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14 January 2010updated 05 Oct 2023 8:14am

Did the Haitians bring the earthquake on themselves?

That's what one US evangelical says . . .

By Mehdi Hasan

Here’s the US televangelist and former failed presidential candidate Pat Robertson, the Anjem Choudary of the Christianist far right, suggesting that the Haitians brought this week’s earthquake on themselves as a result of a historic deal, a “pact”, with Satan. Yes, you read that correctly. A pact with the devil! Is he out of his ultra-conservative mind? Watch the video (hat-tip to Matthew Yglesias).

By the way, Robertson has form:

Robertson’s outspoken comments have caused controversy in the past. He was widely criticised for his 2005 call for Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez’s assassination. He also said the 2006 stroke suffered by then Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon was punishment from God.

He blamed the September 11 terrorist attacks on civil liberties, promised a disastrous tsunami in America in 2006 and a terrorist attack on United States soil in 2007. When both attacks failed to happen, Robertson said people must have prayed to God, and “God in His mercy spared us”.

 

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