The recent call by conservative religious leader Franklin Graham to end Muslim immigration to the United States is reportedly reducing the willingness of some Evangelical churches to participate in the resettlement of Muslim refugees.
Franklin Graham, the son of Billy Graham, used facebook to write “We are under attack by Muslims at home and abroad,..We should stop all immigration of Muslims to the US until this threat with Islam has been settled.” Jenny Yang, of the Evangelical refugee resettlement group World Relief says:
“We are getting tons of emails and calls from churches specifically wanting Christian refugees, those persecuted in the Middle East. There is a lot of fear about resettling Muslim refugees. There is fear about them becoming terrorists or implementing Shari‘ah law.”
Prior to Graham’s message, Evangelicals were already more mistrustful of Muslims than were other Americans. The worry is that they will now move further away from supporting the resettlement of Muslim refugees.
