As the war on Iraq wound down last week the Pentagon celebrated the Christian Good Friday with a religious service and an invitation to the White House's favorite high priest in his repeating role as regular witness to our most solemm secular occasions.

This time the confusion of church and state got even more confusing, since recently the reverend one has dramatically elevated his status as enemy of reason, of the Constitution and of freedom from religion to that of enemy of all Americans who are not evangelical Christians. Muslims have particular reason for outrage.

WASHINGTON, April 17 — The Pentagon will proceed with a Good Friday religious service by the Rev. Franklin Graham, despite objections from some Muslim groups that he has called Islam "a very evil and wicked religion," officials said today.

Mr. Graham, a Christian evangelist, was invited to make an appearance at the Pentagon by some Defense Department employees. The son of the Rev. Billy Graham, Mr. Graham has spoken at the Pentagon on previous occasions and gave the invocation at President Bush's inauguration.

After the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Mr. Graham denounced Islam as evil in an interview on the NBC "Nightly News." He later said Muslims failed to apologize adequately for the attacks and urged them to offer compensation to the victims.

Fascism

From Britannica Concise:

Fascism: Philosophy of government that stresses the primacy and glory of the state, unquestioning obedience to its leader, subordination of the individual will to the state's authority, and harsh suppression of dissent. Martial virtues are celebrated, while liberal democratic values are denigrated. 20th-cent. fascism arose partly out of fear of the rising power of the lower classes and differed from contemporary communism (as practiced under J. Stalin) by its protection of the corporate and landowning powers and preservation of a class system.