The American Muslim (TAM)

Should McCain Reject and Denounce Minister Rod Parsley?

Sheila Musaji
Posted Mar 13, 2008 •Permalink • Printer-Friendly Version

Should McCain Reject and Denounce Minister Rod Parsley?

by Sheila Musaji

A few weeks ago we published an article Should John McCain reject and denounce Minister John Hagee? by Anisa Abd El Fattah.

Now things begin to get even more interesting, and if John McCain continues to pile up such supporters he will have more and more to reject, denounce, and apologize for - at least if there is any logic to the reasoning for the demands made for other candidates to denounce and reject particular supporters.

According to an article in Mother Jones McCain’s Spiritual Guide: Destroy Islam, “On February 26, McCain appeared at a campaign rally in Cincinnati with the Reverend Rod Parsley of the World Harvest Church of Columbus…” The article further notes that “Parsley praised the Republican presidential front-runner as a “strong, true, consistent conservative.”“

So, it is clear not only that Parsley is supporting McCain, but that McCain is showing respect for the man.

This is the same Rod Parsley who published a book in 2005 Silent No More which includes a chapter (chapter 5) titled “Islam: The Deception of Allah.” In that book Parsley says: “I cannot tell you how important it is that we understand the true nature of Islam, that we see it for what it really is. In fact, I will tell you this: I do not believe our country can truly fulfill its divine purpose until we understand our historical conflict with Islam. I know that this statement sounds extreme, but I do not shrink from its implications. The fact is that America was founded, in part, with the intention of seeing this false religion destroyed, and I believe September 11, 2001, was a generational call to arms that we can no longer ignore.” In this book Parsley made further claims that can only be seen as hate speech.

According to the Wikipedia entry on Ron Parsley: Parsley criticizes Islam, stating that he “do[es] not believe that our country can truly fulfill its divine purpose until we understand America was founded, in part, with the intention of seeing this false religion destroyed.” (Silent No More, as cited in Holy Toledo by Frances Fitzgerald in the New Yorker, July 31 2006) And further reports in the same article: “Mr. Parsley has called upon Christians to wage a “war” against the “false religion” of Islam with the aim of destroying it. He urges his readers to realize that a confrontation between Christianity and Islam is unavoidable: “We find now we have no choice. The time has come.” And he has bad news: “We may already be losing the battle. As I scan the world, I find that Islam is responsible for more pain, more bloodshed, and more devastation than nearly any other force on earth at this moment.” He also claims that Christopher Columbus shared the same goal: “It was to defeat Islam, among other dreams, that Christopher Columbus sailed to the New World in 1492…Columbus dreamed of defeating the armies of Islam with the armies of Europe made mighty by the wealth of the New World. It was this dream that, in part, began America.” Parsley claims that Islam is an “anti-Christ religion” predicated on “deception.” The Muslim prophet Muhammad, he writes, “received revelations from demons and not from the true God.” Source

As Anastasia Pantsios has noted: “Certainly any aspiring president who expects to have any chance at forging diplomatic relations in the Middle East would have to condemn—to both “denounce” and “reject”—such ideas to be effective. And any candidate who even tacitly endorses such beliefs cannot expect to convince leaders of Muslim countries of the trustworthiness and good faith of the US. Unlike Obama, whose campaign never involved Farrakhan, McCain in Cincinnati on February 26 praised Parsley, according to the Columbus Dispatch, as a “spritual guide,” while Parsley praised McCain as a “strong, true, consistent conservative.” Undoubtedly, campaigning with Parsley was McCain’s way of trying to signal his acceptability to the evangelical base that has had issues with him. But if Obama owes repeated apologies for the mere fact that he received unsolicited compliments from a man who has said ugly things about Jews, then McCain would seem to need to atone even more for openly embracing on the campaign trail someone who has said equally ugly things about Muslims.”

As an American Muslim, I must wonder if we have come to the place in this country that it is perfectly acceptable for a candidate for the Presidency of the United States to accept the political support of an individual who wants to see the religion of Islam destroyed, and who sees that objective as one of the founding objectives of this country. If that is so, where does that leave the 7 million American Muslims?