Evangelist Franklin Graham is heartbroken over the series of tragic events that rocked America recently — a pipe bomb exploded in New Jersey, multiple stabbings occurred in a shopping mall in Minnesota, and a major explosion and a possible second pressure-cooker bomb planted in Manhattan.
Graham believes that prayer is the best solution Americans can come up with now. Thus, he urged his Facebook followers: "Join me in praying for the injured and for the families of victims. And pray for law enforcement as they try to find those guilty of being involved in these atrocities and as they continue to serve to protect us."
These attacks only made one thing clear to Graham: The next president of the United States needs to be tough on terrorism so that innocent civilians will no longer be harmed.
ISIS took responsibility for the stabbing of nine people at a Minnesota mall on Saturday, according to CNN. The man reportedly claimed to be a "soldier of the Islamic state," but authorities were not so quick to agree. "We still don't have anything substantive that would suggest anything more than what we know already, which is this was a lone attacker," St. Cloud Police Chief William Blair Anderson said. "And right now, we're trying to get to the bottom of his motivations."
The FBI called the attack "a potential act of terrorism."
Meanwhile, the New York bomb attacks were also part of an Islamist terror plot, according to The Telegraph. The suspect, named Ahmad Khan Rahami, was arrested following a shootout with the police. Authorities reportedly believe he might have been radicalised after his trip to Afghanistan.
Rahami was charged with five counts of attempted murder for the Manhattan bombing on Saturday that injured 29 people. A pressure-cooker bomb that did not explode was found nearby.
Earlier that day, a pipe bomb blew up in Seaside Park, New Jersey ahead of a charity race for the benefit of the Marines. Fortunately, nobody was injured by the blast.
