October 7, 2007
Not a Theocracy
To the Editor:
Senator John McCain said in a recent interview that the United States is a Christian nation and that his Christian faith is of better spiritual guidance when compared with a hypothetical Muslim running for president (“McCain Casts Muslims as Less Fit to Lead,” news article, Sept. 30).
In making such a statement, Senator McCain has lent his respected voice to those who preach intolerance and prejudicial fear.
It is dismaying to see an honorable senior member of our United States Senate and a decorated war hero who served this country and the values for which it stands use the politics of fear and apprehension.
Beyond the signs of political desperation this signals, Senator McCain seems to have forgotten that our nation’s founding fathers created a government based on the separation of church and state. They based the United States on democracy and pluralism, not on theocracy and religion.
Kareem W. Shora
Washington, Oct. 2, 2007
The writer is national executive director, American-Arab
Anti-Discrimination Committee.