--
Franklin Graham, son of the Rev. Billy Graham and one of the nation’s most
outspoken critics of Islam, said Wednesday he has relief workers "poised and
ready" to roll into Iraq to provide for the population’s post-war physical and
spiritual needs.
Graham, who has publicly called Islam a “wicked” religion, said the relief
agency he runs,
Samaritan’s Purse, is in daily contact with U.S. Government agencies in
Amman, Jordan, about its plans.
The group’s main objective is to help refugees and people who have lost their
homes or are sick and hungry as a result of the war, Graham told Beliefnet. “We
realize we’re in an Arab country and we just can’t go out and preach,” Graham
said in a telephone interview from Samaritan’s Purse headquarters in Boone, N.C.
However, he added, “I believe as we work, God will always give us
opportunities to tell others about his Son….We are there to reach out to love
them and to save them, and as a Christian I do this in the name of Jesus
Christ.”
Graham didn’t seem concerned that the public presence in Iraq of Samaritan’s
Purse—which has put out a
press release about its activities—could prompt already-skeptical Muslims
worldwide to view the war as a crusade against Islam. “We would not go in and
participate in something that would embarrass our administration,” he said. But
he added, “We don’t work for the U.S. Government, so we don’t get our permission
from them.”
Some Muslims were outraged that Graham would be allowed to help with Iraq’s
humanitarian effort.
"Franklin Graham obviously thinks it is a war against Islam,” said
Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the
Council on American-Islamic
Relations. “This is a guy who gave the invocation at President Bush’s
inauguration and believes Islam is a wicked faith. And hes going to go into
Iraq in the wake of an invading army and convert people to Christianity? Nothing
good is coming of that.”
A spokeswoman for the U.S.
Agency for International Development said Wednesday night she could not
comment on short notice.
Meanwhile, officials from the
Southern Baptist Convention, the nations largest Protestant denomination,
are also planning a large relief effort in Iraq once the war ends. The International Mission Board has
already sent about $200,000 in hunger funds and $50,000 in general relief funds
to its workers in Amman, Jordan.
“This is not just a great opportunity to do humanitarian work but to share
Gods love,” said Sam Porter, state disaster relief director for the Baptist
General Convention of Oklahoma. “We understand that the individual people of
Iraq have done nothing to hurt us. We want to help them to have true freedom in
Jesus Christ.”
On Wednesday, Graham was unusually guarded in his comments about Islam,
saying only that “when people ask, I let them know I don’t believe in their God.
But I respect their right to believe whatever they want to believe.” Two months
after September 11, however, he called Islam a
“very evil and wicked religion.” Last summer he said Muslims hadnt
sufficiently apologized for the terrorist attacks--and he challenged Muslim
leaders to offer to help rebuild Lower Manhattan or compensate the families of
victims to show they condemn terrorism.
In the midst of this verbal battle, one Muslim group in New York called him
"bigoted, hateful and divisive."
But Graham is only the most significant leader of a widespread and rapidly
growing effort by conservative American Christians to criticize Islam—and
attempt to convert its followers. Since 1990, the number of missionaries in
Islamic countries has quadrupled. Mission experts estimate they have spoken to
or given Christian material to at least 334 million people in that time. Groups
such as Youth With a Mission and the Southern Baptist Conventions International
Mission Board, sponsor
two-week jaunts to places like Kyrgyzstan to convert Muslims to
Christianity.
Five years ago, the Southern Baptist Convention
reorganized its International Missions Board to focus on the part of the
world where Muslims live. That year, the Convention published a prayer guide for
use when praying for the conversion of Muslims. They followed with similar
prayer guides aimed at Hindus and Jews two years later. Two years ago,
Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary even created a masters degree
program to help students minister to Muslims.
Donna Derr, an official for Church World Service,
a mainline Protestant and Eastern Orthodox aid group, finds this activity
worrisome.
She said the 2,000-year-old Christian churches in Iraq--whose members are a
tiny minority in a vast Muslim population--have worked extraordinarily hard in
the last decade to "develop their place" in the community. She said Christians
and Muslims are working together in a way they never did before.
“I would hate to see the tenuous balance that has been created made
unbalanced by the entry into Iraq by peoples who may have less sensitivity,” she
said. "Our military activity has created one chasm. We dont want to see our
humanitarian assistance create another chasm."
But Graham said Samaritans Purse has worked closely with Christians in Iraq
since 1991. He first went to Baghdad 30 years ago. "I know exactly what the
situation is, and I’ve briefed my people very well on it," he said.
At this point, said Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist
Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, American Christians should
stop worrying about whether Muslims think America is anti-Islam.
“What doesn’t look that way to the Muslim world?” Besides, he said,
“they’re the ones declaring holy war, not us. They’re the ones trying to convert
people by force. They’re the ones killing people in the name of religion, not
us.”
But Hooper, from the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said evangelical
groups bent on converting Muslims often go into countries emphasizing
humanitarian concerns to obscure their proselytizing agenda. “They go after them
when they’re most vulnerable and hope they can get them to leave their faith.
It’s a very despicable practice.”
He warned this could undermine the Bush administration’s efforts to portray
the war as a move toward liberation, not a war against Islam. “If it becomes
generally known it’s going to be a public relations disaster for the Bush
administration,” he said.
