CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) - As the son and ministerial heir of the most famous evangelist in the United States, Franklin Graham is stepping into one of the tallest pulpits in Christianity.
His recent comments on Islam, however, show he won't be the ecumenical bridge-builder that his father, Billy Graham, often tries to be.
In a nationally televised service three days after the Sept. 11 attacks, Billy Graham preached a message of tolerance for Muslims. Two months later, Franklin Graham called Islam "a very evil and wicked religion" during an interview with NBC's "Nightly News."
He said more of the same in a new book and during its recent promotional tour.
Some in the Christian community credit Graham with speaking uncomfortable truths. Others say he's painting an unfairly monolithic picture of a diverse faith.
Graham says he wants to focus on his mission of promoting Christianity.
"I have declined dozens of interviews on the subject of Islam recently, yet I continue to be portrayed as waging an ongoing attack on Islam. That is not the case," Graham said in a statement late last week.
"My primary mission in life is to tell everyone I possibly can about the person of Jesus Christ."
Graham's words carry added weight because he is the named successor to his 83-year-old father, who spoke of religious tolerance Sept. 14 at a National Day of Prayer and Remembrance service at Washington's National Cathedral.
"We come together today to affirm our conviction that God cares for us, whatever our ethnic, religious or political background may be," Billy Graham said. "The Bible says that he is the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles.'"
In November, as many, including President Bush, urged tolerance, Franklin Graham was criticized for his remarks during the NBC interview. In a subsequent Wall Street Journal column, Graham wrote that he does not believe Muslims "are evil people because of their faith. But I decry the evil that has been done in the name of Islam, or any other faith — including Christianity."
But he also wrote that "the persecution or elimination of non-Muslims has been a cornerstone of Islam conquests and rule for centuries."
Graham's next brush with controversy came after a radio interview this month in which he said: "The silence of the (Islamic) clerics around the world is frightening to me. How come they haven't come to this country, how come they haven't apologized to the American people, how come they haven't reassured the American people that this is not true Islam and that these people are not acting in the name of Allah, they're not acting in the name of Islam?"
In his new book, "The Name," Graham writes that "Islam — unlike Christianity — has among its basic teachings a deep intolerance for those who follow other faiths."
Graham declined several requests last week by The Associated Press for a phone interview, instead issuing a statement through Samaritan's Purse, his Boone, N.C.-based relief agency.
Corwin Smidt, director of the Henry Institute for the Study of Christianity and Politics at Michigan's Calvin College, is among those concerned about Graham's comments.
"Since we know so little about Islam, we need to be very careful about labeling it simply as one component," Smidt said. "We have to be careful about characterizing a diverse group of people as all being the same."
However, Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, said that even if Islam is the "many-splintered thing" described by Canadian theologist James Beverley, Graham is simply pointing out an obvious reality.
"If you look at all the splinters, you look at everywhere in the world where you have a nation that is dominated by Islam, there is no freedom of religion," Land said.
He declined to discuss the tone of Graham's statements, saying simply, "He says things the way he feels called to say them and I say things the way I feel called to say them.
"I think his essential point, though, is that if Islam is a religion of peace, then where is it? ... Where are these people, the followers of Islam, when terrible things are being done in the name of their religion?"
Smidt noted that Billy Graham, whom Franklin Graham is to succeed as head of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, made his mark as an evangelist by reaching across lines that once divided fundamentalists from other Christians.
The approach led to Graham becoming an internationally beloved figure and counselor to presidents of various denominations across five different decades.
"Certainly, what (Franklin Graham) says is something that resonates with some Americans and some within the Christian community," Smidt said. "There are also components of the community that are uncomfortable with comments that are very belligerent."