Media Matters poses the question.

On today’s edition of Fox & Friends, evangelist Rev. Franklin Graham, son of Rev. Billy Graham, appeared on the show to discuss reports that the Army is considering rescinding its invitation for Graham to appear at the Pentagon on the National Day of Prayer, due to objections over Graham’s past controversial comments about Islam.

During his Fox & Friends appearance, Franklin certainly proved those who objected to his invitation’s point. He claimed that he “loves the Muslim people” and just wanted them to “know what I know.” What he knows, apparently is that “Christ can come into their heart and change them, and they can have the hope of eternal life, salvation. I want them to know that they don’t have to die in a car bomb, they don’t have to die in some holy war to be accepted by God, but it’s through faith in Jesus Christ and Christ alone.”

And, he was just getting started. Graham also said he just wanted people who were “enslaved by Islam” to know that they could be “free through faith in Jesus Christ and Christ alone.” Graham preached all of this on a news network (sort of), so, as you can imagine, the “Fair and Balanced” host of this show was outraged that someone would think they could appear on the show, proselytize, and attack Islam and Muslims.

Nope! Instead, host Gretchen Carlson wondered if reports that the Army is reconsidering its invitation, coupled with a judge’s ruling that the National Prayer Day was unconstitutional was evidence of an “assault against Christianity, against prayer.”

Update:  See “Ask Pentagon to drop anti-Islam speaker”, CAIR action alert, 22 April 2010

Deepa Kumar argues that the US has seen “a new turn in Islamophobia and the politics of fear that has striking parallels with the Red Scare of the Cold War. Like the Red Scare, this new ‘Green Scare’ (green referring here to Islam, as opposed to environmental activists) also attempts to promote fear and suspicion of our friends, neighbors and co-workers.”

MRZine, 15 April 2010

Miami-Dade Transit is pulling advertisements from 10 buses that South Florida Muslims have said are offensive to Islam.

The ads, which went up Tuesday, said “Fatwa on your head? Is your community or family threatening you?” and directed Muslims to a website encouraging them to leave Islam.

Robert Spencer, who heads New York-based Stop the Islamization of America, which purchased the ads for one-month as the first leg of a national campaign, said they were “offered in defense of religious liberty.”

But on Thursday, Miami-Dade Transit spokeswoman Karla Damian said that after reviewing the ads, the department decided they “may be offensive to Islam” and would remove them before the buses ran on Friday.

Damian said the ads were able to initially go up because Miami-Dade Transit has an outside company sell ad space and does not routinely review ads before they run.

The South Florida chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations had critiqued the ads as promoting “bigotry” and making false statements about Islam.

“Islam guarantees freedom to and freedom from religion…. [We] reject as un-Islamic any extremist interpretation that sanctions the killing of any individual because she decided to ‘leave Islam’,” said director Muhammed Malik.

Miami Herald, 16 April 2010

See also “Miami-Dade Transit bows to Sharia, pulls religious liberty bus ads as ‘offensive to Islam'” at Jihad Watch, and “Miami Transit pulls SIOA ‘Leaving Islam’ ads: living under Sharia in the USA” at Atlas Shrugs.

Update:  Spencer and Geller have announced that they are suing Miami-Dade Transit for breach of contract and violation of their First Amendment rights.

Bryan Fischer of the American Family Association offers some clarification of his recent proposal that Muslims should be deported from the US. He writes:

“Those who are willing to convert to Christianity and renounce Islam, Allah, Mohammed and the Koran may be welcomed, for they can become not just good Christians but true Americans.”

Via Media Matters.