President Barack Obama will not acknowledge the truth of Islamic terrorism, its religious grounding in the Quran, and that it is bent on “destroying the West,” but instead Obama, whose “entire life” was shaped by Islam, cannot accept the evil in front of him and apparently is trying to “protect Islam,” said reverend Franklin Graham, president of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.
“We have to understand who we’re dealing with and you have to deal with it accordingly,” said Rev. Graham in a Feb. 17 On the Record interview with Greta Van Susteren. “The president is ignoring the fact that these are Islamic extremists, these are terrorists, and ISIS is a terrorist organization and they are bent on destroying the West. They’ve already said they want the flag of Islam to fly over the White House.”
“The president, his entire life, his whole influence has been Islam,” said Rev. Graham, whose father is the world-renowned preacher Billy Graham. “His mother was married to a Muslim. His father’s a Muslim. Then she married a [Muslim] man from Indonesia.”
“He [Obama] was raised in Indonesia,” said Rev. Graham. “He went to Islamic schools. I assume she was a Muslim. So, his whole life experiences have been surrounded by Islam. He only knows Islam. And he’s given a pass to Islam. He’s refusing to accept and understand the evil that is in front of him.”
Van Susteren’s interview questions were prompted by the White House’s decision to not state that the 21 Egyptian Coptic Christians beheaded by the Islamic State over the weekend were, in fact, Christians and were killed for their faith, as their murderers stated on video.
Columnist George Will said that Obama administration's unwillingness to honestly discuss radical Islam or even say the two words in the same sentence was “beyond burlesque, its pathological, its clinical their inability and unwillingness to say …”
Also, author and psychiatrist Charles Krauthammer said on Feb. 16, “We have an administration that is truly pathological in its inability to actually state what's going on. In the video that was released that showed the savage beheading, it was addressed to the nations of the cross. It pledged itself to the conquest of Rome.”
Krauthammer further noted that Pope Francis publicly mourned for the Egyptian Copts who were killed and said they were murdered by the Islamists precisely because of their Christian faith, yet the White House called them “Egyptian citizens,” not Christians.
In her interview with Rev. Graham, host Greta Van Susteren asked, “ISIS beheading 21 Christians just because they are Christians, and still the White House is refusing to acknowledge the Egyptian victims were Christians. … Reverend, I just read your Facebook page in which you say in part, ‘I am perplexed as to why our president will not acknowledge the truth and call Islamic extremism what it is. In a statement the White House even called the 21 Christians who were beheaded ‘Egyptian citizens,’ refusing to identify them as Christians.’
"Why do you think the White House called them citizens and not Christians?”
President Barack Obama at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washinton, D.C., Feb. 5, 2015, where he equated the actions of the Islamic State with the Crusades of the 11th century. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
Rev. Graham said, “Greta, I have no idea. I’m just baffled by this White House, and it seems as though they want to believe a lie – that everything’s okay when it’s not okay.”
The evangelical pastor then took a moment to say to any Muslims watching the program, and specifically to any of the Islamic State jihadists who might be watching that they do not have to follow a path of violence to get to Heaven.
“I want them [Islamic State] to know that what they did was evil, it was wrong, it was a sin against God,” he said. “And I know they did this [beheading] thinking they were pleasing God. But it doesn’t, it’s a sin, and God loves you and God is willing to forgive you but you’ve got to be willing to confess your sin to Him and ask for His forgiveness.”
“I think it’s important that the Muslim world know that God does love them and He’s made a way for them to be with Him in Heaven, and that’s through faith in his Son Jesus Christ,” said the reverend, who also runs the international aid group Samaritan’s Purse.
Jordanian pilot Moaz al-Kasasbeh seconds before being burned alive, murdered by members of the Islamic State in Syria. (Photo: Daily Mail/Internet)
“They don’t have to cut off heads,” he said. “They don’t have to die in a Holy War. It’s simply by faith. And Greta, this is something that the White House doesn’t understand, the religious aspect of this.”
He continued, “These men are doing what they’re doing thinking they are pleasing God because the Quran teaches this. Islam says you can have slaves. Islam says you can cut the heads off of people, that you can kill Jews and Christians and Yazidis and anybody else that doesn’t believe like you.”
“This is a religious aspect to this, that they [Obama administration] just don’t accept,” said Rev. Graham, “and refuse to this day, will not accept and don’t believe it.”
In his Facebook post on Feb. 17, Rev. Graham wrote, “After a weekend of terrorism in Libya and Denmark, beginning today the White House is hosting a three-day ‘Summit on Countering Violent Extremism.’ I am perplexed as to why our President will not acknowledge the truth and call Islamic extremism what it is.”
“In a statement the White House even called the 21 Christians who were beheaded ‘Egyptian citizens,’ refusing to identify them as Christians,” wrote Rev. Graham. “The truth is--their barbaric murderers openly said they killed them because they were ‘people of the cross.’Why is the President seemingly continuing to protect Islam and refusing to open his eyes to the truth?”
Rev. Graham, 62, is the oldest son of pastor Billy Graham. Franklin Graham is married, has five children, and lives in Boone, N.C. He preaches around the world and provides humanitarian assistance to people across the globe. He frequently speaks about the dangers of radical Islam and sharia (Islamic law).
