Tonight (Sat night) I met a representative with the Council on Islamic Relations (CAIR) at a public forum in Washington, DC where a number of people on a panel discussion were sharing their concerns about the Patriot Act. The person representing CAIR stated that it was wrong for Americans to single out Muslims as terrorists since Adolph Hitler and Timothy McVeigh were Christians.

During the question and answer time I made the point that it was unfair to label Timothy McVeigh as a Christian since he in no way ever represented himself as a Christian, never referred to the Bible as a source for his ideas, never quoted the Bible, did not attend church nor function freely in churches and even denied, in one report, that Jesus is the Son of God so that Timothy McVeigh could not be called a Christian by an objective observer.

I went on the make the point that the 9-11 murderers called themselves Muslims, often said prayers at the mosque and attended various mosques and functioned within the mainstream Muslim community and quoted from the Quran extensively so that it is only logical for the objective observer to call them Muslims.

The CAIR representative seemed a bit stunned and then apologized and withdrew his remark about Timothy McVeigh being a Christian. He added, "I never knew those things" (obviously referring to what I said about McVeigh and not what I said about the 9-11 murderers, I hope).

I was surprised at how quickly he offered an apology. He gave me his card and I plan to follow up with him later.

I have heard other CAIR spokespersons refer to Timothy McVeigh as a Christian. I think the guy tonight was simply repeating what he heard others in CAIR state but that he never really considered carefully what he was actually saying until tonight. I think it was Ibrahim Hooper who has referred to Timothy McVeigh as a Christian several times on national TV.

One of the important applications of responding to Islam includes speaking in the public forum about Church / State issues. When CAIR makes outrageous claims about Christianity, such as saying McVeigh is a Christian, I believe that that it is appropriate to hold them publicly accountable. The CAIR representative tonight is one of their experts who deals with civil rights issues.

In the context of the political issue of civil rights CAIR is misleading people and smearing true followers of Christ with lies, either because of ignorance or in order to deceive people. The voice of the Church must be heard on these issues and that voice must come from those of us who understand Islam and who have experience in dialoguing with Muslims.

The audience tonight was very sympathetic toward what could be called an anti-Bush agenda. Several of the Muslims tonight openly stated that they are working to defeat Bush in the upcoming elections and people clapped and cheered. Even in this context, I had the impression that my remarks were well received by the crowd as I tried to present them as an objective observer of McVeigh vs. the 9-11 murderers.