Several weeks after being dropped from a Pentagon prayer service, evangelist Franklin Graham said Monday that his “religious rights are being denied.”
During an interview on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” Graham said that his speaking slot in conjunction with Thursday’s National Day of Prayer was unjustly dumped over his saying that Islam is “evil.” The only reason his invitation was dropped, Graham said, was that “a couple members of the Pentagon who are Muslim objected about me coming.”
“I feel my religious rights are being denied here because of what I believe,” the evangelist said. “I believe Jesus Christ is the way, the truth and the life … I believe that because of my beliefs, that’s why I’m not being given the opportunity to speak.”
“I don’t believe that Muhammad can lead anybody to God,” he said. “If you just look at the religion as it treats women, it is horrid. We can’t even talk publicly about what they do to women. You know, I just – for that alone – I cannot accept the religion.”
See also Newsmax, 3 May 2010