Leading white evangelical figures framed Islam as a violent, evil enemy by 2002

Evidence

Billy Graham’s son Franklin called Islam “a very evil and wicked religion.” Pat Robertson assured his viewers that Muslims were “worse than the Nazis.” James Dobson began to characterize Islamic fundamentalism as one of the most serious threats to American families, explaining that “the security of our homeland and the welfare of our children” were, after all, “family values.” Ted Haggard agreed, insisting that spiritual warfare required “a virile worldly counterpart” lest his kids “grow up in an Islamic state.” In the fall of 2002, 77 percent of evangelical leaders held an overall unfavorable view of Islam, and 70 percent agreed that Islam was “a religion of violence.” Two-thirds also believed that Islam was “dedicated to world domination.” — Kristin Kobes Du Mez, Jesus and John Wayne, 495

Categorization

• XREF: The ‘virile worldly counterpart’ quote ties directly to the book’s central militant-masculinity thesis — spiritual warfare needing virility echoes earlier chapters on martial manhood.
• SEED: Dobson framing national security as ‘family values’ is a compact case study for an essay on how the Christian right translated foreign policy into domestic-family threat discourse.