At about this time of year Jenny and I as well as our other arts and crafts market friends are making preparations for a government sponsored circus festival, which has been running these past couple of years, held at the Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall in Taipei. We were all quite puzzled at the decision not to hold the event this year, as it has proven to be very successful in the past. I was walking through the CKS Hall area today, and found that a huge festival is indeed taking place, starting tonight. However it is no circus festival, it is the Taipei Franklin Graham Festival. I had no idea who this Franklin Graham is or why there should be a festival in his name, but it turns out that Franklin Graham is the son of evangelist Billy Graham, and he is on a crusade around the world continuing his fathers work. Franklin Graham has called Islam "a very evil and wicked religion." And on september 14 2001 on CNN he stated "And I think we're going to have to use every -- and I hate to say it, hellish weapon in our inventory, if need be, to defeat these [terrorists]. But let's use the weapons we have, the weapons of mass destruction if need be and destroy the enemy."
This guy seems to me to be some kind of intolerant religious fundementalist nutjob, but I could be wrong. It seems strange that the Taipei government would give such exposure to this kind of crackpot, but perhaps it's on the grounds of religious freedom of expression. I might wander down there tonight to see what it's all about. I wonder if he will be asking people for money.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
Perhaps they're trying to keep him and his "...let's use the weapons we have, the weapons of mass destruction if need be and destroy..." away from mainland China and influencing opinion there?
With his extreme religious views I doubt the mainland Chinese government would grant him a visa.
Post a Comment