On ABC’s This Week on Oct. 3, 2010, host Christiane Amanpour held a town hall debate on whether Americans should fear Islam. Naturally, the issue of the so-called Ground Zero mosque came up.

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.

“Reverend Graham is wrong,” said Yvonne Haddad, Professor of History of Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations at Georgetown University. “Churches are flourishing in Jordan and Syria. In Egypt, the Christians find restrictions on church construction which has recently been partially lifted.”

Ibrahim Hooper, a spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic relations, agreed that Graham was incorrect. “There are lots of Christian churches and synagogues in Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Iran, Turkey, Jordan, Indonesia, Qatar, Kuwait … If you go to any number of so-called Muslim countries you will see thriving Christian and Jewish populations.”   »»» PolitiFact

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