Richard DeVos Remarks Offend Some Muslims

May 26, 2007

Author: Charles Honey

Source: The Grand Rapids Press

http://www.mlive.com/news/grpress/index.ssf?/base/news-36/118016042655920.xml&coll=6

GRAND RAPIDS -- Some local Muslim leaders are demanding Richard DeVos apologize for remarks he made to Cornerstone University graduates comparing the "Muslim world" to Hitler's global threat.

A statement issued by a local mosque this week calls DeVos' comments at the May 5 Cornerstone graduation "hateful speech that seeks to lump the millions of us with a radical few."

"What are you trying to say, Mr. DeVos, by comparing us to Hitler's war machine?" reads the statement by the Islamic Mosque and Religious Institute, 321 Fuller Ave. NE.

Mosque leaders said they were "shocked and disturbed" by the comments, adding that lumping all Muslims with fringe groups is "equal to McCarthyism."