Celebrated evangelical preacher Franklin Graham has urged politicians and other world leaders to stop insisting that Islam is a religion of peace, when the exact opposite is true.
In the wake of this week’s deadly attacks by jihadists in Barcelona, Rev. Graham—the son of Billy Graham—tweeted that politicians should stop saying “Islam is a religion of peace”:
In other words, the religious ideology behind Islam itself, rather that the extremism of a given group such as the Islamic State, is often what leads to the violence and terrorism carried out against infidels by Muslims.
In his politically incorrect text, Graham wrote that “we are making a mistake by allowing the operation and spread of the dark and dangerous teachings of Islam.”
“From Bangladesh to Los Angeles, Salafis spread their violent beliefs shielded by the constitutional guarantees of free speech and religious liberty,” Graham writes, citing an article written by former CIA officer Bryan Dean Wright.
The radical beliefs described “aren’t limited to only the Salafis sect,” Graham adds. “While there are millions of Muslims who don’t agree with or participate in the violence of Islam, they can’t leave the religion because their families would be obligated to kill them.”
“Islam reigns in lives through fear and intimidation. I pray that Muslims everywhere will come to know Jesus Christ, the Son of God who loves them and can truly set them free. The Word of God tells us, ‘So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed,’” he wrote.
In 2007, Cardinal Gerhard Müller, then the prefect of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, asserted that Muslims and Christians “do not believe in the same God,” underscoring the differences in doctrine concerning who God is.
Last year, a Jesuit priest urged the western world to open its eyes to the reality of Muslim violence as intrinsic to the nature of Islam itself, rather than its abuse.
Known as an “old-school Jesuit,” Father James V. Schall taught Political Philosophy in the Department of Government at Georgetown University. In his 2016 essay, “Realism and Islam,” Schall insisted that the Muslim religion must be evaluated on its own terms rather than through the lens of the Judeo-Christian West.
Islam’s consistent advocacy of violence, which has been practiced “from its seventh century beginning,” has a purpose, Schall proposes. “This purpose is, ultimately, religious and pious.”
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