THE REV. JIMMY SWAGGART, November 10, 2002
THE REV. PAT ROBERTSON, November 11, 2002
PRESIDENT BUSH, November 13, 2002
THE REV. PAT ROBERTSON, November 14, 2002
SEC. OF STATE COLIN POWELL, November 14, 2002
PRESIDENT BUSH
Date: November 7, 2002
Setting: Ramadan Dinner, The White House
Islam is a religion that brings hope and comfort to more than a billion people around the world. It has made brothers and sisters of every race. It has given birth to a rich culture of learning and literature and science. Tonight we honor the traditions of a great faith by hosting this Iftaar at the White House....In hosting tonight's Iftaar, I send a message to all the nations represented by their ambassadors here tonight: America treasures your friendship. America honors your faith."
We see in Islam a religion that traces its origins back to God's call on Abraham. We share your belief in God's justice, and your insistence on man's moral responsibility. We thank the many Muslim nations who stand with us against terror. Nations that are often victims of terror, themselves.
Tonight's Iftaar also sends a message to all Americans: our nation is waging a war on a radical network of terrorists, not on a religion and not on a civilization. If we wage this war to defend our principles, we must live up to those principles, ourselves. And one of the deepest commitments of America is tolerance. No one should be treated unkindly because of the color of their skin or the content of their creed. No one should be unfairly judged by appearance or ethnic background, or religious faith. We must uphold these values of progress and pluralism and tolerance.
THE REV. JIMMY SWAGGART
Date: November 10, 2002
Setting: Sunday service, The Family Worship Center, Baton Rouge, La.
Thank God for that Baptist preacher who stood up and said at a Baptist convention, "I'm going to tell you who Muhammad is: he is a sex pervert, deviant, pedophile who married a 7-year-old girl."
You're not hearing me saints? "What did you say," you ask? The Baptist preacher before thousands said Muhammad was a sex deviant, a pervert, a pedophile. He married a 7-year-old little girl! A little girl, seven years old--that's a pedophile. And, oh, the news went crazy. "Ohhhhhhhh! Hear what he said?"
I don't know who you are, Mr. Preacher, but thank God for you--thank God for a spine that's like a Texas sawlog. Thank God for a heart that beats for Jesus Christ. Thank God for a preacher who will tell the truth without fear, without favor, and without compromising.
I like our President, but he's dead wrong when he says Islam or the Qur'an is a book of love and peace. Mr. President, that has got to be the most asinine, idiotic, ridiculous, utterly ludicrous statement that I've ever heard in my life.
It makes me sick to my stomach. I was at an airport the other day, and they pulled me out of the line. Take off your shoes. I took off my shoes. You want to smell my toes too? Pull off your coat. I pulled off my coat, and they snapped my suspenders. Now, what they ought to be looking for is people with a diaper on their heads and a fan belt around their waste.. Isaiah said Israel would come to the place they were ruled by children. He meant men with minds of kids. That's what's happening right now in the United States of America.
You know what we ought to do? We ought to take every single Muslim student in every college in this nation and ship them back to where they came from. And we ought to tell every other Muslim living in this nation, "If you say one word, you're gone. You're gone."
THE REV. PAT ROBERTSON
Date: November 11, 2002
Setting: Christian Broadcasting Network news program
Somehow I wish the Jews in America would wake up, open their eyes and read what is being said about them. This is worse than the Nazis. Adolf Hitler was bad, but what the Muslims want to do to the Jews is worse.
You just want to say: 'When are you going to open your eyes and see who your enemy is.' Those people want to destroy Jews.
PRESIDENT BUSH
Date: November 13, 2002
Setting: Photo Op with United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan, Oval Office
Our war against terror is a war against individuals whose hearts are full of hate. We do not fight a religion. As a matter of fact, by far, the vast majority of American citizens respect the Islamic people and the Muslim
faith. After all, there are millions of peaceful-loving Muslim Americans.
Some of the comments that have been uttered about Islam do not reflect the sentiments of my government or the sentiments of most Americans. Islam, as practiced by the vast majority of people, is a peaceful religion, a religion that respects others. Ours is a country based upon tolerance, Mr. Secretary General, and we respect the faith and we welcome people of all faiths in America. And we're not going to let the war on terror or terrorists cause us to change our values.
THE REV. PAT ROBERTSON
Date: November 14, 2002
Setting: "700 Club" Broadcast
I appreciate the President, appreciate what he's doing; and I want everybody to know that something like this does not sever the support that I have given to him over the years. However, I want to clarify something. The purest expression of Islam in the world is found among the Wahabi sect of Saudi Arabia, and that sect pretty much dominates the religious life of Saudi Arabia and has been the fountainhead for the terrorists. The Wahabis in turn have established a pure Islamic state in Afghanistan, and the group in charge of that was called the Taliban. The other pure Islamic state that we're familiar with is in Iran, where the Ayatollah Khomeini came in, and the word, [Ayat Allah] means "the spirit of Allah." He was establishing a pure, Islamic state. Now this state was characterized by our President as part of an "axis of evil." The other state that I'm aware of that is a pure Islamic state is Sudan where Sharia is practiced and at least two and a half million Christians have been killed.
Now having said that, there is no doubt that the religion of Mohammed and those who adhere to it firmly, such as the Wahabis, and the Taliban and the Iranian Mullahs and other Mullahs operating in other parts of the world, is extreme and violent. However, we must distinguish between the origin of the religion and the adherents to it in the United States who indeed are peaceful people. So to say "the religion is peaceful" I don't think is accurate. To say that most of the adherents in America to the Islamic faith are peaceful is absolutely correct. It's just a question of semantics, but I think we ought to get the semantics clear.
[...] I would ask this. I would ask the people in the media: Please read the Koran, and see what it says. I would ask our Jewish friends in America: Please read the Koran, and see what it says. Please see what the Mullahs are teaching the little children in Palestine and in other parts of the world about you. And when you get through, do us favor, and don't criticize your friends, but see who your real enemies are.
[...] Jews in Germany did not want to read Mein Kampf and did not want to believe it. They said it is not possible that anybody could be as monstrous as this person, and in today's world people say it is not possible for us to believe that a religious system could teach what the Koran clearly teaches. It's the religion that's the problem, not necessarily the adherents to it. But read the man who has considered himself the spokesman of God Almighty and what his statement are. Read what these little children over there were quoted in a story we did a couple days ago saying, "I could never marry a Jew, because god, Allah, says they're apes and pigs. Yet, if I tell the truth about this I am criticized.
[...] Well, and the Koran teaches, read it for yourself, the Koran teaches that the end of the world will not come until every Jew is killed by the Muslims. Now that's what it says in the Koran written by Mohammed.
SECRETARY OF STATE COLIN POWELL
Date: November 14, 2002
Setting: 17th Annual Overseas Security Advisory Council Briefing
We will reject the kinds of comments you have seen recently, where people in this country say that Muslims are responsible for the killing of all Jews and who put out hatred. This kind of hatred must be rejected. This kind of language must be spoken out against. We cannot allow this image to go forth of America because it is an inaccurate image of America. We are a welcoming nation, a nation that is a country of countries, touched by every country, and we touch every country in the world.
