Franklin Graham: 'True Islam cannot be practiced in this country'
Saturday, December 19, 2009 E-Mail this story Free Headline Alerts
Evangelical Christian leader Franklin Graham challenged President Obama’s statement in Norway that Islam is a “great religion” and said Islam is “violent” and cannot be practiced in the United States.
Graham said on CNN Dec. 10 that “we have many Muslims that live in this country, but true Islam cannot be practiced in this country. You can't beat your wife. You cannot murder your children if you think they've committed adultery or something like that, which they do practice in these other countries.”
Graham said to study Islam, one should look at the intolerance practiced in Saudi Arabia. “But, listen, Islam, I love the people of Islam,” he said. “And I work in Muslim countries all over the world. But when you see countries that where they live under Sharia law, Islamic law, where that is the law of the land, Campbell [Brown], trust me girl, you don't want to live there.”
Graham said many Muslim would “like to get out of Islam” but are not allowed. “You cannot change from Islam,” he said. “If you're a Muslim and you change your religion, you can be killed. Your family can kill you. They can warn you but if you don't come back, they can take your life. And that is the threat that many of these people live under Islam.”
Graham noted that he has been working overseas for 50 years and in southern Sudan Muslims sought to annihilate Christians in the south and murdered 2 million.
“All of this has taken place and all of it was done under the name of Islam,” he said. “But there are millions of wonderful Muslim people. And I love them. I have friends that are Muslims and I work in those countries. But I don't agree with the teachings of Islam and I find it to be a very violent religion.”
Obama, in his Nobel Peace Price speech, said that religion has been used to murder innocents “by those who have distorted and defiled the great religion of Islam, and who attacked my country from Afghanistan.”