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Is Lou Engle Misrepresenting His Views On Muslims To Detroit Pastors?

An interfaith group of Detroit clergy have made tremendous headway(link is external) in their work exposing the radical anti-Muslim and anti-gay agenda of Lou Engle and The Call: Detroit(link is external). However, it looks like Engle has misrepresented his prayer rally to many of the local pastors who have signed up to participate in his Ford Field prayer rally on Friday and Saturday.

Engle and other leaders of The Call, such as Rick Joyner and Jerry Boykin, have repeatedly discussed their plans to use the rally to convert Muslims(link is external). In the past, Engle has claimed that Muslims have been “fueling the demonic realm” and are beholden to “spiritual dark powers(link is external),” and has pledged “to expose the dark under-belly of Islam(link is external).”

Now that their vicious anti-Muslim views are under scrutiny by the media, organizers of The Call pulled from their website a video entitled “impacting Islam through prayer,” clips from which can still be seen here(link is external). They have also edited their website(link is external) to remove Engle’s warning of “the rising tide of the Islamic movement,” reports the Dearborn Press & Guide (you can still find Engle’s original letter here(link is external)):

Billed as a 24-hour gathering to “fast, pray and cry out to God,” TheCall organizers chose Detroit for specific reasons. According to the event’s Website, Detroit “has become a microcosm of our national crisis, economic collapse, racial tension, the rising tide of the Islamic movement and the shedding of blood of our children in the streets and of the unborn.”

“Christians of all denominations will be praying for the city of Detroit,” Weinzierl said.

But the reference to the “rising tide of the Islamic movement” caught the attention of the southeastern Michigan Muslim community. Although the phrase has been removed from the Website, local Muslim leaders are concerned the event is a thinly disguised rally against Islam.

“It has nothing to do with any individual group whatsoever,” the Sterling Heights pastor said. “It’s not a prayer against anybody. It’s to pray for our area … It certainly isn’t an anti-Muslim thing.”

While Weinzierl says The Call: Detroit  “certainly isn’t an anti-Muslim thing,” someone apparently forgot to tell Engle, the founder and principal organizer of The Call, who said that the main reason he is in Detroit is to combat the “rising tide of the Islamic movement(link is external)” and to pray for Muslim conversions(link is external).

Weinzierl is not the only pastor who seems to be mistaken(link is external):

Pastor Marvin Winans of Perfecting Church in Detroit, said he will be supporting Engle and TheCall. He said the summit is open to everyone.

"Jews can come, Islamics can come, Buddhists can come, but we're only going to be praying to Jesus," he said. "It is not anti-Islam."

Despite Winan’s claim that The Call is “not anti-Islam,” the chief organizers of the prayer rally have asserted that they are using The Call to “to pull down the spirit of Islam over our nation(link is external)” and “bring down that strongman behind Islam(link is external).”

Another one of Engle’s allies appears to be misinformed(link is external) about the works of The Call organizers:

Fears of TheCall taking on an anti-Muslim tone are uncalled for, said Apostle Ellis Smith, of Detroit's Jubilee City Church in Detroit, which is promoting the event on its website.

"Our focus will be on Ford Field, not visiting a mosque," Smith told The Associated Press Wednesday. "We're not praying against Muslims. We are going to be praying against terrorism that has its roots in Islam. We're dealing with extremism. We're against extremism when it comes to Christians."

Actually, visiting mosques and praying against Muslims is exactly(link is external) what leaders of The Call have been doing throughout Michigan. Organizers of The Call have admitted to going to mosques in order to cast out demons(link is external):

The question must be asked, is Lou Engle hiding or misrepresenting his radical views(link is external) to Detroit pastors?