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Pentagon Muslims Angered by Rev. Graham Invitation <br>By Sue Pleming<br><br><br>WASHINGTON (Reuters - 15 April) - Muslims at the Pentagon are incensed by what they<br>say is an insensitive invitation to evangelist Rev. Franklin Graham, who<br>has called Islam an "evil religion," to preach on Good Friday at the<br>Defense Department.<br><br>In letters to the Pentagon chaplain's office this week, Muslim office<br>workers complained strongly about Graham's plans to lead prayers on<br>Friday, one of the most religious days in the Christian calendar.<br><br>The letters urged officials to find a "more inclusive and honorable"<br>religious leader to take his place.<br><br>A spokesman for Graham, son of the Rev. Billy Graham and head of a<br>Minneapolis-based evangelist association in his father's name, confirmed<br>on Tuesday he would attend Friday's service, where prayers were likely to<br>focus on U.S. military action in Iraq -- a largely Muslim country.<br><br>"As far as Friday is concerned, the Reverend Graham will be attending<br>prayers at the Pentagon," said spokesman Jeremy Blume, adding Graham was<br>in board meetings on Tuesday and was unlikely to comment personally on<br>the issue.<br><br>The Pentagon was not immediately available to comment on the complaints,<br>but a spokeswoman told The Washington Post that Christian employees had<br>requested Graham as a guest preacher and the chaplain's office would not<br>rescind the invitation.<br><br>"If a Jewish group wants to invite a particular speaker, they'll do that.<br>Muslims hold services here too. The Army chaplains are absolutely<br>nonjudgmental of any faith that soldiers want to follow," said Army<br>spokeswoman Martha Rudd in Tuesday's Post.<br><br>IRAQ RELIEF PLANS ALSO CRITICIZED<br><br>Graham angered Muslims after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks when he called<br>Islam a "very evil and wicked religion."<br><br>He has also ignited controversy over plans for his relief organization,<br>Samaritan's Purse, to go into Iraq to deliver aid, a move the Arab<br>community says is aimed at trying to convert followers of Islam rather<br>than helping Iraqis in need.<br><br>Ibrahim Hooper, a spokesman for the Washington-based Council on<br>American-Islamic Relations, said inviting Graham to the Pentagon prayer<br>service "sends entirely the wrong message to the Muslim and Arab world<br>that the Pentagon will host someone who has such Islamophobic views."<br><br>He added: "This kind of incident can undo any kind of bridges built by a<br>hundred public affairs officers at the Pentagon. They need to think how<br>their actions are perceived not only in this country but worldwide."<br><br>Hooper said the plan by Samaritan's Purse to go into Iraq in the wake of<br>an invading American army was wrong and would strengthen the belief the<br>U.S. attack on Iraq was an attack on Islam.<br><br>"I believe his group is one of a number of evangelical missionary groups<br>that use the cover of humanitarian relief to prosper in coercive ways,"<br>said Hooper.<br><br>Graham's spokesman declined to answer questions about the Iraqi relief<br>mission, citing instead an opinion column Graham wrote recently for the<br>Los Angeles Times.<br><br>"In Iraq, as is the case wherever we work, Samaritan's Purse will offer<br>physical assistance to those who need it, with no strings attached,"<br>wrote Graham.<br><br>"We don't have to preach in order to be a Christian relief organization.<br>Sometimes the best preaching we can do is simply being there with a cup<br>of cold water, exhibiting Christ's spirit of serving others."<br><br>http://asia.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=politicsNews&storyID=2570066 <b on></b>
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