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Falwell's latest
That Baptist pastor Jerry Falwell doesn't think highly of Muhammad is hardly surprising, but his comment that the founder of Islam was a terrorist makes a lot of headlines today. "I think Mohammed was a terrorist," he says in an interview to be broadcast on Sunday's 60 Minutes. "I read enough … by both Muslims and non-Muslims [to decide] that he was a violent man, a man of war."

CBS is really playing up the quote in promoting Sunday's show, but other news sources are quick to point out that he was baited. The word terrorist wasn't his own — it was that of interviewer Bob Simon.

The Associated Press that "Simon asked directly whether Falwell considered Muhammad a terrorist and he tried to reply honestly. The minister said he would never state his opinion in a sermon or book."

"I've said often and many places that most Muslims are people of peace and want peace and tranquility for their families and abhor terrorism," Falwell told the news service. "Islam, like most faiths, has a fringe of radicals who carry on bloodshed wherever they are. They do not represent Islam."

Falwell made a similar statement to the conservative website WorldNetDaily. "My intent was not to attack Muhammad," he told reporter Art Moore. "I have avoided that. But [Simon] was pressing me on the issue of Muhammad's behavior, his involvement in war, and I simply said what I do believe, that Muhammad is not a good example for most Muslim people." (For more, see Falwell.com's "Historical Data About Muhammad.")

The Council on American-Islamic Relations responds: "Anybody is free to be a bigot if they want to. What really concerns us is the lack of reaction by mainstream religious and political leaders, who say nothing when these bigots voice these attacks."

Falwell's comments aren't just on Muhammad. He also speaks on Israeli-American relations. "There are 70 million of us … [and] there's nothing that would bring the wrath of the Christian public in this country down on this government like abandoning or opposing Israel on a critical matter," he said.

Missionary hospital in Pakistan attacked
Attacks on Pakistani Christian institutions continue, but thankfully they're not killing anybody. Five days after a small bomb exploded in a small Pakistani church, two men on a motorcycle threw a grenade into a Christian missionary hospital in the northwest Pakistan town of Bannu, 30 miles from the Afghanistan border. No one was hurt in either attack, but the terrorism continues.

Department of Health and Human Services offers millions to faith-based organizations
The faith-based initiative lives. On Wednesday the Bush administration announced that millions of dollars (the Associated Press says $25 million, The Washington Times says $30 million) will go to religious organizations — not just secular ones. At the top of the list, with a $2.5 million grant, is Nueva Esperanza (New Hope), a Philadelphia-based Hispanic network of more than 100 congregations from more than 25 denominations. The Christian Community Health Fellowship of Illinois received a $1.1 million grant, and Pat Robertson's Operation Blessing International received $500,000 (the Council on American-Islamic Relations is trying to get that grant stopped).

The Associated Press names several other organizations that also received funding.

In other faith-based organization news, the American Jewish Congress is suing the Corporation for National and Community Service, the independent federal agency that oversees AmeriCorps. The group opposes the agency's grants to religious educational organizations, saying that such funds violate the Constitution.

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September (Web-only) 2002, Vol. 46