Welton Gaddy speaks to reporters in front of the Department of Justice following a Sept. 7 meeting with Attorney General Eric Holder on protecting Muslims’ civil rights. At left is Farhana Khera of Muslim Advocates. (BJC/Cherilyn Crowe)

WASHINGTON (ABP) -- As the national debate over Islam continues to ratchet up in advance of the ninth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, Baptists joined a group of religious leaders Sept. 7 in denouncing Islamophobia, urged the nation’s top law-enforcement official to crack down on anti-Muslim bigotry and chastened their fellow Baptists for contributing to the problem.

But not all Baptists were in agreement, as demonstrated by a public spat over Islam between the pastor of one of the nation’s most prominent Southern Baptist churches and a Dallas Morning News columnist. 

In a midday Sept. 7 press conference packed with reporters from national and international media organizations, Welton Gaddy of the Interfaith Alliance, Roy Medley of the American Baptist Churches USA and Gerald Durley of Providence Missionary Baptist Church in Atlanta joined other prominent interfaith leaders in condemning what they called the “anti-Muslim frenzy” of recent weeks.