Graham echos Trump's stance on Muslim immigration
One of the country's most prominent Christian leaders added his voice to Donald Trump's inflammatory call to ban Muslims from entering the United States.
"For some time I have been saying that Muslim immigration into the United States should be stopped until we can properly vet them or until the war with Islam is over," Franklin Graham, the head of the Charlotte-based Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, wrote Wednesday on his Facebook account.
Graham, the son of famed Christian evangelist Billy Graham, noted that Trump "has been criticized by some for saying something similar."
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Trump, the Republican frontrunner in the presidential campaign, called Monday for a "total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States," an idea that set off a firestorm of protest and incredulity from both sides of the political aisle.
Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) was one of many to bluntly rejected Trump's call, saying it's not what the GOP nor the country "stands for."
Some of the other 2016 presidential candidates also weighed in. John Kasich blasted Trump's "outrageous divisiveness" and Jeb Bush said "Donald Trump is unhinged. His 'policy' proposals are not serious."
RELATED: Trump remains firm on Muslim policy
Monday in Durham, Christians, Jews, and Muslims gathered at an interfaith service at St. Phillip's Episcopal Church in a show of unity aimed at healing some of the divides since the controversy over Syrian refugees in the wake of the Paris attacks and concerns about radicalized Muslims following the terror in San Bernardino, Calif.
Graham said the call to limit entry of Muslims into the country is a matter of national security.
"Our politicians are not listening to the truth - my prayer is that God will open their eyes, Graham wrote." This affects our security and the future of our nation."
