An ad initially rejected in New York City for its "demeaning'' language about Islam is expected to appear at 10 subway stations next week.

Metropolitan Transportation Authority spokesman Aaron Donovan told The New York Times that "our hands are tied.'' 

A Manhattan federal court judge ruled in July that the MTA violated the First Amendment rights of the ad's sponsor, The American Freedom Defense Initiative (AFDI), and must let the ad appear, NBCNewYork.com reported.

The ad states: "In any war between the civilized man and the savage, support the civilized man.'' It adds, "Support Israel. Defeat Jihad,'' in between two Stars of David.  

Watch the most-viewed videos on NBCNews.com

The group also bought ad space in Washington D.C., where the transit authority there told the Times that it had "deferred" the ad’s placement "out of a concern for public safety, given current world events."

The group's ad appeared on public buses in San Francisco in August. The transit agency there, known as Muni, said it would donate the $3,400 ad revenue to the city's Human Rights Commission and place an ad next to AFDI's message to say "Muni doesn't support this message," local media reported at the time.

Golden Gate Bridge transit district, which provides bus and ferry service between San Francisco and suburbs to the north, rejected the ads at a Sept. 7 board meeting by adopting a policy banning religious and political ads.

Pamela Geller, executive director of the American Freedom Defense Initiative, said in an email to the Times that that transit officials in Washington were "kowtowing to the threat of jihad terrorism."

Recent events in the Middle East have not given her pause "for a second" about posting the ads in New York, she told the Times. "I will never cower before violent intimidation and stop telling the truth because doing so is dangerous," Geller said. "Freedom must be vigorously defended."

"If someone commits violence, it is his responsibility and no one else’s," she added.

The Southern Poverty Law Center branded Geller "the anti-Muslim movement's most visible and flamboyant figurehead" and AFDI as a hate group.

Stay informed with the latest headlines; sign up for our newsletter

The Anti-Defamation League said in March that Geller "fuels and fosters anti-Muslim bigotry in society."

Muneer Awad, the executive director of the New York chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, told the Times the ads were an attempt to "define Muslims" through hate speech.

"It’s perfectly legal to be a bigot and to be a racist," he said. "We want to make sure there’s a counter-voice."

Donovan said the MTA might consider revising its ad policy at its board meeting next week.

More content from NBCNews.com:

• Kicked out for a kiss: Some still suffering after DADT repeal
• Killer who targeted sex offenders sentenced to life in prison
• Video: Was Jesus married? New evidence raises questions
• US Muslims walk tightrope, denounce both violence and Islam film
• Comrade killed soldier with rocket launcher, victim's mom says

Follow US News from NBCNews.com on Twitter and Facebook 

Harrison Mcclary / Reuters

Friday prayers at the newly opened Islamic Center of Murfreesboro in Murfreesboro, Tenn., on Aug. 10. The center was the subject of protests and court action by groups opposed to the mosque since construction began two years ago. The mosque opened in the final days of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.

On Sunday and Monday, when Muslims will celebrate the end of Ramadan, even many who are less observant the rest of the year will be at mosques to pray. But many worshippers will celebrate amid heightened security after a recent spike in attacks on mosques and other places of worship.

"We recommend a security guard during prayer hours,” said Abed Ayoub, legal director of the nonprofit American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, or ADC. "Take measures and use common sense. Keep an eye on people who don’t seem to fit in. We ask them to install video cameras at the doors and throughout the mosque. Limit access to areas such as the kitchen, furnace or storage where someone could hide."

This is not the first time that Muslims have been advised to exercise caution. There was a spike in crimes aimed at the religious minority after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States by Islamist terrorists, and Ayoub said there has been an increase again since 2010, starting around the time of the bitter dispute over Park 51, the so-called "Ground Zero Mosque" in Manhattan.

The latest round of cautionary alerts was set off by the bloody attack on a different religious group. On Aug. 5, six Sikh worshippers were killed and others wounded when Wade Michael Page opened fire at their temple in Oak Creek, Wis., before killing himself.

Because the suspect is dead, his motives remain unknown. But he had white supremacist connections, so many observers concluded that his attack was a hate crime targeting strangers who were minorities.

"What happened in Wisconsin was a tragedy, and it shed light on the bigotry that unfortunately still exists in this country,” said Ayoub.

Muslim groups expressed solidarity with the Sikh community, and fears of their own.

"Within an hour of the Sikh shooting we were on the phone with the Dearborn metro law enforcement, and beefed up security that evening," said Ayoub, who is the legal director for the Washington-based ADC. The group has offices in Dearborn, Mich., which is home to the largest concentration of Arab Americans in the country.

In the 12 days since that deadly shooting, at least eight cases of vandalism and attacks on mosques, including a suspected arson, have been documented by the ADC and other civil rights groups.

Investigators have not been able to prove a fire that destroyed a mosque in Joplin, Mo., on Aug. 6 was intentionally set, the FBI said on Thursday, but they have video surveillance of an apparent arson attempt at the mosque one week earlier and have described the second fire as "suspicious."

In Morton Grove, Ill. while 500 were attending evening prayers at a mosque in the Chicago suburb, a man shot at the building with a pellet gun, only slightly damaging the building, but nearly hitting a security guard. The man arrested in connection with the incident turned out to be a neighbor who had a history of complaints and opposition to the mosque, said Rizwan Kadir, who is on the board of the mosque and school.

In Oklahoma City, vandals defaced the Grand Mosque, firing paintball guns at it while it was filled with worshippers. In Lombard, Ill., a "MacGyver bomb" hit the window of an Islamic school that was being used for evening prayer. The soda bottle, filled with chemicals and aluminum foil that react to make an explosion, did not break the window and exploded outside, so worshippers were rattled but not hurt. In Hayward, Calif., four teenagers were arrested after vandalizing a mosque by throwing lemons, oranges, eggs, and firing BB guns.

"If you look at the smaller incidents in isolation you can deal with it, but when you see all these things happening, it does take its emotional toll on people,” said Kadir.

Kadir said many people in the area, local Christian and Jewish groups, as well as the police and Morton Grove mayor and trustees have come forward to show solidarity with the Muslim community since the shooting.

"All these are positive things," he said. "At the same time we are on our guard."

Council on American Islamic relations: Safety and security tips

While no one is saying that the attacks are connected, many Muslim leaders and civil rights advocates see common fuel in the anti-Muslim rhetoric that they say has intensified during the current election cycle.

"When the rhetoric gets bad, the hate crimes and attacks go up,” said Ayoub, of ADC. "Unless the rhetoric changes, I feel there will be more happening before the election.

On the list of politicians he says are fueling bigotry is Michele Bachmann, who recently led the call for a federal investigation of senior State Deparatment official Huma Abedin. Bachmann accused Abedin of using her position to influence policy in favor of Egypt’s Islamist Muslim Brotherhood.

The charge outraged many Muslims. Even some of Bachman’s fellow Republicans protested the attack, including Sen. John McCain, who defended Abedin as a "true patriot."

Another politician becoming well known for his persistent warnings about the threat of "homegrown radicals" among the Muslim population is Rep. Joe Walsh, R-Ill., a member of the House Homeland Security Committee.

"While the overwhelming majority of Muslims are as peace loving as everyone else, there are radical Islamists right here in the United States trying to kill Americans and destroy this country," he told a town hall meeting in Elk Grove Village, Ill.

The ADC draws a direct line between Walsh's comments and the "MacGyver bomb" attack on the worshippers in his district, saying his comments incited fear. In a statement on Wednesday, the group called on "all politicians and elected officials to change the national discourse, distance themselves from xenophobic rhetoric and put an immediate end to the culture of hate and violence."

Walsh's office rejected the idea that the congressman's statements incite or condone violence against ordinary Muslims. Walsh was merely restating what has been said in a series of committee hearings on homegrown radicalization of Muslims, according to spokesman Justin Roth.

"Not one time has Congressman Walsh said that we need to go get those Muslims," said Roth. "He condemns these attacks just as he condemns the more than 1,000 attacks against Jews every year (that take place) simply out of hatred."

Ayoub and others urged Muslims to reach out to police in their areas seeking additional patrols and support, especially for crowded Eid al Fitre prayers on Sunday and Monday. 

"It's very important to keep everybody calm, don't let your people be afraid," said Ayoub. "We don't want people not going to the mosque because they are afraid. We want to ensure that people go and leave safely."

More content from NBCNews.com: 

• 'No papers, no fear': Illegal immigrants declare themselves on bus tour
• Texas sprayed as West Nile Virus spreads
• Wildfire evacuees return to find homes gone
• Video: 3 people hurt after carriage horse breaks free in NYC
• Ex-butler who injected socialite in extortion attempt faces sentencing

Follow US News from NBCNews.com on Twitter and Facebook

Follow Kari Huus on Facebook

Mark Humphrey / AP

The Islamic Center of Murfreesboro is under construction in Murfreesboro, Tenn.

Updated at 7:30 p.m. ET: Construction work continued on a Murfreesboro, Tenn., mosque Wednesday despite a judge’s ruling a day earlier voiding building permits for the controversial project.

Chancellor Robert Corlew III of the 16^th District Chancery Court ruled that construction must cease because not enough notice was given about a May 24, 2010, public meeting in which Rutherford County planning commissioners approved the site plan for the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro.

"This is Sharia law," Joe Brandon, plaintiffs’ attorney, said of construction continuing without a valid permit. "They’re thumbing their nose at the state of Tennessee."

Brandon lodged an order Wednesday at the Chancery Court asking that construction at the mosque be stopped completely.

The county had not issued a stop work order by the end of Wednesday, Brandon said.

"If it were you or I, they'd be out there and stop us," Brandon charged. "The county attorney needs to man up and tell them to stop."

Corlew ruled in favor of Kevin Fisher and other Rutherford County residents who sued the Planning Commission. The mosque is free to reapply for permits, he said.

"It's a good day for the plaintiffs; I'm very pleased with the outcome," plaintiff Henry Golcyznky said, adding he was somewhat surprised Corlew ruled in the plaintiffs' favor.

See the original story on NBC Station WSMV of Nashville, Tenn.

"There should have been public notice. People should have been allowed to come in and express or at least understand what was going on," Golcyznky said.

A public notice about the 2010 Planning Commission meeting, in which no public hearing was required over the mosque’s site plan, was published in the twice-weekly Murfreesboro Post, which has a contract to handle Rutherford County’s legal advertising. 

Islamic Center members said they hoped to complete the first phase of the mosque by Ramadan, a month-long Muslim holiday beginning this year on July 20, based on the Islamic lunar calendar.

"This decision comes at a crucial time, because we were at a point about to celebrate the opening of our center. which we were hoping to happen, probably within two to three months. It's a sad day in our community," said mosque member Saleh Sbenaty.

Construction of the $2 million, 52,000-square-foot mosque is well under way, with the first phase, a 12,000-square-foot building, nearly complete.

Watch the Top Videos on msnbc.com 

The mosque was not a party in the lawsuit.

"We really don't know the implications of the ruling that the judge came with. We're still in contact with our legal counsel. ... We're going to see what the next step is going to be," Sbenaty said

If the mosque officials must reapply for permits, then they will, he said.

A construction crew was at the mosque site Wednesday.

 "The decision of the court will not be final at the earliest until 30 days after a court order is filed, county attorney Jim Cope said. "Therefore, things will remain in a fluid state during the next several weeks until the parties, ICM, and the court address all the legal issues that remain pending and unresolved."

The judge's ruling drew nationwide attention.

Council on American-Islamic Relations called for the Department of Justice to intervene in the case if the county doesn't issue new building permits to "protect the religious rights of Tennessee Muslims."

CAIR said the judge’s ruling “used phrases and reasoning which could be viewed as indicating that a higher degree of public notice is required for issues related to Tennessee Muslims.”

Earlier story at NBC station WSMV of Nashville, Tenn.

"American Muslim constitutional rights should not be diminished merely because anti-Muslim bigots are able to manufacture a controversy about what would otherwise be normal religious activities," said CAIR attorney Gadeir Abbas.

"If the Rutherford County Planning Commission does not immediately issue new permits for the mosque, we urge the Department of Justice to intervene in this case to support the religious rights of Tennessee Muslims."

Mosque opponents have fought construction for two years, arguing that Islam is not a real religion deserving of First Amendment protections and that the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro has terrorist ties.

The judge dismissed those allegations but held the trial on the narrower claim that the public meeting law was violated.

Larry Flowers is a reporter at NBC station WSMV of Nashville, Tenn.

Follow Jim Gold at msnbc.com on Facebook here.

More content from msnbc.com and NBC News:

• Son of lesbian moms: Boy Scouts must end gay discrimination
• Snake-handling preacher dies from rattlesnake bite in West Virginia
• Report: Obama embraces disputed definition of 'civilian' in drone wars
• Video: Lone Star State puts Romney over the top
• China slowdown threatens US factory revival

Follow US News on msnbc.com on Twitter and Facebook

As the Pentagon reviews all military classes following the disclosure of one that advocated "total war" against Muslims, the news website Al-Jazeera reported Saturday that it had received materials from a similar course and that both were put together by the same group, a nonprofit that offers classes and workshops to military and government officials.

Al-Jazeera said it received course slides from an unnamed military officer who said "this bigoted conspiracy cabal is both disgusting and so deeply un-American."

The slides leave the impression that Hamas extremists have infiltrated the U.S. government, media and education via U.S. Islamic groups like the Council on American-Islamic Relations, Al-Jazeera said.

The documents indicated the two courses were prepared by the consulting firm Strategic Engagement Group, Inc., Al-Jazeera said. The website for Strategic Engagement does include statements similar to those in the materials cited by Al-Jazeera, msnbc.com found.

The firm's website states its president, E.J. Kimball, was formerly a foreign policy counsel to Rep. Sue Myrick, R-N.C., and created the bipartisan Congressional Anti-Terrorism Caucus.

Myrick earlier wrote to Pentagon chief Leon Panetta voicing her concern that "the political nature of these (class) reviews might inadvertently weaken" military training, Al-Jazeera noted.

Stephen Coughlin, VP of strategic communication initiatives, is described as "the leading expert in the United States on Islamic Doctrine" and a U.S. Army Reserve major with military intelligence expertise.

Story: Outrage over anti-Muslim materials in military training

The group says it formed in 2010 "for the purpose of exposing and defeating efforts to subvert the United States Constitution and subjugate the American People."

Strategic Engagement did not immediately respond to msnbc.com's request for comment on the Al-Jazeera report.

The slides indicate the course was approved by two retired three- star generals and former CIA Director James Woolsey, Al-Jazeera added.

More content from msnbc.com and NBC News:

• Florida woman gets 20 years over warning shot
• Video: 31 years later, a confession to murder
• Cities: Occupy protests cost taxpayers millions
• 'Tripawed' the 3-legged grizzly returns to Denali
• Houston reporter fired for stripping files discrimination complaint
• Son defies odds to walk into returning soldier's arms

Follow US News on msnbc.com on Twitter and Facebook

http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com

One of the posters created for the anti-Islam conference in Dearborn, Mich. that uses the name of a young woman murdered last year. Organizers say her murder was an honor killing; her family says her tragic death has nothing to do with their religion.

In Dearborn Mich., a Detroit suburb known for its concentration of Muslim Americans, anti-Islam leaders from around the country are gathering to discuss how to rescue women from that faith. The "Jessica Mokdad Human Rights Conference on Honor Killings" on Sunday is named for a local Muslim woman murdered one year ago.

Follow @msnbc_us

Follow Kari Huus on Twitter and Facebook.

But Muslims, civil rights groups and other religious leaders say the conference is merely another event put on by well-known bigots to attack the minority religion. Their response was to schedule a town hall meeting just a few miles away on Sunday called "Rejecting Islamophobia: A Community Stand Against Hate."

The honor killing conference, organized by Pamela Geller, who became nationally famous for her vocal opposition to the Ground Zero Mosque, aka Park 51 in Manhattan, is based on the premise that Mokdad, 20 years old when she died in April 2011, was the victim of an honor killing justified by Islam.

Mokdad’s family maintains that the killing was a tragedy that has nothing to do with their Islamic beliefs, according to a report in the Detroit Free Press.

Robert Nickelsberg / Getty Images file

Pam Geller a well-known critic of Islam, delivers a speech during a "9-11 Freedom Rally" on Sept. 11, 2011 on the 10th anniversary of the World Trade Center attacks on the United States. Geller founded a group called "Stop the Islamization of America," considered a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

"It's not a case based on honor," Macomb County Assistant Prosecutor Bill Cataldo, chief of homicide, told the Free Press on Friday.

In court, prosecutors have said the motive for Mokdad’s killing was that her stepfather, Rahim Alfetlawi had "been sexually abusing her," Cataldo said, according to the report. They argue that when she threatened to go public about the abuse he killed her.

Cataldo said the family strongly objects to the conference using Mokdad’s killing, which they say was a tragedy that had nothing to do with their faith.

Geller insists this was an honor killing carried out by a devout Muslim because his stepdaughter was not following Islam, and that the family is covering it up. She alleges that law enforcers systematically cover up honor killings here and elsewhere under "stealth enforcement" of Islamic shariah law.

On her web site, Geller says: "Despite pressure from the media and members of Jessica's family who want to cover up the honor killing aspect of her murder, we are not going to change the name of the conference. Unlike those closest to her, we are going to honor Jessica's memory and stand up against the brutal practice that took her life."

The Dearborn conference will feature speeches by Geller and Robert Spencer — author of the blog "Jihad Watch" — as well as several like-minded legal and religious figures. They have also invited a young man who says he was Mokdad’s friend to offer "firsthand testimony" that she was a victim of honor killing.

Stop the Islamization of America, which Geller and Spencer founded, has been listed as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, a non-profit civil rights watchdog.

"Pamela Geller is the anti-Muslim movement's most visible and flamboyant figurehead," according to a profile published by SPLC on its web site. "She's relentlessly shrill and coarse in her broad-brush denunciations of Islam and makes preposterous claims."

The Arab American Institute, a decades-old community organization in the Detroit area, discouraged Muslims and their supporters from protesting at the site of Geller's conference.  But they organized a competing event, said AAI president Jim Zogby, because Geller and Spencer have become too prominent to ignore.

"Geller and Spencer have thousands of followers, and are given airtime to spew their hate on major American news networks, as if they are respected analysts with just another viewpoint," Zogby said on the AAI announcement for the "Rejecting Islamophobia" town hall in Detroit.

Although many Americans have never encountered a Muslim in person, about 43 percent questioned in a recent Gallup Poll said they felt at least “a little” prejudice against Muslims.

"This group, we cannot ignore. This is the time for our community to take a stand, along with all those who value America’s commitment to diversity and freedom of religion, against the politics of division and bigotry promoted by the Islamophobes."

A variety of community, interfaith and religious leaders and Michigan public on their agenda, for a "community conversation about how to respond to these continued attacks," said Zogby.

One participant who was just on his way to the town hall was Dawud Walid, who heads the Michigan office of the Council on American Islamic Relations, a civil rights advocacy group for Muslims.

"I think firstly we have to better expose who these anti-Muslim bigots are as well as their funders," said Walid. "We believe that the Islamophobia that permeates our country is being pushed by a well-organized, highly-funded network."

He says that while Dearborn and Detroit have become a focus for the activities of Geller and others of like mind, the problem is bigger.

"Islamophobia is a national illness," he said.

More content from msnbc.com and NBC News:

• Woman fighting foreclosure arrested in appeal to Wells Fargo CFO
• Lawyers argue over sex tape at John Edwards trial
• Nuclear plant knocked offline by jellyfish-like creatures
• Lawyer: Autistic boy's teacher didn't call him 'bastard'
• World record holder for 'longest time to live with a bullet in the head' dies

Follow US News on msnbc.com on Twitter and Facebook

Follow Kari Huus on Facebook

Law enforcers in Charlotte, N.C., are looking for the writer of a threatening letter sent to regional mosques detailing ways that an anti-Islam "network" would make life miserable for Muslims, and warning that the writer would not hesitate to kill them if they tried to retaliate.

Follow @msnbc_us

Follow Kari Huus on Twitter and Facebook.

"On face value it's really a threatening letter. It’s like they took a page from the Klan’s playbook," said Jibril Hough, spokesman for the Islamic Center of Charlotte, which received the four-paragraph letter early last week. "Who knows if this person is part of a greater network, a clandestine conspiracy or just someone who has an active imagination?"

The letter claims to represent a network of people in business, government and schools who plan to make life difficult for Muslims by denying them jobs, loans, medical attention and other services.

The writer also warned Muslims not to retaliate: "I have no problems killing Muslims legally. So if you try anything, consider yourselves warned," the letter says.

Hough said the mosque filed a police report when the letter was first received early last week. He followed up by meeting with the FBI on Monday, and then by reaching out to the local media because he felt it had to be taken seriously.

NBC Charlotte affiliate WCNC report on the letter

The mosque sometimes receives ranting hate email from people — often sparked by news events, he said. "But this was different."

Hough said the FBI was already investigating because identical letters were received by other Islamic centers in the state, including the Islamic Center of Raleigh.

The FBI would not confirm it was investigating the letters, in line with Department of Justice policy.

"We are aware of the situation," said Shelley Lynch, public affairs officer for the FBI field office in Charlotte. She added: "Everything about the letter is not as it appears."

The letter was signed with a woman’s name, but an area woman with that name denied having any knowledge of the letter and is working with police in their investigation, according to a report by WSOC TV in Charlotte.

Msnbc.com is not identifying the woman in light of uncertainty about her involvement.

The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Dept. did not respond to multiple calls from msnbc.com for comment and records relating to this case.

"We are hoping the authorities will get behind it and find out the motive," said Hough. "We just want the authorities to look at the threat and give it the attention it deserves."

More content from msnbc.com and NBC News:

• Autistic boy's father: Why hasn't teacher been fired over 'bullying'?
• Unborn baby shot in Los Angeles riots: 'I'm still here'
• Wanted: Poacher who cut off cougar's paws
• Marine who criticized Obama on Facebook: I wish I could take it back

Follow US News on msnbc.com on Twitter and Facebook

Meredith Mandell / Special to msnbc.com

Scott Johnson, standing in gray sweatshirt, an evangelical Christian from Seymour, Tenn., hosts Israelis at his home.

Thousands of miles from their home in Seymour, Tenn., Scott and Theresa Johnson host Shabbat dinners in their Jerusalem apartment every Friday night for "lone soldiers" — as the young men and women who travel from foreign countries to serve in the Israeli army are known.

Typically, 20 or 30 of the soldiers join the Johnsons for a traditional meal and wine and to join in a rousing rendition of "Shalom Aleichem," an old Hebrew song sung to greet the Sabbath day of rest. Scott Johnson leads the song wearing a "kippah" — a traditional Jewish head cover — and standing beneath a painting of Gilad Shalit, the Israeli soldier held prisoner in Gaza for five years before being released in October.

The Johnsons, however, are not Jewish. They are evangelical Christians who live in Israel full-time, operating a U.S.-based 501 c(3) nonprofit, the Servants to Christ Corp.

Servants to Christ is one of scores of evangelical Christian organizations working in Israel on a variety of charitable missions. And its presence is just one example of the increasingly tight embrace of the Jewish state by both the leadership of American evangelical churches and organizations and their grass-roots supporters.

Pro-Israel rhetoric — fueled in part by increasing tensions in the Middle East over Iran's nuclear program and the threat it might pose to the Jewish state  — is a staple of many U.S. evangelical leaders' speeches and sermons.

It has likewise become a popular refrain among GOP presidential candidates looking to shore up their support with the party's conservative religious wing.

Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich, for example, recently made comments calling the Palestinians an "invented people" and has said he would support Israel if it decided to attack Iran.

Israel asks US for arms that could aid Iran strike

Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, said such staunch support for Israel is fundamental to the evangelical movement.

"American evangelicals have it in their DNA: God blesses those who bless the Jews and curses whoever curses the Jews," he said.  "We want God to bless America and if America doesn't support Israel we don't have his blessing. It doesn't mean Israel is always right, it doesn't mean we don't remonstrate Israel, but we are going to have their back."

War for American hearts and minds rages over Islam

That broad backing for Israel is in part grounded in a widely held evangelical belief that the existence of a Jewish state is a prerequisite for the second coming of Jesus.

Many evangelicals believe that when Jesus returns, it will be to Israel. The purpose of his Second Coming will be to destroy its enemies and return to heaven with his followers in what is variously called the Rapture or the End Times.

'Islamaphobic'
Under this interpretation of the Book of Revelation, the Rapture can't happen if there is no Jewish state in the Holy Land.

But critics — including some within the evangelical movement itself — say that such devout allegiance to Israel is also being driven by a more worldly concern: fear of Islam.

"We definitely believe they (U.S. evangelical leaders) are Islamaphobic and that is hindering them from having the right approach toward Islam," said Munther Isaac, an instructor at Bethlehem Bible College who describes himself on his blog as a Palestinian evangelical Christian.

Obama accuses GOP critics of 'beating the drums of war' in Mideast

Isaac is a co-organizer of a five-day conference that began Monday in Bethlehem titled "Christ at the Checkpoint." The goal of the event, which is expected to draw up to 600 people, is "to equip the global church to understand Scripture as it relates to the Palestinian context, and to discuss the theological importance of Peace and Justice in an evangelical context." Among the lectures on the agenda is one titled "Loving the Muslim."

Isaac, 32, said many evangelicals and politicians who court them often make no distinction between radical Islam and the religion's mainstream: "The more we demonize Islam in our talks, in our books, in our sermons, the more we polarize them … it's like feeding the enemy and empowering the more radical voice, and we shouldn't do that."

But Land, of the Southern Baptist Convention, criticized what he referred to as "replacement theologians" within the evangelical movement who do not see the creation of the state of Israel as an act of divine intervention.

"Unfortunately, many people in the replacement theology crowd seem to give moral equivalence to Israel and her enemies and we do not see moral equivalence," Land said. 

He also rejected the notion that “Islamaphobia” plays any role in evangelical support for Israel, ticking off numerous deadly attacks perpetrated by Muslim extremists against Americans and others, including the 2009 Fort Hood shooting in Texas and the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

American Muslims come of age in post-9/11 era

"There is a dangerous cult loose within Islam called Wahhabism, and it's called Jihadism," he said. "It needs to be confronted for what it is and it needs to be defeated. When people are trying to kill you it's not Islamaphobic, it's reality."

Others are more direct in their criticism of Isaac and other organizers of the Christ at the Checkpoint conference.

"We think our support for Israel is a positive response from the heart, not out of a diagnosed or supposed phobia," said David Parsons, a spokesman for the International Christian Embassy in Jerusalem, a nonprofit evangelical ministry. He called the Christ at the Checkpoint organizers "misguided" and "dishonest."

"They've not been honest about why the wall and the checkpoints are there, and they downplay the terrorists' threats to Israel, and they downplay the persecution of Palestinian Christians by their Muslim neighbors," Parsons said.

Political tumult
Mistrust of Islam and its adherents within the evangelical movement is well documented.  A survey published last year by the Pew Center Forum on Public Life indicated that 67 percent of more than 2,200 evangelical leaders surveyed expressed an unfavorable view of Islam and that 47 percent considered Islam to be a "major threat" to Christianity.

But many evangelical Christian Zionists point to the current escalation of tensions between Israel and Iran, which Israel says is trying to develop nuclear weapons, as well as the political tumult and violence in the Middle East arising from the continuing Arab Spring uprisings, as legitimate reasons to be concerned.

Muslim-Americans: Good riddance to bin Laden

Rebecca Brimmer, chief executive and president of Bridges for Peace, a Jerusalem-based evangelical group that operates the largest food drive in the country, said: "I don't hate any people or group. But, it's like with (Iranian President Mahmoud) Ahmadinejad saying hateful things — if I quote what Ahmadinejad says, does that mean I am Islamaphobic? Or does it mean I am a realist that says this is what this man is saying and we should pay attention." Ahmadinejad has been quoted as calling for the destruction of Israel.

That sentiment has spilled over into broader forums.

Conservative American political commentator Glenn Beck last year organized a gathering of more than 3,000 people in the ancient Israeli city of Ceasaria for what he called a "Restoring Courage" tour intended to highlight concerns that pro-Islamist governments were springing up throughout the Middle East and north Africa in the wake of last year's "Arab Spring" revolts. While Beck is Mormon, the event drew a heavily evangelical crowd and featured evangelical pastor John C. Hagee as a keynote speaker.

Republicans could give Obama green light on Iran

Hagee, a Texas minister and the founder of Christians United for Israel, revved up the crowd with these words: "People of Israel, we have come from America and the nations of the world as people of faith. God is with you. Fifty million evangelicals in America are with you. This time in history you are not alone. ... Your enemies are our enemies, and your fight is our fight. We are united, and we will prevail."

The belief that a military conflict between Israel and Iran is coming explains why many evangelical Christians, like the Johnsons, are also big supporters of the Friends of the IDF (the Israeli Defense Forces, a charitable organization providing assistance to Israeli soldiers.

Pizza in the trenches
Scott Johnson, who calls himself an ardent "Christian Zionist," says he is not ashamed to take sides. During the Lebanon war in 2006, the Johnsons took a van and went to Ramban Hospital in Haifa to pick up wounded soldiers and return them to their homes. They also went to the Lebanon border and delivered pizza, falafel and shawarma to Israeli soldiers in the trenches. And on several occasions they have hosted barbecues on their terrace for entire units of the IDF.

"I believe Islam is a threat to the world. It's a threat to decent, moral human beings. Not 100 percent of them, but the ones in control," Scott Johnson said.

Observers say evangelical support for Israel gained momentum after Israel's Six Day War in 1967 against Syria, Jordan and Egypt. Many evangelicals viewed Israel's victory against its Soviet-backed Arab neighbors with admiration, reminiscent of the biblical story of David, the future king of Israel, defeating gigantic Philistine warrior Goliath.

Atheist billboard hits snag in Jewish neighborhood

In 1980, after the international community condemned Israel for declaring Jerusalem the "eternal and indivisible capital" of the Jewish state and 13 nations shifted their embassies to Tel Aviv, Christian Zionists established the International Christian Embassy in Jerusalem, to show their support for the Jewish state.

During the 1980s, the Israeli government began to organize all-expenses-paid "familiarization" tours of the Holy Land for evangelical pastors in an effort to cement such support. Evangelical Christian Mission trips and humanitarian tours continue today, giving the country not only moral support but also a nice economic boost. During the Jewish holiday of Sukkot, for example, roughly 5,000 evangelicals visit Israel as part of the Christian celebration of the Feast of Tabernacles, and 60 percent of Israel's 2.8 million tourists last year were Christian pilgrims, according to the Ministry of Tourism.

Historically, some Israelis have been suspicious of Christian groups inside the country, worrying that their aim is to convert Jews to Christianity. But given their staunch political support for Israel in recent years, most Israeli politicians now welcome them.

"I think why there is there such a strong connection between Jews and Christians, especially at the political level in Israel, is we saw during the (Palestinian uprising) intifada that one by one, the nations of the world were turning against us," said Joshua Reinstein, director of the Israeli Knesset's Christian Allies Caucus. "But Christians stood their ground and stood up next to us." 

More from msnbc.com and NBC News:

• Mansions, jets: Libya battles to seize $20 billion in Gadhafi assets
• Dogs sniff out key anti-terror role at London Olympics
• How did 'KONY 2012' video spread so fast?
• Tsunami survivors: Starting a family, facing an uncertain future
• An Egyptian career woman? Soon it could be rare

Follow us on Twitter: @msnbc_world

Yusra Farhan is shown in this booking photo from the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office.

A Phoenix mother has been arrested over allegations that she scorched her 19-year-old daughter with a hot spoon to uphold "Iraqi culture" after the younger woman refused an arranged marriage to a man twice her age, police said Thursday.

Yusra Farhan, 50, was taken into custody on aggravated assault charges at her Phoenix home on Wednesday over accusations stemming from a November incident, Phoenix police spokesman James Holmes told Reuters.

The girl’s father and 18-year-old sister were also arrested and face aggravated assault charges, police said.

It was the family’s second round of arrests over the daughter’s treatment.

The November incident came to light after Fahran was first arrested Feb. 8 at a Phoenix hospital emergency room the day after allegedly padlocking the 19-year-old to a bed and beating her for talking to a man her same age at her school, the Phoenix New Times reported, citing court documents. Her father, Mohammed Altameemi, 45, earlier saw the daughter talking to the younger man and took her home and beat her before Fahran arrived, according to police reports.

Court records showed that Farhan admitted hitting the daughter with her hand and shoe and tying her to a bed with a rope.

The victim's sister, Tabarak Altameemi, 18, held her down, police said.

Farhan told officers her daughter was being punished for "speaking to a male subject and her Iraqi culture states a female is not allowed to be having contact with males because females are not allowed to have boyfriends," according to court records.

The 19-year-old daughter, who was not named by police, was released the next morning to go school and was sent to St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center in Phoenix after talking with school officials about the incident.

When officers attempted to arrest Fahran at the hospital emergency room, other family members intervened, and they were arrested too, New Times said.

The arrests follow a high-profile Arizona murder case that saw an Iraqi immigrant, Faleh Hassan Almaleki, convicted last year of murder for running down his daughter in a Phoenix parking lot in 2009 in what was described as an "honor killing."

A spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Washington, D.C., said such cases were "isolated instances" that are widely chastised by the American Muslim community.

"We condemn any false justification for domestic violence or abuse based on religious beliefs," the spokesman, Ibrahim Hooper, said.

Reuters contributed to this report.

More content from msnbc.com and NBC News

• Nigerian underwear bomber gets life sentence
• Interracial marriage: Your stories of the good, the bad and the ugly
• NYPD 'courtesy cards' for family, friends sold online
• It's not fracking's fault, study says
• Man wins $3.3 million in mistaken identity bank robbery case