Washington, DC | March 14, 2008 | www.adc.org | The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) calls on presumptive Republican presidential nominee Senator John McCain (R-AZ) to denounce and reject the support of Reverend John Hagee of Texas and Reverend Rod Parsley of Ohio. Through sermons and speeches delivered to their respective ‘mega-churches,‘ both men have repeatedly assailed and insulted the faith of Islam and its followers. Hagee and Parsley have endorsed Senator McCain and will likely play significant roles in his bid for the White House during the general election. Senator McCain has called Minister Parsley a “spiritual guide”.
Hagee has stated that “Islam in general — those who live by the Koran have a scriptural mandate to kill Christians and Jews.” He has also questioned the patriotism and loyalty of Muslim Americans. Parsley has gone even further; in an excerpt from his 2005 book Silent No More he states: “The fact is that America was founded, in part, with the intention of seeing this false religion [Islam] destroyed, and I believe September 11, 2001, was a generational call to arms that we can no longer ignore.”
These comment were reported by numerous media sources, see below:
http://www.motherjones.com/washington_dispatch/2008/03/john-mccain-rod-parsley-spiritual-guide.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/02/29/john-hagees-mccain-endor_n_89189.html
http://news.yahoo.com/s/uc/20080306/cm_uc_crjcox/op_455461 http://www.time-blog.com/swampland/2008/02/the_mccain_campaign_stumbles_o.html
ADC National Executive Director Kareem Shora said, “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,” said Shora, “there can be no place in our political discourse for hate speech that attacks any religion or advocates for a war between religions. Senator McCain must condemn these comments in the strongest possible terms and reject any support from both men.”
ADC President Hon. Mary Rose Oakar recently sent a letter to Sen. McCain concerning this matter, See: https://www.adc.org/PDF/mcain.pdf
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NOTE TO EDITORS: The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), which is non sectarian and non partisan, is the largest Arab-American civil rights organization in the United States. It was founded in 1980, by former Senator James Abourezk to protect the civil rights of people of Arab descent in the United States and to promote the cultural heritage of the Arabs. ADC has 38 chapters nationwide, including chapters in every major city in the country, and members in all 50 states.
The ADC Research Institute (ADC-RI), which was founded in 1981, is a Section 501(c)(3) educational organization that sponsors a wide range of programs on behalf of Arab Americans and of importance to all Americans. ADC-RI programs include research studies, seminars, conferences and publications that document and analyze the discrimination faced by Arab Americans in the workplace, schools, media, and governmental agencies and institutions. ADC-RI also celebrates the rich cultural heritage of the Arabs.