Two and a half years ago, Pat Robertson declared Islam a violent religion, echoed months later by Jerry Falwell’s description of Islam’s Prophet Muhammad as a “terrorist.” Robertson said that “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.” Falwell elaborated, saying, “I think Muhammad was a terrorist. . . I’ve read enough of the history of his life written by both Muslims and non-Muslims, that he was a violent man, a man of war . . . Jesus set the example for love, as did Moses, and I think Muhammad set an opposite example.”

And to show how Christians are so peaceful and loving, Robertson is now advocating the assassination of a South American leader, and both Falwell and Robertson heartily approve of the Iraq War, in which at least 25,000 Iraq civilians have been killed. Falwell went so far as to say that if you’re anti-war, then you’re anti-American, and to him that means anti-Christian as well.

Juan Cole, blogger and professor of Middle East and South Asian History at the University of Michigan wrote a short piece showing how the reverse could also be presented–many events in the bible could classify iconic Christians as terrorists, and the Koran does teach, “Fight in the way of God against those who fight against you, but do not begin hostilities, for God does not love aggressors.”

I would go so far as to say that most Christians and most Muslims are peaceful, loving people, and it is the extremists in both religions that are screwing things up with their violent ways.

By the way, Robertson “apologized” today, by way of saying that his words were taken out of context. He now says, “Wait a minute, I didn’t say ‘assassination.’ I said our special forces should, quote, ‘take him out,’ and ‘take him out’ can be a number of things, including kidnapping.” However, his original statement was “I don’t know about this doctrine of assassination, but if he thinks we’re trying to assassinate him, I think that we really ought to go ahead and do it.” After getting back from the studios, Robertson must have been shown a transcript of his original remarks, because he again amended himself, saying he had “ad-libbed” that response.

He also added, “If I see a madman driving a car into a group of innocent bystanders, then I can’t, as a Christian, simply wait for the catastrophe. . . . I must try to wrestle the steering wheel out of the hands of the driver.”

So, I guess we’ll have to wait and see how he plans to wrestle the steering wheel out of Bush’s hands.