'These people are crazed fanatics ... I believe it's motivated by demonic power'
VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. – Televangelist Pat Robertson says radical Muslims are "demonic" and "satanic" and that Islam is not a religion of peace.
Appearing on his broadcast "The 700 Club" today, Robertson made the remarks after watching a CBN news story about protests in Europe over the cartoons of the prophet Muhammad.
Robertson said the cartoon rage "just shows the kind of people we're dealing with. These people are crazed fanatics, and I want to say it now: I believe it's motivated by demonic power. It is satanic and it's time we recognize what we're dealing with."
Robertson also said that "the goal of Islam, ladies and gentlemen, whether you like it or not, is world domination."
On a previous program, he similarly said Islam "is not a peaceful religion that wants to coexist. They want to coexist until they can control, dominate and then, if need be, destroy."
A statement released to the Associated Press after the program said Robertson was referring to terrorists seeking to bomb innocent people as being motivated by Satan. In the news story, he noted, radical Muslims were shown screaming: "May Allah bomb you! May Osama Bin Laden bomb you!"
The Rev. Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, told AP Robertson's new comments are "grossly irresponsible."
"At a time when inter-religious tensions around the world are at an all-time high, Robertson seems determined to throw gasoline on the fire," Lynn said in a statement.
As WND reported last September, Robertson suggested the assassination of Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez.
"We have the ability to take him out, and I think the time has come that we exercise that ability," he said, though he later backed away from the suggestion of assassination, stating he was taken out of context.
In October, he said the catastrophic earthquake in South Asia in the wake of recent U.S. hurricanes and the December 2004 tsunami indicated we "might be" in the End Times described in the Bible.
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Televangelist Pat Robertson says radical Muslims are "demonic" and "satanic" and that Islam is not a religion of peace.
I haven't agreed with a lot of the things that Pat Robertson has said recently but this is one of the ones that I do agree with.