(May 12, 2003 6:15 p.m. EDT) - The National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) convened a meeting in Washington last week to urge their mostly conservative Christian leaders to tone down "dangerous" and "unhelpful" remarks about Islam. Concerns were raised over comments by the Revs. Franklin Graham, Pat Robertson and others that Islam is inherently "wicked" and violent. NAE leaders worry that such statements endanger Christian missionaries around the world. They proposed new guidelines for churches to follow in relating to Muslims.
Doesn't the NAE have it backward? The most incendiary language is not coming from Christian leaders in this country, but from Muslim clergy overseas and occasionally from Muslim pulpits and schools in the United States. There is no Christian or Jewish doctrine that mandates followers of those faiths to kill people who disagree with them and to make the state in which they reside subject to their interpretation of holy writ. If one converts to Islam from any religion (or no religion) in the United States, his life is not put in danger. In America, one may take God's name in vain without fear of temporal punishment, unlike in many Muslim countries where even perceived blasphemy can result in the death penalty. Ask Salman Rushdie, who remains the target of a fatwa calling for his assassination for writing "The Satanic Verses," a book that offended some Muslim leaders.

Thank you Cal Thomas. Read the whole article. The ones who are being militant are not the ones saying the Muslims are fanatical, it is the Muslims shouting death to the Christians.