EVANGELIST SAYS MUSLIMS HAVEN'T ADEQUATELY APOLOGIZED FOR SEPT. 11 ATTACKS
Michael Wilson, New York Times, 8/15/02
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/08/15/national/15GRAH.html
Nine months after calling Islam "a very evil and wicked religion," the
evangelist Franklin Graham said yesterday that Muslims had not sufficiently
apologized for the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and that they should help
compensate victims' families...
"The silence of the clerics around the world is frightening to me," he
said. "How come they haven't come to this country, how come they haven't
apologized to the American people, how come they haven't reassured the
American people that this is not true Islam and that these people are not
acting in the name of Allah, they're not acting in the name of Islam?"
Last week, Mr. Graham said that terrorism is part of "mainstream" Islam and
that the Koran "preaches violence."
Mr. Graham was unavailable for comment last night, a spokesman said.
Muslim groups dismissed Mr. Graham's statements.
"He's sounding like a broken record every time he says something," said
Faiz Rehman, communications director for the American Muslim Council, which
is based in Washington. "He seems to have an agenda. He's serving our
enemies, the enemies of America. Now people who don't like us will use his
comments to show the quote-unquote American hatred of Muslims."
Mr. Rehman said Mr. Graham's comments showed ignorance. "He's not paying
attention to what Muslims are saying in this country," he said.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations has tracked and responded to Mr.
Graham's comments on its Web site.
Its communications director, Ibrahim Hooper, said last week in a statement:
"Mainstream political leaders and religious figures must speak out against
the growing demonization of Islam by extremist right-wing commentators and
by representatives of the evangelical Christian community. Defamatory
attacks on other faiths can only lead to a spiral of distrust and
intolerance that will divide our society along religious lines..."
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