Franklin Graham was recently ‘un’-invited (5/2010) to participate in a service at the Pentagon on the National Day of Prayer because of past negative statements he had made against Islam.
The news media made it seem like Franklin was radical in his views but this is not the case at all. According to a new LifeWay Research survey (Link NLA), most Protestant pastors agree with Graham and share a negative view of the Muslim religion.
The research found that 82% of the pastors surveyed believed that Islam is “fundamentally different from Christianity,” 68% strongly disagreed that “Christians and Muslims pray to the same God,” and 42% believe that the religion “promotes violence”.
The pastors were also given a choice between two statements on Islam–one by Franklin Graham:
“a very evil and a very wicked religion”
–and one made by President George Bush:
“the Muslim faith is based upon peace and love and compassion.”
59% of the pastors agreed with Franklin Graham. 47% chose Graham’s statement exclusively and another 12% agreed with both.
Response: It should be obvious from this research that Franklin Graham’s views on Islam are far more mainstream among Christian leaders in America than the PC oriented media would like to admit.
Graham’s statement would have seemed rather harsh to me a few years ago but I must admit that the more I look into the teachings of Islam and see it demonstrated in Muslim dominated countries the more I agree with Franklin’s assessment.