![\"Flickr](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/509\/2015\/07\/Franklin-Graham.jpg\")
<\/a>In his July 17 Facebook post, Franklin Graham, president of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and Samaritan\u2019s Purse, spewed unhinged hatred and bigotry against American Muslims. Writing his response to the Chattanooga shooting, Graham\u00a0used language<\/a>\u00a0that can only succeed in radicalizing Americans:<\/p>\n We are under attack by Muslims at home and abroad. We should stop all immigration of Muslims to the U.S. until this threat with Islam has been settled. Every Muslim that comes into this country has the potential to be radicalized\u2013and they do their killing to honor their religion and Muhammad. During World War 2, we didn\u2019t allow Japanese to immigrate to America, nor did we allow Germans. Why are we allowing Muslims now? Do you agree? Let your Congressman know that we\u2019ve got to put a stop to this and close the flood gates.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Consider if a major Muslim cleric in Pakistan wrote, \u201cWe are under attack by Christians at home and abroad. We should stop all immigration of Christians to our land until this threat with Christianity has been settled. Every Christian that comes into this country has the potential to be radicalized\u2013and they do their killing to honor their religion and Jesus<\/em>.\u201d Such language would, and does, radicalize ignorant youth. It fosters terrorism. Graham\u2019s language has the potential to foster similar terrorism\u2013indeed such language has done just when used to justify oppression of minorities in American history.<\/p>\n For example, during World War II, racists and bigots argued that all Japanese immigrants and natural born Japanese Americans are a threat and must be treated as such without exception. Graham compares the act of one deranged individual, Chattanooga shooter Mohammad Youssuf Abdulazeez, to the Nazi and Japanese world war on all of humanity. He demonizes all Muslims in virtually the same language used 70 years ago to demonize all Japanese. Notwithstanding the ensuing horrific concentration camps Japanese Americans suffered through, Graham insinuates a similar solution to Muslims and encourages his millions of followers to \u201clet your Congressman know we\u2019ve got to put a stop to this and close the flood gates.\u201d Even today, Japanese Americans recall the barbarity of having gates closed around them as they were stripped of their fundamental human rights and civil liberties.<\/p>\n The above horrific proposal notwithstanding, none of the Islamophobic bigotry Graham spews is even remotely accurate.<\/p>\n For example, the New York Times\u00a0reports that<\/a>:<\/p>\n The main terrorist threat in the United States is not from violent Muslim extremists, but from right-wing extremists. Just ask the police.\u201d And they back it up with hard facts, adding that in America, \u201c\u2026the 20 plots that were carried out [by Muslim extremists] accounted for 50 fatalities over the past 13 and a half years. In contrast, right-wing extremists averaged 337 attacks per year in the decade after 9\/11, causing a total of 254 fatalities. The toll has increased since the study was released in 2012.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n In short, in the time Muslim extremists have committed 20 plots, right-wing terrorists\u2013most of whom are ostensibly white and Christian\u2013have committed roughly 4,000 acts of terror. Frighteningly, neo-Nazi terrorist organizations report a\u00a0rise in recruits<\/a>\u00a0since the Charleston shooting. But surely Graham condemned right-wing terrorism just last month when Dylann Roof murdered nine innocent black Americans, right? Not in the least, and his hypocrisy is shameful at best.<\/p>\n For example, as of July 18 Graham\u2019s above Islamophobic Facebook post has 161,000 likes. Meanwhile over a month later Graham\u2019s soft condemnation of the Charleston shooting has 1,600 likes. Why the massive disparity? Graham didn\u2019t bother posting a condemnation of the Charleston terrorist attack on his own Facebook page. He resorted to a side page that receives hardly the same level of attention\u2013almost as if he was trying to hide that a white supremacist who might have a Christian background committed terrorism. This hypothesis is further validated when we consider that Graham\u2019s comments on the Charleston attack doesn\u2019t mention terrorism, white supremacy or racism.<\/p>\n His hypocrisy is further perplexing when we compare the Chattanooga shooting with the Charleston shooting. Abdulazeez has a\u00a0confirmed history<\/a>\u00a0of drug and alcohol abuse, was off his anti-depressant medication, had illegal access to guns, and so far no evidence indicates any link to terrorist organizations. Every sign indicates that he was a deranged, high, and confused individual. We don\u2019t even know his state of mind when he committed his act of terrorism\u2013was he high or drunk again?<\/p>\n Meanwhile Dylann Roof has no such history of drug and alcohol abuse, received a gun for his birthday, and was radicalized by a\u00a0white supremacist Christian terrorist<\/a>organization. He specifically targeted the Charleston church due to its iconic role in black history, and sat with the congregants for an hour before finally consciously deciding to murder them one by one.<\/p>\n In contrast to his anti-Muslim crusade, Graham is comparatively silent to all of this terrorism done by a white racist with ties to a Christian terrorist organization. And as racists\u00a0set fire to black churches<\/a>\u00a0in the weeks after the Charleston shooting, Graham remained silent. And as thousands of Muslim Americans raised over $100,000 (of which I was fortunate to contribute) to\u00a0re-build those black churches<\/a>\u00a0just as the\u00a0Qur\u2019an 22:40 teaches<\/a>, Graham has remained silent. And as an American Muslim Marine wrote a passionate op-ed in USA Today (that has since gone viral) to\u00a0honor his fallen Marine brothers<\/a>, Graham has remained silent.<\/p>\n But where Graham hasn\u2019t remained silent is in exercising every opportunity (for example see\u00a0here<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0here<\/a>) to demonize Muslim Americans. Recall earlier this year Duke University was forced to cancel its Muslim call to prayer due to a \u201ccredible and serious security threat<\/a>,\u201d received after Graham commanded his followers to protest the event.<\/p>\n American Muslims detest terrorism and are\u00a0working actively<\/a>\u00a0to combat all radicalization. At nearly one attack a day, however, right-wing terrorism is a growing epidemic. Graham must stop his crusade to radicalize Americans.<\/p>\n Because right now he\u2019s taking the lead in making America a more dangerous and intolerant place.<\/p>\n Originally published in Huffington Post<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n Qasim Rashid is an attorney and author. His next book\u00a0#TalkToMe<\/a>, which shows how dialogue can overcome radicalism, is due out in December. Follow him on Twitter\u00a0@MuslimIQ<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In his July 17 Facebook post, Franklin Graham, president of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and Samaritan\u2019s Purse, spewed unhinged hatred and bigotry against American Muslims. Writing his response to the Chattanooga shooting, Graham\u00a0used language\u00a0that can only succeed in radicalizing Americans: We are under attack by Muslims at home and abroad. We should stop all […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2137,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[12,16,98,4,56],"class_list":["post-204","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-america","tag-franklin-graham","tag-immigration","tag-islam","tag-islamophobe"],"yoast_head":"\n\n
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