John McCain listened to a sermon by Rod Parsley last February.
GASP!
Parsley didn't mince words talking about radical Islam.
GASP!
For some reason, ABC News sees fit to highlight his tough talk today.
I wonder if the Obama campaign passed this bit on to the newsroom. My guess is it did, or else ABC is VERY slow to report. Either scenario is possible.
Despite his call for the U.S. to win the "hearts and minds of the Islamic world," Sen. John McCain recruited the support of an evangelical minister who describes Islam as "anti-Christ" and Mohammed as "the mouthpiece of a conspiracy of spiritual evil."
McCain sought the support of Pastor Rod Parsley of the World Harvest Church of Columbus, Ohio at a critical time in his campaign in February, when former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee was continuing to draw substantial support from the Christian right.
At a campaign appearance in Cincinnati, McCain introduced Parsley as "one of the truly great leaders in America, a moral compass, a spiritual guide."
Campaign aides positioned Parsley right behind McCain for photographers, apparently unconcerned about Parsley's well-established denunciations of the Islamic faith in a book "Silent No More" and on DVDs of sermons about Islam.
"Islam is an anti-Christ religion that intends through violence to conquer the world," Parsley says on the DVDs reviewed by ABC News.
This is from Brian Ross, Anvi Patel, and Rehab El-Buri. It's ABC News, not the DNC.
You could have fooled me.
Did Parsley scream "God damn America" on the DVDs?
"America was founded with the intention of seeing this false religion destroyed," Parsley says, "and I believe Sept. 11, 2001 was a generational call to arms that we can no longer ignore."
Parsley's views and his connection to the McCain campaign are now beginning to show up on Arab Web sites and newspapers.
Al Moheet, a regional Arabic Web site operating in Egypt, carries the story with a picture of McCain and the headline: "McCain's Spiritual Adviser Calls for the Destruction of Islam."
"If there is a McCain presidency, he will start with a serious handicap in the Arab world," said former CIA intelligence officer John Kiriakou. "And the handicap is that it is already assumed in Muslim countries that they will not get a fair shake from a McCain administration," said Kiriakou.
In a statement to ABC News about Parsley's comments, McCain's campaign said the senator "obviously strongly rejects such statements." The campaign did not answer the question of whether it was aware of Parsley's widely publicized statements prior to seeking his endorsement in February.
Bottom line: PARSLEY IS NOT McCAIN'S SPIRITUAL MENTOR. PARSLEY IS NOT McCAIN'S PASTOR. McCAIN IS NOT A MEMBER OF PARSLEY'S CHURCH.
I don't care what some Arab website says.
Of far greater concern to me is what terrorists say.
WorldNetDaily's Aaron Klein relays this, from Ahmed Yousef, Hamas' top political adviser in the Gaza Strip:
"We like Mr. Obama, and we hope that he will win the elections," Ahmed Yousuf, Hamas' top political adviser in the Gaza Strip, said in an exclusive interview with WND and with the John Batchelor Show on WABC Radio in New York.
"I hope Mr. Obama and the Democrats will change the political discourse. ... I do believe [Obama] is like John Kennedy, a great man with a great principal. And he has a vision to change America to make it in a position to lead the world community, but not with humiliation and arrogance," Yousuf said, speaking from Gaza.
Together with presidential candidates John McCain and Hillary Clinton, Obama called Hamas a "terrorist organization" that should remain isolated until it renounces violence and recognizes Israel. Obama told reporters he opposed Carter's meeting with Hamas.
But Yousuf chalked up Obama's statements to political posturing.
"I understand American politics and this is the season for elections and everybody tries to sound like he's a friend of the Israelis ... so whatever [the] Israelis didn't like they will take from all those candidates," he said.
Yousuf said that in Hamas' view, Obama has "a vision to change America to make it in a position to lead the world community but not with humiliation and arrogance."
I don't believe that a McCain presidency "will start with a serious handicap in the Arab world" because Muslim countries think they won't get a "get a fair shake from a McCain administration." I don't care if that is the case.
It worries me that terrorists want an Obama presidency.
In a way, an Obama presidency would mean the United States would "start with a serious handicap in the Arab world."
That is far worse, in my opinion.
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