🚀 go-pugleaf

Tosin Sulaiman and Sumana Chatterjee, Knight Ridder, 4/16/03
http://www.bayarea.com/mld/mercurynews/5644806.htm

WASHINGTON - Outraged American Muslims are urging the Pentagon to rescind 
an invitation for a prominent Christian evangelist who has harshly 
criticized Islam to appear at a prayer service Friday.

Franklin Graham, the son of the Rev. Billy Graham, will deliver a homily at 
a Good Friday prayer service at the Pentagon, a spokesperson said. Franklin 
Graham called Islam "a very evil and wicked religion" after the Sept. 11, 
2001, terrorist attacks, a comment he has refused to recant.

Graham heads Samaritan's Purse, a fundamentalist Christian organization 
with a $194 million budget for humanitarian aid and ministry. The group, 
known for its active proselytizing, has workers in Jordan and is poised to 
deliver aid in Iraq.

Critics contend that Graham's appearance at the Pentagon will only 
reinforce perceptions among Muslims that the U.S. war in Iraq is a crusade 
against Islam.

"It sends a completely horrible message to the Muslim world," said Sarah 
Eltantawi of the Muslim Public Affairs Council, a policy-oriented and 
grassroots lobbying organization. "I can't think of a worse idea than 
inviting him to speak at this time."

"We're concerned that a man who repeatedly states that Islam is 
intrinsically evil would be invited to the Pentagon for any reason," said 
Ibrahim Hooper of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, which aims to 
educate non-Muslims about Islam. Hooper and other Muslim-American leaders 
insist that the Pentagon rescind Graham's invitation and invite a less 
divisive Christian minister instead...

Samaritan's Purse's assistance for Iraqis has also raised eyebrows.

One aid worker for a secular group said some Muslims near the Jordan-Iraq 
border accepted help from Samaritan's Purse without knowing its Christian 
agenda. The aid worker, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the 
Muslims stopped taking the food and water once they realized the group's 
proselytizing agenda. Tying aid to religious conversion is "not going to be 
very effective. Whether it is morally right is a further question," he said...