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July 2002 Newsletter
Religious Freedom Coalition
July 1, 2002 10:17PM EST


ISLAM UNVEILED?

June was an amazing month! The truth about Islam and Saudi Arabia just could not be concealed! The undercurrent could no longer be contained by Islamic apologists and the liberal media as those with knowledge of the truth began to speak out.

At the Southern Baptist Convention in St. Louis, Missouri on Monday, June 11th Dr. Jerry Vines, pastor of the First Baptist Church of Jacksonville, Florida told thousands of Baptist messengers that Islam "...was not the same as Christianity." He continued to tell those gathered that "Islam was founded by Mohammed, a demon-possessed pedophile who had 12 wives - and his last one was a 9 year-old girl. And I tell you, Allah is not Jehovah, either. Jehovah's not going to turn you into a terrorist that’ll try to bomb people and take the lives of thousands and thousands of people."

Although I applaud the remarks of Dr. Vines, who is a former president of the Southern Baptist Convention, I regret that he did not mention that Mohammed was also a thief, plunderer and murderer.

The Islamic apologists in Washington, DC immediately labeled Dr. Vines a bigot for telling the truth, but the new president of the Southern Baptist Convention, Rev. Jack Graham, stood by the comments of Dr. Vines the next day saying, "I will not respond to Dr. Vines’ statement other than to say that anyone who follows any path, who wants to go to heaven, should look carefully at who they’re following and what they believe."

By Wednesday the 14th Dr. Jerry Falwell jumped in to join Dr. Vines with his first public criticism of Islam. Immediately after 9-11, Falwell had said the Jihad attack on the United States was caused by the falling away of the American people from God. It appears he now understands the problem is Islam and not the American people.

In a publicly broadcast fax, Dr. Falwell credited Dr. Vines’ statement on Mohammed to Unveiling Islam: An Insider’s Look at Muslim Life and Beliefs written by two Arab brothers raised as Muslims who became Christians. Falwell said Vines was referring to the book when he was quoted by the news media. One of the authors of that book, Emir Caner, said, "It is simply a matter of quoting Islamic sources."

But it was the body of the Falwell fax that was more interesting than his defense of Dr. Vines’ comments. Dr. Falwell quoted Emir Cantor extensively. One of Emir’s quotes must have stunned many of Falwell’s readers. Below is just one paragraph from Dr. Falwell’s fax:

"Some Muslims want to allegorize their own scriptures because they don’t want to defend jihad," Emir said. "But if your take the Koran at its word, or Mohammed at his word, then you’ll find physical jihad." In fact, he noted, the highest level of Muslim heaven - which has 70 perpetual virgins on couches - is reserved for Muslims who "shed their blood" (Hadith 135). Islam’s inclination toward violence, he added, also is reflected in the Koran: "Slay the enemy where you find him (Surah 9:92)."

THEN CAME THE HEARINGS

In 1991 a movie, Not Without My Daughter, was badly assaulted by the media for simply telling the truth about Islam. The movie depicted the true story of a woman who made the mistake of visiting Iran with her Muslim husband and her daughter. Once there she lost all her rights. Our government refused to help her leave or to obtain even basic rights for herself or her daughter. Movie reviewer Robert Ebert complained, "No attempt is made - deliberately, I assume - to explain the Muslim point of view, except in rigid sets of commands and rote statements. No Muslim character is painted in a favorable light; the local people who help the heroine are dissidents or outlaws." Others slammed the movie as well because it "offended" Muslims.

The week of June 11th the House Government Reform Committee headed by Congressman Dan Burton (R-IN) held hearings on the condition of Americans kidnapped and held hostage in Saudi Arabia. Woman after woman told the congressional committee how Muslim husbands had taken their children to Saudi Arabia and then refused to allow them to ever be seen by their mothers again, even though the children are American citizens. One mother, Pat Roush, told how her two daughters, Alia and Aisha, were kidnapped by their father after she obtained legal custody of them. The girls begged her by phone to help them get out of Muslim bondage in Saudi Arabia. One daughter was recently forced to marry by her father.

One mother, Monica Stower, managed to make it to the U.S. Embassy in Saudi Arabia with her two children. Our government didn’t care. She was kicked out of our Embassy in Riyadh by two Marines into the hands of Saudi officials who then turned the kidnapped children over to their father.

The stories made headlines all over the United States, letting people know the truth about Islam and our "ally" Saudi Arabia.

In an editorial on the 13th of June the Wall Street Journal had this to say about the actions of our State Department in defending Saudi Arabia at the expense of Americans:

"For too long State has let the Saudis hide behind the pretense that they are handcuffed by Saudi law that gives all rights to men, as if that feudal state were some kind of democracy. This tolerance for what amounts to kidnapping is one more example, like funding madrassa schools that teach hatred for America, of the way Saudis treat their supposed ally with contempt."

There was no comment from the White House on the hearings or on editorials in numerous newspapers calling upon the President to intervene on behalf of the kidnapped American citizens in Saudi Arabia.

Children are not the only issue. No woman may leave Saudi Arabia without the permission of a man. Women from Western nations who have gone to Saudi Arabia for jobs as "hostesses" have found out that it is not as easy to leave as it is to get in. Many of these women have vanished while there.

EVEN THE DEMOCRATS

CHANGE THEIR TUNE

Later in June liberal Democrat Senate Leader Tom Daschle said on Fox News that the Saudis "...could be a lot more overt in their support and their willingness to work with us. They could help us a lot more in the sub-surface efforts that are under way. We’re not getting that kind of help, I’m disappointed." During interviews the following week Senator Daschle called for the ouster of Yasser Arafat saying that there can be no peace agreement with him. Just weeks before, Daschle had defended Arafat as the "leader of the people." Liberal Democrat Senator Joseph Biden, (D--DE) then called for the ouster of Saddam Hussein by force if required.

Just a few short weeks before, the entire Democrat machine had been blaming President George W. Bush for the 9-11 Jihad attack against the United States. The Democrats were against Israel and standing with Arafat. What happened? Political polls happened. The more the Democrats hit President Bush, the further down in the polls they went. Suddenly the Democrat machine began to bash Islamic nations rather than Bush, to help themselves recover in the polls.

BUT NOT THE WHITE HOUSE

The American Muslim Council (AMC) had its annual meeting in Washington, DC. This is the group that advised American Muslims not to talk to or cooperate with the FBI during investigations into the 9-11 Jihad attack on the United States. In the past, leaders of the AMC have championed both HAMAS and Hezbollah, the terrorist organizations responsible for many of the suicide bombings which have killed so many innocent men, women and children in Israel. No one is really sure where the AMC’s money comes from or where it goes, and groups associated with it have had their funds frozen because of links to terrorist organizations.

The keynote speaker at this year’s AMC convention was FBI Director Robert Mueller.

OK ... are you shocked yet? Try this on for size: during the convention the AMC leaders were taken to the White House to be given a private briefing. I don’t know what the briefing was about, but I have heard rumors that it was a "we are at war against terror not against Islam" briefing.

To say thank you to the director of the FBI and the White House for the kindness shown, the AMC then gave Congresswoman Cynthia Mckinney (D-GA) a special award at one of their dinners for her support of the AMC. Let me point out that Congresswoman McKinney has stated publicly that President George W. Bush knew in advance of the 9-11 attack on the United States and allowed it to happen in order to benefit his friends in the defense industry. 

REMEMBER BACK IN SEPTEMBER

It was just after the 9-11 Jihad attack upon the United States that I began to run advertisements in newspapers throughout the United States that were critical of Saudi Arabia. My ads were simple and told the truth, that the Saudi government was not much different than the Taliban which then ruled Afghanistan. I ran the ads because newspapers were afraid to tell the truth about Saudi Arabia.

Col. Miriam Eisen, an Israeli intelligence officer, provided copies of documents seized at Yasser Arafat’s compound during raids that show that the Saudi government gave $135 million to the families of suicide bombers and to assist other anti-Israeli and anti-American activity. One document clearly shows that the Saudi government knew that it was giving $5,000 to each of the families of suicide bombers.

A spokesman for Yasser Arafat said the documents were forgeries. The problem with claiming the documents are forgeries is that a top advisor to Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah admitted the practice of giving money to the familles of suicide bombers. The spokesman said that giving the families the equivalent of several years’ income did not cause violence because the bombers had already done their evil deeds.

The reality ... Muslim families will send their youngsters off with a bomb strapped on them if they know they are going to get plenty of money. After all, when the family member dies he goes to heaven and gets seventy virgins, and the family gets the money to spend on earth. What a deal. 

ARAB CHRISTIANS

Many times I have stated that it is an error to use the terms "Arab-American" and "Muslim-American" to mean the same thing. Various Muslim organizations want to claim all Arab-Americans so they can inflate their own numbers and have more political clout with President Bush, but the analogy is a lie. Most Arab-Americans are Christians who are here because they escaped Islamic enslavement in other nations.

In June an Arab-American was picked to head the 2.5 million member U.S. Presbyterian Church. Rev. Dr. Fahed Abu-Akel, 58, was born in Israel to Palestinian parents and became a naturalized American citizen. He received 57% of the vote at the opening session of the 214th annual General Assembly of the world's largest Presbyterian denomination.

AMERICA AND ISRAEL

Almost every day the media is forced to report major Christian meetings in support of Israel and the pro-Israel statements of Christian leaders. This is in direct contrast to the liberal campus view that Israel is somehow responsible for the Jihad attacks upon our nation.

Toward the end of May the Associated Press ran a major release that appeared in numerous newspapers across the nation concerning Christian support for Israel. In National Review Orthodox rabbi Daniel Lapin wrote about the support in America of Israel versus the hatred for Israel in Europe. He said the difference was due to Biblical faith:

"Why does such vile enmity wrack Europe, while America not only remains free of it but persists in standing by Israel in the present clash with the Palestinians? .... We see why Christians are so sympathetic to the Jewish side in this painful conflict: it is because they revere the Bible. And America, quite simply, is the most enthusiastically Christian nation on earth."

BACK AT HOME

American Muslims for the first time are being arrested for their part in the Jihad against the United States. Although several are now in custody, the most notable to date is Jose Padilla who calls himself Abdullah al Muhajir. Padilla wanted to build and explode an atomic bomb in an American city and sought the help of Osama Bin Laden to commit this crime against humanity.

Sources say Padilla met with other al Qaeda leaders, was trained in explosives and studied how to make and detonate a radiological or "dirty" bomb. During combat operations in Afghanistan, documents were found in caves along with laptop computers. These make references to an "immigrant" who is developing plans to attack the United States with a "dirty bomb." Padilla and Islamic terrorist leaders also discussed conventional bombing attacks against hotels, gas stations, and other well-frequented locations. Padilla was picked up on May 8 in Chicago just as he was to begin a surveillance mission in the United States to review potential targets.

Many Hispanics and African-Americans convert to Islam in prison. Jose Padilla had a troubled life that included stays in the Navy brig and no one can tell for sure when or where he became a violent Muslim willing to use radioactive bombs on his fellow Americans.

Liberals demand a "fair trail" for this Islamic demon-infested man who had a willingness to murder millions of American civilians. President George W. Bush has a different plan. He has labeled him a military combatant and placed him "indefinitely" in military confinement. As the realization hits home of what people will do in the name of Islam, expect the numbers of those in "indefinite" confinement to grow.

 

 

OTHER ISSUES BACK AT HOME

Among other issues the Religious Freedom Coalition continues to work on is school prayer. For almost a full year the RFC has been obtaining signed petitions to House Speaker Dennis Hastert asking him to put the School Prayer Amendment offered by Congressman Ernest Istook onto the floor for a vote. The Speaker has been hesitant to call for a vote on the School Prayer Amendment for fear of not having the votes, since most Democrats are against school prayer. Despite collecting tens of thousands of names, we have not been able to move Speaker Hastert on this issue.

We are now asking President George W. Bush to directly intervene and seek a vote on the School Prayer Amendment. We believe that the President has such popularity that he could convince many of the middle of the road Democrats to vote for the School Prayer Amendment.

To reach the President, we have set up an Internet petition. The petition is located at www.conservativepetitions.com along with other petitions by conservative organizations such as ours. I chose not to have the school prayer petition to the President located at our own Internet site because this location can better serve our needs! Tens of thousands of conservatives visit the site for other conservative petitions to lawmakers and then see ours, which they also sign.

The proof that this was the right place to put our petition came very early in June. Within forty-eight hours of having the petition displayed, we had more than 2,000 signers without one word of publicity! By mid June more than 15,000 had signed the School Prayer Petition to President Bush. The White House is receiving hundreds and sometimes thousands of e-mails each day asking the President to support a vote on the School Prayer Amendment.

THE MAJOR PROJECT

Many of those receiving the William J. Murray Report are aware of a major project underway in the Palestinian Authority controlled areas of the Holy Land. The Religious Freedom Coalition is in the process of actually setting up an office in the Bethlehem area to coordinate relief efforts to assist Christian families who have suffered there. Many Christian families have lost homes in the "Infitada" and others have been forced from their businesses and homes.

The Religious Freedom Coalition in not a charity and does not want to be. It is our intent to help Christian families in the Holy Land. To qualify as a charity we would have to agree to help everyone equally, including the families of Islamic suicide bombers who receive huge amounts of money from Saudi Arabia and Iraq. As details can be divulged, the information on our efforts in the Holy Land will be made more public in these pages. Please pray for this vital work of the Religious Freedom Coalition as we reach out to our oppressed brothers and sisters in Christ.

A MAN OF FAITH

The following is the personal testimony of Senator James Inhofe of Oklahoma in his own words:


Tom Barrett, the leader of the Christian Embassy, said to me, "Inhofe, we don't think you have ever really accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior." That's when I publicly exploded.

I "blew up" right there in the exclusive House of Representatives' Dining Room. "Who do you think you are?! How can you ask me that; after all these good things I've done!"

Tom persevered, "When did you specifically ask Jesus to come into your life?" I snapped back, "All of the time!"

Then he asked a perplexing question, "How long have you and your wife been married?"

"It's been about 29 years (at the time)."

Tom continued, "Do you propose to your wife every day?"

I said, "No, of course not."

He spoke, "Why not?"

I replied, "Because we were already married!"

Then the lights began to come on in my mind. I realized I had been living "out of wedlock" with Christ for decades. Right there in the dining room, at 2:30 in the afternoon on September 22, 1988, in the nation's Capitol, we prayed in front of everybody; and Jesus came into my life.

I thought I had done all the "right and correct" things, or works. At that time I had been an elected official for 18 years and in the House of Representatives for almost two years. During that time, I prided myself very arrogantly on all the wonderful acts I had done. I had never missed the prayer breakfast or the weekly Bible study on the House side. I thought I was doing all the right things.

But to be questioned directly was a rude awakening to me!

When I made that lifelong decision, I was in the middle of my great turmoil. Many people would not have been able to live through those circumstances. There were family lawsuits and other tragedies in my family.

I said, "All right God, I cannot do it. Lord, it is YOUR problem now!" I immediately adopted the scripture, "Cast all your cares upon the Lord, lean not unto thine own understanding."

All of those problems were instantly resolved one way or another.

This does not mean that when somebody accepts Jesus Christ, the problems are going to end. We all know that is not true. But, quickly all those issues were resolved. I have the comforting feeling that no matter what happens, there is no problem my Lord cannot handle.

As a Senator, that is a very comforting thing. Many members in the House and the Senate are so concerned about their careers, that they worry all the time. I do not have to worry, because God is in control. Through it all, Jesus is my strength.

I just want you to know that some good things are happening in Washington, D.C. The prayer breakfast and the weekly Bible study is growing. No matter how far apart we are philosophically, senators come together in the spirit of Jesus.

The Washington Times refers to Senator Inhofe as, "An individual willing to stand alone if necessary to assure that our freedoms…are secure." He has been happily married to his wife Kay for 42 years, and they have four children and 11 grandchildren.

"POLITICAL FAITH" is a nationally-syndicated "testimony in courage" of U.S. Senators and U.S. Congressmen who unashamedly practice their faith. It is edited by RFC Board Member, Bob Armstrong.

Unveiling Islam: An Insider’s Look at Muslim Life and Beliefs

By Ergun and Emir Caner

This is the compelling book which Dr. Jerry Vines quoted at the Southern Baptist Convention, which caused a firestorm of controversy in the liberal press and brought Muslim protesters onto the floor of the convention. The Caner brothers, both respected Baptist seminary professors and theologians, were raised as Sunni Muslims and disowned by their father when they became Christians. Their father never spoke to them again until he was on his deathbed, and he died still rejecting the Savior his sons had found.

Had Ergun or Emir Caner converted to Christianity in a Muslim country, they would have been executed, not just disowned. This is one of the most interesting and knowledgeable books on the subject of Islam I have read, because the authors were actually brought up as observant Muslims and after their conversion to Christianity became Biblical scholars and teachers. Paperback, 248 pages. Just $10.99 including postage and handling. Send check to William J Murray Report, PO Box 77511, Washington, DC 20013. Note offer 02N07NET  or order online now.



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