Evangelical crusaders prepare to fight Islam with aid and a Bible
By Andrew Gumbel in Los Angeles
22 April 2003
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/story.jsp?story=399347
Evangelical charities with an overt hostility to Islam are preparing to distribute food, water, medicine and building materials in Iraq, all in the name of Jesus.
One of the charities, Samaritan's Purse, is run by Franklin Graham, the son of the evangelist Billy Graham, who declared after the 11 September attacks that Islam was "a very evil and wicked religion". Another is the Southern Baptist Convention, whose former president once described the Prophet Mohamed as "a demon-possessed paedophile". About 800 of SBC's volunteers are reported to be on their way to Iraq to deliver food packages labelled with a verse from St John's Gospel, in Arabic, saying that "grace and truth were realised through Jesus Christ".
Such insensitivity is viewed by some as playing into the hands of those to whom the "war on terrorism" is a religious crusade. But what really riles Muslim groups all over the world is that these activities are overtly supported by the Bush administration. Franklin Graham, a long-standing friend of the President, was invited to participate in this year's Good Friday prayer service at the Pentagon, angering many in the Defence Department. Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said the invitation "sends entirely the wrong message to the Muslim and Arab world ... This kind of incident can undo any kind of bridges built by a hundred public affairs officers at the Pentagon."
Franklin Graham has a record of hostility to Islam and unabashed proselytising, even where it is illegal. After the 1991 Gulf War, he infuriated Norman Schwarzkopf, the commander of Operation Desert Storm, by shipping tens of thousands of Arabic-language New Testaments to Saudi Arabia in defiance of Saudi law and the US-Saudi military alliance.
In his most recent book, he says that Christianity and Islam are "as different as lightness and darkness" and that the two religions are destined to fight each other until the second coming of Christ, which he says is imminent. During a book tour last year, he said Islam posed "a greater threat than anyone's willing to speak". He has toned down the rhetoric recently to pacify his critics but few believe him when he says "we don't have to preach to be a Christian relief organisation".
Samaritan's Purse has worked in many countries, including Rwanda, Somalia, southern Sudan, Bosnia, Kosovo and Afghanistan. Mr Graham flies in his some of his relief planes, especially when they are in danger. Such gusto has won him many friends in the Republican Party, including Bill Frist, the Senate majority leader, who has joined him on missions in Sudan. And he is a popular figure on the fundamentalist right – an important Bush constituency that loves the idea of good versus evil and a president ordained by God to lead America in tough times.
That is also why the Iraqis are likely to oppose his presence. As Michelle Cottle writes in this week's New Republic magazine: "At this point, Graham's ugly disquisitions on the nature of Islam have made him so radioactive that, even if he doesn't utter one word about Jesus while in Iraq, his mere presence in the region could be considered a provocation."
By Andrew Gumbel in Los Angeles
22 April 2003
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/story.jsp?story=399347
Evangelical charities with an overt hostility to Islam are preparing to distribute food, water, medicine and building materials in Iraq, all in the name of Jesus.
One of the charities, Samaritan's Purse, is run by Franklin Graham, the son of the evangelist Billy Graham, who declared after the 11 September attacks that Islam was "a very evil and wicked religion". Another is the Southern Baptist Convention, whose former president once described the Prophet Mohamed as "a demon-possessed paedophile". About 800 of SBC's volunteers are reported to be on their way to Iraq to deliver food packages labelled with a verse from St John's Gospel, in Arabic, saying that "grace and truth were realised through Jesus Christ".
Such insensitivity is viewed by some as playing into the hands of those to whom the "war on terrorism" is a religious crusade. But what really riles Muslim groups all over the world is that these activities are overtly supported by the Bush administration. Franklin Graham, a long-standing friend of the President, was invited to participate in this year's Good Friday prayer service at the Pentagon, angering many in the Defence Department. Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said the invitation "sends entirely the wrong message to the Muslim and Arab world ... This kind of incident can undo any kind of bridges built by a hundred public affairs officers at the Pentagon."
Franklin Graham has a record of hostility to Islam and unabashed proselytising, even where it is illegal. After the 1991 Gulf War, he infuriated Norman Schwarzkopf, the commander of Operation Desert Storm, by shipping tens of thousands of Arabic-language New Testaments to Saudi Arabia in defiance of Saudi law and the US-Saudi military alliance.
In his most recent book, he says that Christianity and Islam are "as different as lightness and darkness" and that the two religions are destined to fight each other until the second coming of Christ, which he says is imminent. During a book tour last year, he said Islam posed "a greater threat than anyone's willing to speak". He has toned down the rhetoric recently to pacify his critics but few believe him when he says "we don't have to preach to be a Christian relief organisation".
Samaritan's Purse has worked in many countries, including Rwanda, Somalia, southern Sudan, Bosnia, Kosovo and Afghanistan. Mr Graham flies in his some of his relief planes, especially when they are in danger. Such gusto has won him many friends in the Republican Party, including Bill Frist, the Senate majority leader, who has joined him on missions in Sudan. And he is a popular figure on the fundamentalist right – an important Bush constituency that loves the idea of good versus evil and a president ordained by God to lead America in tough times.
That is also why the Iraqis are likely to oppose his presence. As Michelle Cottle writes in this week's New Republic magazine: "At this point, Graham's ugly disquisitions on the nature of Islam have made him so radioactive that, even if he doesn't utter one word about Jesus while in Iraq, his mere presence in the region could be considered a provocation."
