Evangelist Rev. Franklin Graham on Wednesday said that while he supports Americans’ right to free speech, the attendees at the Muhammad cartoon contest near Dallas “were wrong” to mock Muslims.
“As a Christian, I don’t like it when people mock my Lord and savior, Jesus Christ, and what this event in Garland, Texas, was doing was mocking the Muslims. And I disagree with Islam, I don’t believe in Islam, but I’m not going to mock them and make fun of them,” Graham said on “Fox and Friends.”
Graham said that the cartoon contest, organized by Pam Geller’s anti-Islam group, the American Freedom Defense Initiative, was offensive.
“I’m discouraged that people would do this. We live in a society now where there’s no civility, there’s no respect, we don’t honor people who have differences. We only attack each other. And so I agree that the folks in Garland, Texas, were wrong,” he said. “They had the right to speak. I have free speech, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to go around and cuss people just because I have the freedom to do that.”
He later added that even though he did not approve of the event, responding with violence was “wrong.”
“The Muslims have no right to go around shooting people because somebody mocks them,” he said.
In February, Graham warned that the White House has been “infiltrated by Muslims.”
“One of the problems we have in the West is that our governments, especially in Washington, has been infiltrated by Muslims who are advising the White House, who I think are part of the problem,” he said.
Watch the “Fox and Friends” clip via Fox News:
