docitrine. I met a lot of people like you, whose heart is replaced by quotations from the Bible. They love G-d and are unable to love poeple.
I am not going to waste my time on someone for whom Google is the arbiter of knowledge. This is my last reply to you. Have a happy Thanksgiving.
I admit, I hear this not for the first time. So, how does this measure your character, purity of heart, and devotion to G-d that you discovered FR in, say, 2000 and not 2001?
The only answer I have is this: small minds use small yardsticks.
I have participated in quite a few of interesting, thoughtful, and though-provoking discussions on FR, so I am quite content and gratified with those. So, please, if you have nothing to say, just keep silence.
As Mark Twain said, to wit: "The smart man is not the one who says smart things --- it is the one who refrains from saying something stupid."
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