Robertson's remarks offend Muslims

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (WAVY) - The Christian Broadcasting Network is defending the words of televangelist Pat Robertson. His words about a man's relationship with his wife and Islam were called shocking and offensive by local Muslim Dr. Ahmed Noor.

Earlier this week, a man sent a message to the Christian Broadcasting Network stating his wife does not respect him as head of the house, she insults him and she refuses to talk through their problems. The man asked Robertson what he should do.

"Well you could become a Muslim and you could beat her," Robertson said on CBN's '700 Club.' "You can't divorce her according the scripture so I say move to Saudi Arabia."

Click here to watch Robertson's statement in its entirety.

Those comments aired live on CBN but were removed in later broadcasts. In an email to WAVY.com, CBN spokesman Chris Roslan said:

"We regret these comments and subsequently edited them out of the later broadcast."

Dr. Ahmed Noor contacted WAVY.com regarding Robertson's comments, calling them hurtful.

"It is most unfortunate that Dr. Robertson would make such a statement because he definitely knows our religion and he can go essentially to our Holy Book which is the standard by which we behave and act and respond toward others, and you will find that in our holy book the basis of the religion between the spouses is mentioned in more than one verse which focuses very much on affection and mercy towards each other," Noor said.

Noor says: "If a wife does not respect the husband, for example, the husband has to look at what he's doing to the wife. Is that lack of respect because of his actions? Is that lack of respect because of his actions?"

Noor told WAVY.com he is trying to think positively in light of Robertson's remarks.

"I hope that whatever comments he made which were offensive to Muslims were done unintentionally," Noor said.

In the statement to WAVY.com Roslan emphasized:

"Dr. Robertson was not seriously advocating that this viewer convert to Islam so that he could beat his wife. He was making reference to a recent news story out of the Middle East that quoted Egyptian cleric Abd Al-Rahman, who had explained how, under Islam, a man is permitted to beat his wife in certain instances."

Those words are still stinging to Noor whose hope is for people to one day truly understand Muslim beliefs.

"I would like to invite Dr. Robertson to come to our mosque, we have absolutely nothing against Dr. Robertson," Noor said. "It is very unfortunate, but unfortunately there has been some situations like that and we always assume good intentions, that maybe he made these statements not knowing the facts. So, we would always like to take the high moral ground and assume that he did not mean to have any offensive statements against Islam and the Muslim population."