Muslims rarely if ever address the issue of radicals among them. Usually it’s in the context of the following:

“Oh sure X is bad, but what he says is a perversion of Islam. Islam is a religion of peace. The only reason more people don’t stand up to X is because Israel and the Great Satan have driven us to follow people like this. Remember, Islam is a religion of peace.”

Rarely a criticism of a muslim leader goes by without some criticism of someone else and some other organization or some other reason or some excuse. No muslim leader shall be criticized by muslims without the criticism being spread outside that narrow spectrum.

That being said, I am not a muslim, and have no problem calling the people who pervert MY religion the bastards that they are, and I also have no problem not saying they’re bastards because of someone else’s actions. Some people are just bastards.

Fred Phelps is a bastard. Aside from the fact that his site is Godhatesfags.com, which alone should raise even the most skeptical eyebrows, Phelps has singlehandedly made me hate him with his own press releases; hate being something I reserve for very few people.

I’ve been looking forward to Friday night for a few weeks now. For one night in my life, a living legend will be on the stage in front of me. Reverend Billy Graham is making his farewell tour of the United States, and for three nights this weekend, he will be in my neck of the woods. Anyone who thinks I would miss this for anything is off their rocker.

This is big news for our fair city. We don’t get “Billy Graham” type legends here very often. Oh sure the Pope’s been here and that was pretty awesome, but Christian evangelicals tend to gravitate toward states and cities that lean a little more red than New York City.

Graham is a good man. Despite numerous attempts to destroy him, he’s still a living legend and still loved by his followers. Obviously, that doesn’t sit well with the Phelps’ of the world, so they try desperately to paint him as a heretic and so on. Witness this tripe from his 1992 Frontpage Template Website.

Phelps and his crew are quite a bunch of bastards. From standing outside the Long Island school where there was a gay bashing with signs saying “God Hates Fags” to recent “events” where Phelps and his mindless drones praise God for IED’s (Improvised Explosive Devices) that kill our soldiers while protesting outside funerals for soldiers killed in Iraq.

This is no man of God, and no man of a Christian God.

I have no problem saying it unequivocally and unapologetically.

I’ll pray for his soul, though, because despite his pretention of being a man of the cloth, he’s going to need all the help he can get. I believe in Hell, Mr. Phelps, and I think you’re doing a marvelous job of paving your own road there.

Ironically enough, his site today quotes Hebrews 3:15.

“Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.

I would advise Phelps to take into consideration the part about not hardening one’s heart.