Reactions to Falwell's Statement "Mohammed was a Terrorist"

October 8, 2002

Source: The Nation

On October 8, 2002 the Nation reported that "The conservative Baptist minister (Jerry Falwell) tells correspondent Bob Simon that he has concluded from reading Muslim and non-Muslim writers that Islam's prophet 'was a- violent man, a man of war... 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... Islam, like most faiths, has a fringe of radicals who carry on bloodshed wherever they are. They do not represent Islam'... In response to Falwell's remarks, Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Council on American Islamic Relations in Washington, said: '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.'"