“Islam not only condones violence, it commands it.” These are the words of Pastor John Hagee, founder and chairman of Christians United for Israel (CUFI), which claims to be the “largest pro-Israel organization in the United States.” Since 2006, Hagee and his organization CUFI have advocated on behalf of the state of Israel, using anti-Arab, Islamophobic, and even antisemitic rhetoric to justify the Israeli government’s occupation of Palestinian land.
Hagee made a number of remarks vilifying Islam, including claims that:
– “America is at war with radical Islam,” that “Jihad has come to America,” and that “If we lose the war to Islamic fascism, it will change the world as we know it.”
– “Radical sects, which include about 200 million Islamics, believe they have a command from God to kill Christians and Jews.”
– “They are trained from the breast of their mother to hate us. Radical Islam is a doctrine of death. It is their desire, it is their hope, it is their ambition, it is their highest honor to die in a war against infidels. And you are ‘infidels’ and there is nothing you can do to accommodate them. That’s what makes them so dangerous.”
In his book In Defense of Israel, Hagee also wrote that “a tree is known by its fruit, and the fruit produced by Islam is fourteen hundred years of violence and bloodshed around the world.” He also notes that “the overwhelming majority of Arabs are Muslims… The remaining members of the population in these countries are Christians and Jews, commonly viewed by other Arabs as infidels. In many places these minorities have only two choices: convert or be killed.”
In a 2016 article from his website, Hagee continued to promote anti-Muslim conspiracies, including that “America has been invaded by an invisible army of millions who intend to destroy this nation… This army of radical Islamic extremists have poured across our open borders and are waiting patiently for the hour of their unified attack, designed to bring chaos and governmental collapse.”
Hagee also reportedly features Frank Gaffney at his CUFI conferences; Gaffney, the head of the Center for Security Policy, “sees Islam as a national security threat” and has promoted conspiracies like “American Muslims are working to infiltrate and ‘penetrate’ the government and ‘destroy western civilization from within.'”
In 2007, CUFI also reportedly invited Brigitte Gabriel to speak at their convention, during which she reportedly claimed that Arabs and Muslims “have no soul” and that they are “dead set on killing and destruction.” Gabriel’s ACT for America is considered by the Southern Poverty Law Center as “the largest anti-Muslim hate group in the United States.”
Hagee’s rhetoric has also been known to extend to antisemitic claims. In one sermon, Hagee said that “Hitler and the Holocaust had been part of God’s plan to chase the Jews from Europe and drive them to Palestine.” In 2008, the resurfaced audio led then-Republican Presidential Candidate John McCain to publicly reject Hagee’s endorsement.
Hagee has also promoted several antisemitic conspiracy theories. According to Joshua Shanes in a Haaretz op-ed, “[Hagee’s] antisemitic attacks include many of the most dangerous myths of the modern era. Hagee has warned of an international plot led by the Rothschilds to undermine American sovereignty through controlling the federal reserve and international markets. He has described Hitler as a ‘hunter’ sent by God to kill Jews who refused to move to Israel, and he described the Antichrist as a ‘half-Jew homosexual.'”
Much of Hagee’s hateful rhetoric is aimed at justifying his and CUFI’s strong advocacy on behalf of the state of Israel — advocacy which is reportedly rooted in a belief that “Armageddon will come only when the Kingdom of Israel is established.” As Shanes put it, “For Hagee, Israel must not and cannot be divided into two states and Jerusalem must be united under Israeli control, for this is the critical precondition to Armageddon and its rapturous aftermath.” He continues: “Palestinian rights or suffering have no meaning here.”
This belief has led Hagee to defend the Israeli government’s well-documented atrocities against the Palestinian people, including the occupation of Palestinian land. In a 2020 op-ed for Haaretz, Hagee, in defense of Trump’s 2020 plan to forward the illegal annexation and occupation of Palestinian land, claimed that “Christian support for Israel is founded in theology” and that as “Israel owns, and does not occupy, the Holy Land,” it “cannot be an occupier on land it owns.”
Other problematic remarks include a 2006 interview, during which Hagee claimed that Hurricane Katrina was “God’s retribution for a planned gay pride parade.”
