Former SBC President Vines stands by comments about Muslims

Former Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) President Jerry Vines is making no apology for his controversial description of Islam’s founder Mohommed as a “demon-possessed pedophile.”

In a prepared statement, Vines said June 16 the comment was based on information in a book, “Unveiling Islam,” and came “directly from” the Koran, the Islamic scripture, and the Hadith, another authoritative source for Muslim teaching.

“If I have misread this information, I would be glad for Muslim scholars to explain their own documents to us all,” Vines said at the 10:30 a.m. worship service at First Baptist Church in Jacksonville, Fla., where he is pastor.

Vines had previously declined comment since giving a sermon a week earlier at the SBC Pastors Conference in St. Luis, in which he said Christianity is superior to Islam. To illustrate, he compared Jesus Christ to Mohammed, describing the Islamic prophet as “a demon-possessed pedophile who had 12 wives- and his last was a 9-year old girl.”

“And I will tell you Allah is not Jehovah either,” Vines continued in the sermon. “Jehovah’s not going to turn you into a terrorist that’ll try to bomb people and take the lives of thousands and thousands of people.”

Islamic groups and others immediately protested, calling Vines’ comments “bigoted” and “hateful.”

In his statement, Vines pointed to his 20-year record in Jacksonville “as a pastor who loves people.”

“I love Muslim people,” he said. “I have found many of them to be kind, gentle and loving people. Our First Baptist Church reaches out to our Muslim friends through our international ministry, which ministers to people of all cultures and faiths in the community. Many Muslims have come to our church to hear of the love, joy, peace and saving grace available to all in Jesus Christ.”

In his formal statement, Vines said he doesn’t plan to say any more about the controversy.

Vines said his source for the statement about Mohammed is “Unveiling Islam: An Insider’s Look at Muslim Life and Belief,” a book by Ergun and Emir Cane.

The Caner brothers say the Hadith, volume 7, book 6, numbers 64 and 65, verifies that Mohammed married a 6 year-old girl and consummated the marriage when she was 9.

(ABP)