Franklin Graham, the prominent conservative minister and one of Glenn Beck's Black Robe Regiment members, was given a 'false' rating by PolitiFact for comments he made on Sunday's This Week program.
The Pulitzer Prize-winning website of the St. Petersburg Times reviewed Graham's comments during a This Week “Town Hall Debate” hosted by ABC News' Christiane Amanpour in which he stated that in most Muslim countries, “We can't have a church. We're not able to build synagogues. It's forbidden.”
PolitiFact reported today:
Amanpour asked the Rev. Franklin Graham, son of evangelist Billy Graham, about his comments following 9-11 that Islam is a “very evil and very wicked” religion.
“I understand what the Muslims want to do in America,” said Graham, president of both the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA) and the international Christian relief organization Samaritan's Purse. “They want to build as many mosques and cultural centers as they possibly can so they can convert as many Americans as they can to Islam. I understand that...I understand what they're doing. And I just don't have the freedom to do this in most Muslim countries. We can't have a church. We're not able to build synagogues. It's forbidden.”
Imam Osama Bahloul, leader of the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro, Tenn., and a panelist on the show, said Graham was incorrect.
“For someone to say we are not allowed to build a church in a Muslim country, this is absolutely not right. You can Google this,” Bahloul said.
We spoke to several experts on religion and government in Muslim countries. And the consensus was clear: there are, in fact, Christian churches and/or synagogues in almost every Muslim country.
See the video clip below: