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AMP Report – October 1, 2007
McCain: No Muslim president,
U.S. better with Christian one
Arab and Muslim organizations have expressed dismay at the comments from Presidential hopeful Senator John McCain who said that the United States is a Christian nation and that his Christian faith is of better spiritual guidance than Islam.
In response to a question from Beliefnet.com about the possibility of a Muslim presidential candidate, the Arizona senator said: "I just have to say in all candor that since this nation was founded primarily on Christian principles, that's a decision the American people would have to make, but personally, I prefer someone who I know who has a solid grounding in my faith."
After the interview was posted McCain clarified his remarks saying he would, "vote for a Muslim if he or she was the candidate best able to lead the country and defend our political values."
The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) National Executive Director Kareem Shora said, "Senator McCain has clearly forgotten that our nation's Founding Fathers created a government based on the separation of church and state. They based the US on democracy and pluralism, not on theocracy and religion."
The American Muslim Voice President Khalid Saeed expressed regret at McCain’s statement and added that the senator claims that the "Constitution established the United States of America as a Christian nation" while there is no mention of God, Jesus or Christ in the constitution.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) said that clarification issued by the McCain campaign failed to address the issue, but focused instead on the senator's belief that "people of all faiths are entitled to all the rights protected by the Constitution." McCain's campaign spokesperson also said: "In the interview [McCain] also observed that the values protected by the Constitution, by which he meant values such as respect for human life and dignity, are rooted in the Judeo-Christian tradition."
"The Constitution, reflecting the principles of the Founding Fathers and those who voted for its ratification, prohibits religious tests for public office," said CAIR National Legislative Director Corey Saylor.
"Senator McCain should know that our nation was founded on universal moral principles common to many religions and philosophies. He does a disservice to those principles by suggesting that not belonging to a particular religious group limits an individual's ability to lead." Saylor said Muslim advisors could offer McCain accurate information on issues related to Islam and the American Muslims.
The Muslim Public Affairs Council sent a letter to Presidential candidate Senator John McCain's (R-AZ) campaign urging him to meet with the Muslim American leaders. In a statement MPAC urged all presidential candidates to refrain from rhetoric that seeks to alienate the Muslim American community and feeds into the dangerous climate of Islamophobia.
McCain's comments follow similarly divisive and troubling anti-Muslim statements from other Republican presidential candidates. Congressman Tom Tancredo (R-CO) recently repeated his support for considering "taking out Muslim holy sites" if another terror attack were to take place on American soil.
Congressman Peter King (R-NY), political advisor of another presidential hopeful, Rudy Guliani, last week also said that there are too many mosques in the United States and said that they should be placed under surveillance by the FBI.
The New York Times reports:
Mr. McCain, who has seen the erosion of his popularity as a Republican presidential candidate from front-runner to near-collapse, has worked hard at mending relations with conservative religious groups. Last year he appeared at Liberty University, standing next to its founder, the Rev. Jerry Falwell, the conservative religious leader whom he had once described as an agent of intolerance and a threat to the party.
In a response to the interview that also was posted on beliefnet, David Kuo, the former deputy director of the White House’s Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, characterized Mr. McCain as “a man pandering to what he thinks the Christian conservative community wants to hear. It is as if he is trying to sound like the ‘agents of tolerance’ he once critiqued, thinking that will cause Christian conservatives to like him. It is a sad performance."
Mr. McCain, an Episcopalian, said he regularly attends a Baptist church and described himself as a “practicing Christian.” He said he has been in regular discussions with a pastor about converting to Baptist. But he said that he would not convert during the campaign because of the perception that he was doing it for political reasons.
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