Franklin Graham under fire for offering food, supplies to Iraq

As war in Iraq continues, Samaritan’s Purse, headed by Franklin Graham, is preparing to bring aid supplies and personnel into the area. However, the evangelist and his organization have been criticized recently by the media and by Muslim organizations who question Graham’s motives.

“As Christians, our prayers and love go out to the Iraqi people in their hour of suffering,” said Samaritan’s Purse president Franklin Graham in a statement. “The church in Iraq has been there for almost 2,000 years, they have asked for our help and we are ready to lend a hand.”

Graham’s international relief organization works in over 100 countries, and began working in Iraq in 1991 before the first Gulf War. According to Samaritan’s Purse, the organization is standing by to provide shelter, water, and medical assistance inside Iraq as soon as military clearance is available. In the meantime, the North Carolina-based relief organization has been coordinating with authorities in Jordan to help with a possible influx of refugees. Samaritan’s Purse has also been working in Kuwait to assess a response from the south of Iraq.

Resources include a water system that can provide drinking water for up to 20,000 people, material to build temporary shelters for more than 4,000 families, packages of household items for 5,000 families, and medical kits designed to meet the general medical needs of 100,000 people for three months.

Samaritan’s Purse has assembled an international team with veterans of several war-relief projects. The team includes Americans and Canadians who have worked in Afghanistan, Kosovo, Rwanda, and Somalia; as well as relief workers from several Middle East countries who speak the local languages and know the region well. Among the team are a doctor, an engineer, and a water specialist.

As tensions mounted in the Middle East, Samaritan’s Purse stockpiled emergency supplies and equipment in Amman, Jordan. From there, they can be trucked into Iraq in a matter of hours, bringing emergency and longer-term relief to people who are suffering not only because of war but also from years of repression and neglect.

While the organization stands ready to help, it has come under fire from critics of Graham’s stance on Islam. Shortly after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Graham described Islam as “a very evil and wicked religion” during an interview on NBC. Graham later wrote in an article that he denounced any evil done in the name of religion. Now, as Samaritan’s Purse is poised to enter Iraq, critics are questioning the organization’s motives.

“Given his past viewpoints, people are suspicious about his real aim, which could be to take advantage of a situation in which people are desperate,” Hodan Hassan, a spokesperson for the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Washington, D.C., told the Associated Press. “They will have food in one hand and the Bible in the other. — E.P. News