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FRANKLIN GRAHAM is one of America’s most powerful Christian
leaders. He delivered the benediction at George W. Bush’s inauguration. His father,
Billy, counseled a long list of presidents. But now Franklin is in trouble with political
friends for comments made recently, calling the entire Islamic religion “wicked,
violent and not of the same God.”
“I don’t believe this is a wonderful, peaceful
religion,” said Graham. “When you read the Koran and you read the verses from the Koran, it instructs the killing of the infidel,
for those that are non-Muslim.”
Asked by NBC News to clarify his statement, Graham repeated his
charge that Islam, as a whole, is an evil.
“It wasn’t Methodists flying into those buildings, it
wasn’t Lutherans,” said Graham. “It was an attack on this country by people
of the Islamic faith.” |
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Meanwhile, Ramadan, the holiest season of the Muslim
year, has begun. Graham’s comments came as Bush, himself a deeply religious
Christian, wished the world’s 1 billion Muslims, “health, prosperity and
happiness during Ramadan.”
“Islam never teaches hatred, Islam never teaches
terrorism,” says Imam Hassan Al-Qazwini of the Islamic Center of America.
The White House also distanced itself from Graham’s
remarks Friday, saying the president “views Islam as a religion that preaches
peace,” and that the terrorists do not represent what Islam teaches. |
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