c. 2005 Religion News Service

Radio Talk Show Host Draws Ire for Calling Islam `Terror Organization’

(RNS) A national Islamic civil liberties organization and a conservative radio talk show host are squaring off over the host’s on-air reference to Islam as “a terrorist organization.”

Michael Graham made his remarks on his Monday (July 25) show, which airs on WMAL-AM in Washington, D.C.

“The problem is not extremism, the problem is Islam,” Graham said. “We are at war with a terrorist organization named Islam.”

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a Washington-based group, called on the station to reprimand Graham for the comments.

“Such hate-filled and inflammatory remarks only serve to encourage those who would turn bigoted views into violent or discriminatory actions against ordinary American Muslims,” said Ibrahim Hooper, CAIR’s communications director, in a statement urging “people of conscience” to contact the station and demand an apology or disciplinary action.

The station’s operations director, Randall Bloomquist, said he has received more than 100 e-mails from Muslims criticizing Graham. A report posted on the station’s Web site says “Graham’s comments are justified in the context of a radio talk show, and he (Bloomquist) is standing behind Graham.”

Graham has declined to comment on the controversy outside of his on-air comments, but he posted a column on the WMAL Web site that reiterates his position.

“The reason Islam has itself become a terrorist organization is that it cannot address its own role in this violence. It cannot cast out the murderers from its members,” Graham wrote in the column.

CAIR’s Hooper said that in the absence of an apology or reprimand, his group is urging members to contact the station’s advertisers to express their concern about Graham’s program.

Hooper also said that in a conversation with Bloomquist, he was told that WMAL would not allow ethnic slurs, such as anti-Semitic epithets or the “N-word,” on programs.

“It seems the only form of bigotry that’s accepted by WMAL is anti-Muslim bigotry,” Hooper said.

_ Holly Lebowitz Rossi

Jewish, Christian and Muslim Leaders Decry Plight of North Koreans

WASHINGTON (RNS) A broad range of religious leaders have issued a “statement of principles” urging the Bush administration to make human rights abuses in China and North Korea a central element of the six-party nuclear disarmament talks that began Tuesday (July 26).

The statement, released Monday, was signed by religious representatives of the Korean-American community as well as American leaders representing Islam, Judaism and several denominations of Christianity, including the Southern Baptist Convention, the country’s largest Protestant denomination.

It urges the Bush administration to make human rights a central subject of the talks, which are focused mainly on North Korea’s nuclear weapons program. It also says that the United States should hold China accountable for its complicity in North Korea’s human rights abuses.

“China’s acts of roundups and forced repatriation of the refugees make it complicit in these human rights violations,” the statement says. “Further, China’s political and financial support of the regime is the critical element that permits the regime to continue its human rights practices and, in the end, the nuclear and other WMD development programs.”

The Rev. Barrett Duke, head of the Washington office of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, said that Christians have an obligation to care for the downtrodden.

“God values mercy to the marginalized,” Duke said. “I can think of no place where the people are more marginalized than in North Korea.”

Referring to reports that China frequently rounds up groups of North Korean refugees and sends them back to North Korea where they are jailed and tortured, Duke added that “China’s leaders will face God’s judgment.”

Kamal Nawash, president of the Free Muslims Coalition, said that Islam teaches that Muslims should have sympathy for the oppressed.

“We think it is unconscionable that in the 21st century there is an entire nation held hostage by its leaders,” Nawash said. “From a Muslim point of view, it’s a very dangerous situation.”

_ Hugh S. Moore

Florida Pastor Confirmed as New Moderator of Gay Denomination

(RNS) A Florida pastor has been elected the new moderator of the Metropolitan Community Churches, a predominantly gay denomination of 43,000 members, by church delegates meeting in Calgary, Alberta.

The Rev. Nancy Wilson was elected, as expected, by delegates to the MCC’s General Conference on Sunday (July 24). She succeeds MCC founder Troy Perry as moderator, and is only the second person _ and the first woman _ to hold the post.

Wilson, the senior pastor of Church of the Trinity MCC in Sarasota, Fla., was the unanimous choice of a search committee in May. She will be formally installed during a ceremony at Washington National Cathedral on Oct. 29.

From 1979 to 1999, Wilson was the church’s ecumenical officer, and also served as vice moderator from 1993 to 2003. In 1976, she was elected as the youngest member of the church’s Board of Elders and continues to hold a seat on the board.

Wilson, 54, has pastored four MCC churches, including 14 years as senior pastor of the MCC’s “mother church” in Los Angeles. A former United Methodist, she holds a divinity degree from Sts. Cyril and Methodius Seminary, a Catholic seminary in Michigan.

_ Kevin Eckstrom

Bush to Encourage Corporate Support of Faith-Based Groups

(RNS) President Bush has announced plans to hold a conference next March that aims to foster more corporate foundation support for faith-based organizations.

The president met Monday (July 25) with about 20 African-American religious and community leaders and unveiled his plans at that time.

“The president … spoke of the importance of faith-based and community groups being able to access some of the corporate and foundation money that is granted each year,” said Jim Towey, director of the White House Office of Faith-based and Community Initiatives, in a telephone press briefing after the meeting.

“Many large corporations have policies that explicitly rule out donations or grants to faith-based organizations regardless of their effectiveness.”

Towey said the president had intended to have a gathering of corporate and foundation leaders in late 2001, but those plans were postponed after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and the corporate governance scandals.

Towey estimated that 17 percent of foundations of the top 50 Fortune 500 corporations have published policies that prohibit giving to faith-based groups. Many corporations also prevent employee matching contribution programs from including faith-based groups.

“The reality is, while we have removed barriers at the federal level, within corporate boardrooms and foundation boardrooms there are still barriers in place,” he said, adding that funding can occur without supporting proselytizing.

Among those joining the president were the Rev. Kirbyjon Caldwell, senior pastor, Windsor Village United Methodist Church in Houston; Pastor Ken Hutcherson, senior pastor of Antioch Bible Church near Seattle; Bishop Harry R. Jackson Jr., senior pastor, Hope Christian Church outside Washington; Wintley Phipps, president, U.S. Dream Academy in Columbia, Md.; and the Rev. Eugene Rivers, president, National Ten Point Leadership Foundation in Boston.

_ Adelle M. Banks

Quote of the Day: Larry Norman, Christian rock artist

(RNS) “I thought Elvis was stealing the church’s music. And I thought I should steal it back.”

– Larry Norman, Gospel Music Hall of Fame inductee, on how his musical career began. Norman, who is retiring, has been recognized as inventing the Christian rock genre. He was quoted in the Statesman Journal of Salem, Ore.

MO/PH END RNS