COLUMN: Don’t mess with Muhammad

Franklin Graham is probably trying to puzzle that one out after his invitation to the National Day of Prayer at the Pentagon was revoked because of his “controversial” remarks about Islam.

Those remarks included a statement on CNN last year in which he said, "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."

The remark was grossly inaccurate because he left out the fact that, in America, 80-year-old men cannot marry an 11-year-old girl and force her to have intercourse against her will as they can in Muslim Saudi Arabia. Being the backwards, intolerant country that we are, we would also arrest people like the Yemeni man who raped his 13-year-old wife causing her to die from internal injuries sustained during repeated forcible intercourse.

Graham was also criticized for having the unmitigated gall to point out that the terrorists who orchestrated the September 11, 2001 attacks against the United States were Muslim extremists and practiced what he described as a “very evil and wicked religion."

Sure, there are a lot of peaceful, wonderful Muslims, but there are also plenty like the 9/11 terrorists and our own Major Nidal Malik Hasan who want to kill as many “infidel” Americans as they can.

The Pentagon defended their decision saying that any anti-Islamic remarks made by Graham would be widely disseminated and possibly cause problems for United States forces overseas. Seems to me it is a bigger problem to ignore the harsh realities of Islam when there are 1.6 billion Muslims spread across the globe.

Even if you are willing to dismiss concerns over Islamic jihadists as involving only a small segment of the Muslim population, can you ignore the other tenets of Islam which allow men to abuse their wives, marry children and murder dishonored family members?

Graham is not the only one facing criticism for taking a shot at Islam. Comedy Central recently censored a South Park episode in which the creators had the audacity to portray Muhammad in (gasp!) a teddy bear costume (it turned out to be Santa Claus in the costume, but that is beside the point).

Anyway, Islam, for whatever reason, forbids the depiction of Muhammad. You may recall a Danish cartoonist received death threats after drawing a picture of Muhammad wearing a turban that looked like a bomb. He and his wife actually had to go into hiding because of the attempts to kill him.

The creators of South Park, Trey Parker and Matt Stone, were cognizant of the dangers of portraying Muhammad, but, irrationally relying on their perception of what free speech actually is and perhaps counting on a certain amount of protection as American citizens, they dropped the blacked out censor bar which had been previously used when “Muhammad” made a guest appearance on the show.

The day after the episode aired, they received the following message from a member of the group known as Revolution Muslim: “We have to warn Matt and Trey that what they are doing is stupid, and they will probably wind up like Theo van Gogh for airing this show. This is not a threat, but a warning of the reality of what will likely happen to them.”

Van Gogh was murdered in 2004 by a Muslim extremist after making a documentary which explored the treatment of women in Islam. If that message to the South Park creators does not qualify as a threat, then what does?

How can the brass at the Pentagon, or for that matter the network executives at Comedy Central, be reluctant to shed light on how oppressive and dangerous these Muslim extremists are? Why should Franklin Graham face more criticism and ostracism than the radical elements of the Muslim religion he seeks to expose?

Graham said it was his job as a minister to "speak out against the terrible deeds that are committed as a result of Islamic teaching." It is a shame that those who speak out against evil are afforded less consideration than those who perpetuate it.

Kristi Reed is a reporter for the Barrow Journal. She can be reached at kreed@barrowjournal.com.