Pentagon pulls Franklin Graham invitation
The Pentagon has withdrawn an invitation to Franklin Graham to speak at the Pentagon’s National Day of Prayer services on May 6 because of past comments the preacher has made about Islam, including calling the religion “evil.”
The service is meant to meet spiritual needs of Pentagon, and because of his past comments, he was deemed “inappropriate for an inclusive, mutli-faith observance,” said Army spokesman Lt. Col. Tom Collins.
Graham, the son of evangelist Billy Graham, issued a statement saying he regrets the decision, according to an AP report.
Before the Pentagon delivered its decision today, Graham told Fox News the decision was up to the Pentagon and offered his views on the Muslim faith.
“I want them to know they don’t have to die in a car bomb, they don’t have to die some kind of Holy War to be accepted by God, but it’s through faith in Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ alone,” Graham said Thursday.
Several advocacy groups had complained about the Pentagon’s decision to include Graham in the event.
“Promoting one’s own religious beliefs is something to be defended and encouraged, but other faiths should not be attacked or misrepresented in the process,” said Nihad Awad, CAIR’s national executive director, after the military’s reversal.
This is the second time this year that the Pentagon has rescinded an invitation to a religious figure. Just after the President’s State of the Union speech, the Air Force asked Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, not to appear at a prayer luncheon because of comments in opposition to allowing gays in the military.
Here is the update to this mornings “CAIR Takes on the Pentagon ~ Video” posting. The Pentagon which had erased the Islam factor from the Fort Hood attack, has now bowed down to the Islamic bullies of America, the Cancer of American Islamic Relations (CAIR). This cowardly act will only embolden CAIR, who will now move on and find their next victim. We have the greatest troops in the world, but their leaders that appease Islam, are only helping the enemy advance. Back in WW II, this would of been the equivalent of appeasing Nazi supporters. How times of changed.
Ah, yes, I remember reading about that. They objected to him telling the truth.
You bet, Robin. As Fort Hood has shown, arselifters simply can't be trusted. Having them on ships and planes is even more dangerous.
Gary Rumian, where are you from? I mean from which country?
By the way, Chris, I wrote a blogpost with information from your blog and at least one other swedish blog linked to you!:)
You are a goldmine…
The swedish blog that linked to Loganswarning: http://missionxp.webblogg.se/2010/april/uppmaning…
Vaileth, I'm from Australia.
(I posted a longer reply before but it got canned because of the number of links.)
I approved one of yours that went into moderation before. Was that it?
I have to do that, to cut down on porn and telephone spam.
Chris, its not here so that wasn't it. But don't worry about it.
I understand about the spam. Its a real problem on some sites. I've seen a lot of it with the trackbacks.
Is there a way for you to disable those?
I have no idea what happened. I need the backtracks, as it is respectful to those that are kind enough to link back. 🙂
Until I made some changes here, I was getting hit with several hundred spam comments a day. You can only delete about 20 at a time, so it was a pain in the neck.
I've been chatting with one of the guys from ID, discussing bugs mostly. They seem eager enough to fix things (they fixed the edit bug recently).
You could leave a report on their support site asking them to change things so that its easier for you to use.
I complained about the trackbacks because most of the ones I see appear to be spam. You hover over the link and URL looks like obvious spam. I've noticed that with some posts too. They hide the spam URL in their name. A bit devious.
Okay, Gary, got it!:)
That works for me too. 🙂
Chris, and others, you can report IntenseDebate problems herehttp://intensedebate.com/contactus
But, as the page says, please read the FAQ first.
Thanks, every once in awhile they have a glitch. But it is much better than it used to be. Calling it a night.
Good night.