Rev. Graham is in the House

[pynchonoid]

<http://english.aljazeera.net/topics/article.asp?cu_no=1&item_no=2710&version=1&template_id=263&parent_id=258>

Pentagon draws fire for preacher engagement

[...]  Muslims in the US are outraged that evangelist
Reverend Franklin Graham will be preaching on Good
Friday to the Defence Department. Graham stirred
controversy in 2001 when he called Islam a “very evil
and wicked religion.”
 
[...]  Spokesperson for the Washington-based Council
on American-Islamic Relations, Ibrahim Hooper said
that inviting Graham to the prayer service “sends
entirely the wrong message to the Muslim and Arab
world that the Pentagon will host someone who has such
Islamophobic views.” Hooper stressed concern over the
perception that this will give people around the
world. “This kind of incident can undo any kind of
bridges built by a hundred public affairs officers at
the Pentagon,” he said.
 
In any case, the criticism from Muslims at the
Pentagon is an embarrassing incident for the Bush
administration that has strived to portray an image to
Arab nations and Muslims around the world that the
United States is not at war with Islam.
 
However, the Graham family, although highly feted
within the Christian-right wing and among American
Zionist groups, is no stranger to controversy.
 
In released audio tapes of late president Richard
Nixon, Graham’s father, Reverend Billy Graham is heard
making anti-Jewish remarks to the president. He said
that Jews have a “stranglehold” on American media and
that it must be broken, “or the country’s going down
the drain.” He added that his Jewish friends “swarm”
around him, but “they don’t know how I really feel
about what they’re doing to this country,” Graham
said.
 
Reverend Franklin Graham’s relief
organisation-Samaritan’s Purse, has also been the
source of further controversy. It is accused of using
the crisis in Iraq as a means to convert Muslims to
Christianity rather than solely providing physical
assistance. [...] 



=====
<http://www.pynchonoid.blogspot.com/>

__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
The New Yahoo! Search - Faster. Easier. Bingo.
http://search.yahoo.com