Forrest Pollock on Islam...

Two months after the 9/11 attacks, Reverend Franklin Graham (son of Billy) called Islam "a very evil and wicked religion" during a television interview with NBC. In his book entitled "The Name", Graham wrote that "The God of Islam is not the God of the Christian faith...the two are different as lightness and darkness."

The following year, the Reverend Jerry Vines, former President of the Southern Baptist Convention, proclaimed to an audience of several thousand that "Islam was founded by Muhammad, a demon-possessed pedophile who had 12 wives - and his last one was a 9-year old girl. And I will 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."

Today, EthicsDaily.com reported that in a sermon to students and faculty at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Florida pastor Forrest Pollock described Islam as a religion of violence and urged unqualified support for Israel. Touted by some as a possible candidate for the SBC Presidency in 2007 or 2008, Pollock made headlines in June when he nominated Frank Page for President of the Southern Baptist Convention. And Pollock in his own words...

"A careful examination of the September 11 attacks reveals that 19 out of the 19 terrorists who flew the airplanes into the twin towers and into the Pentagon and attempted to blow up the White House were not quoting John 3:16. They were quoting the Quran," he said. "They were not a bunch of belligerent Baptists or mean-spirited Methodists."

"But some will say Osama bin Laden and his ilk are just a fringe, they're kooks," he continued. "Well, what does the Quran say? At the end of the day you've got to go to the holy book and see what it says. Surah 9:5 says, 'Fight and slay the pagans.' That is the infidels. That's you and me." "The Bible we preach from says love your enemies, do good to those who spitefully use you, and the Quran says kill Christians and Jews," Pollock said. "Now I ask you, is that a religion of peace, a religion of universal brotherhood and tolerance and inclusiveness?

It seems that the Rev. Pollock has become quite the expert on the Quran - must be all those Islam courses he took at Southwestern!

Mr. Pollock, not all Muslims are terrorists. Likewise, not all Christians are terrorists who bomb abortion clinics and murder doctors. Nor are all Christians racist bigots. You are guilty of selectively quoting verses which fit your agenda. Muslim Extremists do the same. It would be as terrible a mistake for you to see Osama as an authentic represenative of Islam as to consider James Kopp, the alleged murderer of an abortion provider in Buffalo, New York, a typical Christian or Baruch Goldstein, who shot 29 worshipers in the Hebron mosque in 1994, a true martyr of Israel.

I've known quite a few Muslims in my 23 years of life. Not one was a terrorist. Most were deeply committed men of faith. They said prayers, fasted, and read from their Holy Book daily. I witnessed these young men practicing a peaceful religion. They were absolutely horrified and frightened by the events of 9/11.

Mr. Pollock, I am amazed that the President of SWBTS, Paige Patterson, decided to allow the video of your chapel message to be posted online. However, only a week before, Patterson found the chapel message of African-American pastor Dwight McKessic unfit for public dissemination because he spoke positively about the missionary-forbidden "private prayer language." Patterson censors McKessic but not your Ann Coulter-ish babblin??

Nevertheless Mr. Pollock, your lies and rhetoric give Baptists a bad name.

I encourage you to attend a future Interfaith Prayer event - get out there and meet a few real-live Muslims for a change....