Bin Laden No Worse Than Falwell, Robertson, Swaggart, Top Muslim Says

NewsMax ^ | 11/19/02 | Limbacher

[Tumbleweed_Connection]

A spokesman for a leading U.S.-based Muslim organization insisted Sunday that conservative Christian leaders Rev. Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson and Rev. Jimmy Swaggart are just as bad as Osama bin Laden because, given the chance, they would commit mass murder against Muslims.

"They're the equivalent of our Osama bin Laden," said Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), in an interview with WABC Radio's Steve Malzberg.

"Why did Osama bin Laden send planes into the World Trade Center? What possible reason?," Hooper asked rhetorically. "The only thing you can think of is that he wanted to create a permanent divide between the Muslim world and the West. And that's the same thing these guys want to do."

Questioned on whether he thought the three Christian conservatives wanted to kill Muslims, Hooper initially told Malzberg, "Their tactics are obviously not the same but their goals are the same..... Their goals are to divide people along religious lines and to create an unending civilizational conflict that does no one any good."

But moments later, Hooper charged that Falwell, Robertson and Swaggart would commit mass murder against Muslims if they had the chance.

MALZBERG: And what do you think Osama bin Laden's goals are?

HOOPER: About the same thing (unending civilizational conflict).

MALZBERG: Not to kill Christians and Jews and Westerners?

HOOPER: Yes, that's one of his goals. And I'm sure that, given the right circumstance, these guys would do the same in the opposite direction. (End of Excerpt)

Hooper offered the ugly comparison just two days after President Bush responded to CAIR's call for the White House to condemn the three Christian leaders for criticizing Islam as a violent religion.

In a meeting with U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan on Friday - two days after CAIR issued its complaint - Bush said, "Some of the comments that have been uttered about Islam do not reflect the sentiments of my government or the sentiments of most Americans. Islam, as practiced by the vast majority of people, is a peaceful religion, a religion that respects others."

Secretary of State Colin Powell echoed Bush's remarks in comments later that day.

Hooper said he was pleased by the president's comments, but regretted that he did not specifically cite Falwell, Robertson and Swaggart by name.

"It would have been good for the president to name names," Hooper told Malzberg. "But I think it's clear that, on background, a top official said, 'Yeah, that's who he was talking about - the Swaggarts, the Robertsons, the Falwells."

Though prohibited by tax law from engaging in overt campaigning, Robertson and Falwell are considered staunch allies of the Bush White House, and their ministries were responsible for adding millions of votes to the GOP column.

The White House did not respond by presstime to Mr. Hooper's comments comparing the top Christian leaders to the world's most notorious terrorist.

[AmericanVictory]

You haven't noticed all those suicide bombers in Lynchburg, all those Baptists driving into Muslim centers with bomb-laden pickups? Shame on you.

[AmericanVictory]

You are obviously unaware that logic is a white, Euro-American Judeo concept which was imposed by colonialism. Like the Black Caucus and the Marxists, Islamists are beyond logic. Long live Yoruba mathematics!

[nanny]

[President Bush & Colin Powell were pretty quick to criticize the "Christian Right." I expect equal censure of Hooper. ]

I won't hold my breath. He should have stayed out of it altogether - it is a frightening thing when one religious leader can get the President of the US to condemn other religious leaders.

[k2blader]

I won't hold my breath. He should have stayed out of it altogether - it is a frightening thing when one religious leader can get the President of the US to condemn other religious leaders.

Agreed, agreed & agreed!

But as the door has already been opened, I think President Bush must either refute Hooper's comments or be considered inconsistent, for lack of a better word...

[bulldogs]

What a crudy spout.

[Michael2001]

what an idiot.

[PeoplesRepublicOfWashington]

I must confess to being white Euro-American trash overly influenced by our colonial legacy. Please accept my apology.

I'm a bit afraid to ask what Yoruba math is. Am I worthy of knowing?

[AmericanVictory]

If memory serves, it was a satirical concept put forward many years ago by one of the terrific columniss who used to write for the old Washington Star. He also, as I recall, did a story on the space program in one of the African republics in which they sought to put a man on the moon by positioning him in an old tire in a monstrous sling shot made of indigeneous rubber. That sort of truth is, of course, no longer allowed.

[steve-b]

Ya shoulda clicked the link in Msg#48 and been spared the embarassment.

[Moby Grape]

I disagree...Goebbels had a brain.

[Moby Grape]

The left are a gaggle of paroind mindless dimwits. Leaving aside the stupid assertions that Christians would kill all the Muslims if given the chance, in this article, he asserts that Falwell, Robertson, etc. produced MILLIONS of votes for Bush....Falwell and Robertson do NOT command anyone. Christians vote as they chose, they do not blindly follow TV evangelists to the polls....besides, where is the evidence that there were MILLIONS of votes produced by Falwell and Robertson....like so much of what the left says, the exgerations are extreme....Twenty years ago, Ted Danson said the oceans would be "dead in 10 years". Thirty years ago Newsweek Magzine warned that there was a new ICE AGE coming and conservatives and republicans were blocking efforts to do something to stop it.

[swarthyguy]

Thanks for setting the record straight. It's amazing how that Lie seems to propogate.

BTW, i read that Algebra was named after an Arab Al-Jahabra who brought it westwards from India.

[RAT Patrol]

Good point.

I do think lefties have a paranoid fear of the so-called "religious right." We are scary legends in their own minds. Falwell and Robertson have made big differences in past elections. But, as you said, they don't force people to vote a certain way. (...and calculating the influence sounds like nothing more than statistics of convenience.) They have as much right as anyone else to participate and give their opinions.

[k2blader]

Ya shoulda clicked the link in Msg#48 and been spared the embarassment.

Oh, is that your "names & evidence"?

Thou art revealed. ;)

[Moby Grape]

If daily doses of pro-propaganda REALLY helped provide millions of votes, it would be the democrats who would benefit from TV news and other shows, to Hollywood movies, to the nation's newspapers, to Time Magazine, in other words....the voters are virtually surrounded by pro-democrat messages. How could Falwell and Robertson have all that influence when they are outnumbered 100 to 1?

[RightOnline]

So, who's this drooling idiot Hooper.......and just why should I give a flyin' s**t what he thinks??

[eclectic]

Islam,as practiced by the vast majority of people, is a peaceful religion, a religion that respects others

Unfortunatly, the rest are murderous fanatics