PrintMay 4, 2010
Political Correctness claims Franklin Graham
If there is to be a National Day of Prayer it shouldn't become an exercise in politically correct nonsense. But when the Pentagon bowed to pressure from pro-Islamic groups and rescinded Rev. Franklin Graham's invitation to speak, nonsense is exactly what the event became.
The opposition to the Graham invitation was vehement. A spokesman from the Military Religious Freedom Foundation called Graham "hideously Islamophobic." The Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) said a Graham appearance was "completely inappropriate."
Why the hostility toward Franklin Graham? Well, because the truth hurts. Graham had the gall to proclaim what many people think but are afraid to mention. He called Islam an evil practice, condemning Islam's treatment of women and the indiscriminate use of violence to advance the Islamic agenda.
Graham offered this assessment after September 11, 2001. That was the day when 18 Muslim missionaries leveled the World Trade Center, damaged the Pentagon and killed nearly 3,000 of our neighbors.
What's overlooked is that Graham didn't belittle individual Muslims and has extended charitable assistance to Muslim areas. He simply claimed that a significant faction within Islam condones violence as a proselytizing tool. Islam has an extensive record to support Graham's opinion.
You may recall the Iranian Hostage Crisis. Spurred by the Islamic Revolution that deposed the Shah, Iranian radicals seized the American embassy in Tehran. They took 66 hostages and held them for 444 days. Not to be outdone Hezbollah kidnapped 30 Americans in 1982. Several of those captives were killed and one survivor, Terry Anderson, remained a prisoner for more than six years.
The bloodshed and violence continued in 1983. Shiite fanatics exploded a truck bomb outside a barracks at the Beirut airport, killing 241 U.S. Marines. A Navy diver was executed in 1985 after Hezbollah hijacked TWA flight 847. The Palestinian Liberation Front commandeered the cruise ship Achille Lauro, executing the wheelchair-bound Jewish-American Leon Klinghoffer. Klinghoffer's body, wheelchair and all, was pushed into the Mediterranean Sea.
Libyan radicals joined the jihad, too. Libyans were involved in bombing the Rome and Vienna airports. Libyans bombed a West German nightclub where U.S. military personal often gathered. It was a Libyan bomb that ripped apart a Pan-Am 747 in midair, reigning debris on Lockerbie, Scotland. Muammar Gaddafi himself admitted Libya's participation in Lockerbie, although fifteen years after the fact.
Al-Qaeda reared its head in 1993, detonating a bomb in the basement of the World Trade Center. Hezbollah, in 1996, used a truck bomb to bring down the Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia. Al-Qaeda again in Kenya and Tanzania, where 224 died and 4,500 were injured in attacks on the U.S. embassies. A small explosive-laden boat blew a gaping hole in the USS Cole, killing 17 sailors. Suicide bombers targeted American hotels in Jordan and car bombs killed 60 in Algeria. All were the work of Al-Qaeda.
A Muslim convert killed one soldier and wounded another outside a recruiting station in Arkansas. With shouts of "Allahu Akbar" an Army doctor killed 13 American soldiers at Ft. Hood. The doctor had boasted to a neighbor that he would "do good work for God" on the day of his rampage.
Dozens of attacks and thousands dead at the hands of Muslims whose support comes from Islamic organizations and/or Islamic governments. Consider also the scores of brainwashed bombers who've targeted restaurants, bus stations and open-air markets throughout the Middle East. The common thread is the Islamic jihad against the infidels (that's us) for the glory of Allah. Yet the Pentagon dismissed Franklin Graham so as not to offend Islam.
Something's amiss here, and I think it's our grasp on reality. If there's to be a National Day of Prayer, maybe we should petition our Creator to open our eyes and restore our common sense.
Anthony W. Hager has authored more than 200 published articles for various newspapers, periodicals and websites. He can be reached through his website, therightslant.com.
