RKMBs Forums .::Important::. Politics and Current Events Islam: a religion of peace?

Franklin Graham, the son of Rev. Billy Graham and the president and CEO of Samaritan’s Purse and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, says President Obama, like President Bush before him, just doesn’t understand Islam.


Graham noted Obama’s recent comments on the conflict in the Middle East.

“In his speech, the president made this baffling comment about Islam: ‘Islam teaches peace. Muslims all over the world aspire to live with dignity and a sense of justice. And when it comes to America and Islam, there is no us and them – there is only us, because millions of Muslim Americans are part of the fabric of our country,’” Graham wrote in a recent commentary for Decision magazine.

But [Graham] said that [Obama's quoted view of islam] just doesn’t line up with the facts that people see.

Obama, he asserted, doesn’t understand Islam.

“Even President Bush in the previous administration called Islam a peaceful religion. Both men have done a great disservice to the American public by not understanding Islam and its teaching in the Quran,” Graham wrote.

He noted he recently was in Lafayette Square, across the street from the White House, to pray for Pastor Saeed Abedini, an Iranian-American who has been imprisoned for two years in Iran “simply because of his Christian faith.”

“Islamic terrorists are indiscriminately and brutally killing all who stand in their way, as evidenced by the gruesome, demonic images of recent beheadings of American and British journalists. For Muslims, peace comes only through submission to Islam. When they speak of peace, they mean submission to their religion,” he said.


“This is why, as we prayed for the release of Saeed and persecuted Christians, I spoke to the president via the media and loudspeakers,” he said.

His message was simple: “Mr. President – followers of a peaceful religion do not cut off the heads of innocent people in barbaric fashion. … Mr. President – believers in a peaceful religion do not kidnap 300 young schoolgirls as Boko Haram did in northeastern Nigeria in April and reportedly [sell] them to men to be sex slaves. … Mr. President – men who practice a peaceful religion do not detonate bombs on an American street during a marathon race to kill and maim innocent people. … Mr. President – no one who belongs to a peaceful religion would even consider hijacking airlines and flying them into buildings occupied by thousands of innocent people beginning their workday. … Mr. President – no peaceful religion would tolerate, let alone practice, female circumcision, require a woman to have her husband’s permission to leave her home and take up employment, and restrict her ability to receive justice.”

Graham continued, “Mr. President – a peaceful religion would not condone and allow a father to drown a daughter in a swimming pool in front of the family in the name of family honor because she might have stayed out late in the evening with her boyfriend.”

And pointedly, he asked, “Mr. President – why haven’t the 3.5 million Muslims in North America rejected this gross, barbaric and despicable behavior by their fellow Muslims on American soil?”

In his commentary, headlined “Is Islam Really a Religion of Peace?” in the November Decision, he cited Obama’s claim al-Qaida and Boko Haram are guided by an ideology that will “simply wilt and die if it is consistently exposed, confronted and refuted in the light of day.”

“That simply is not the case,” he said. “Islam … is a false religion [that is] guided and characterized by treacherous deceit.”

Obama attended Islamic schools in Indonesia during his youth, and many members of his extended family in Kenya are Muslims. He once said in an interview that the call to Muslim prayer was the most beautiful sound on earth.

Graham sparked a controversy two years ago when he was responding to questions about Obama’s faith.

In a report in the Christian Post, he described how Obama responded to a question of how he came to faith in Christ by explaining he was working as a community organizer, and people asked him where he went to church. He said he didn’t, they told him he needed to, and he ended up at Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s congregation in Chicago.

Graham said he accepts Obama’s statement that he is Christian, but noted: “Islam sees him as a son of Islam because his father was a Muslim, his grandfather was a Muslim. All I know is under Obama, President Obama, the Muslims of the world, he seems to be more concerned about them than the Christians that are being murdered in the Muslim countries.”

Pressed about Obama’s faith, Graham said: “I think you have to ask President Obama. You can ask me do I believe if you’re a Christian but I think the best thing for a person is to ask you directly. He’s come out saying he’s a Christian so I think the question is what is a Christian?”

Graham said he could not support Obama as a candidate because of his positions on abortion and traditional marriage. Obama’s faith “has nothing to do with my consideration of him as a candidate,” Graham said.



That same year, CBN reported, Graham said Obama was defying God by supporting “gay marriage.”

“President Obama has, in my view, shaken his fist at the same God who created and defined marriage,” he said. “It grieves me that our president would affirm same-sex marriage, though I believe it grieves God even more.”

A CNS report also noted that Graham said some people in the Obama administration are “hostile to Christians” to the point they “are anti-Christ in what they say and in what they do.”

His comments came as part of an interview about religious persecution in the U.S. armed forces.