Graham Bashed for Muslim Comment

Franklin Graham, son of evangelist Billy Graham, has come under fire for a controversial Facebook comment he posted calling for the closing of U.S. borders to all Muslims in the wake of the domestic terrorist attack in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

Graham’s Facebook post of July 17 reads: “We are under attack by Muslims at home and abroad. We should stop all immigration of Muslims to the U.S. until this threat with Islam has been settled. Every Muslim that comes into this country has the potential to be radicalized, and they do their killing to honor their religion and Muhammad.”

“Every Muslim that comes into this country has the potential to be radicalized, and they do their killing to honor their religion and Muhammad.”

Graham, head of both the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and Samaritan’s Purse, an international relief organization, continued: “During World War II, we didn’t allow Japanese to immigrate to America, nor did we allow Germans. Why are we allowing Muslims now? Do you agree? Let your congressman know that we’ve got to put a stop to this and close the flood gates.”

Mainstream media outlets responded immediately — and predictably. The Huffington Post characterized Franklin’s missive as “spewing unhinged hatred and bigotry against American Muslims.”

On its website, The Atlantic quipped: “One should expect that parents would lose their minds long before their children. But in the case of the famed evangelist Billy Graham’s son, Franklin, it may be the other way around.”

Another site, Counterpunch.org, called Graham the “Apostle of Hatred” in the title of its article about the controversial post.

A review of Graham’s recent Facebook posts on Muslims reveals three recurring themes: 1) a pressing concern for America’s safety; 2) a plea to consider less the rights of Muslims and more the lives of Americans who are increasingly under threat of terror acts by radicals; and 3) a call to understand the Islamic faith as he understands it.

“I agree with F.G. … Muslims are the ones killing Americans.”

Graham told Campbell Brown of CNN in 2010 that “true Islam cannot be practiced in this country. You can’t beat your wife. You cannot murder your children, if you think they’ve committed adultery or something like that, which they do practice in these other countries.”

In the wake of Christian beheadings overseas and radicalized extremist Muslim shootings like the Chattanooga attack here in the U.S., some people feel his post is appropriate. Commenting on Graham’s provocative post, one person writes: “This ‘Peaceful Religion’ is slaughtering tens of thousands of Christian children, women, and men … in the Middle East who will not convert to Islam…. Revelations speaks of these ‘precious martyrs who are beheaded’ for Jesus, and they seek to do the same here in the United States.”

And another says, simply: “I agree with F.G. … Muslims are the ones killing Americans.”

In another post, Graham refers to the Islamic State’s brutal beheading of 21 Egyptian Christians kidnapped in Libya. “Can you imagine the outcry if 21 Muslims had been beheaded by Christians?” he asked. “Where is the universal condemnation by Muslim leaders around the world…” His closing words: “The storm is coming.”

Graham does not hesitate to voice his opinion on political and moral matters, including Greece’s financial crisis, abortion, the Obama presidency, same-sex marriage and terrorism.

Many fondly recall his father Billy Graham, who stuck more to proclaiming the gospel during his time in the public eye as spiritual adviser to several American presidents and the leading Christian evangelist preacher of his time.

A generation removed, Graham takes his rights of free speech seriously. Speaking at an Oklahoma State Evangelism Conference this year, he stated, “I want to encourage you to take a stand in your communities. Get involved in government. Get involved in politics. Who says we [Christians] can’t be in politics?”

Graham’s July 17 Facebook post had 166,260 likes, and more than 59,000 shares.

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