Muslims outraged over McCain backer's words: "The Muslims have said either we kneel or they're going to kill us"

Muslims outraged over McCain backer's words: "The Muslims have said either we kneel or they're going to kill us"

Will McCain throw Bud Day under the bus? More on this story. "McCain's war buddy riles Muslims," by Marc Caputo and Beth Reinhard for the Miami Herald, July 19 (thanks to Alan):

A war buddy of John McCain's upset Muslims by comparing them to terrorists, creating another headache for the Republican presidential candidate bedeviled by misstatements from some of his surrogates.

One of John McCain's fellow Vietnam POWs compared Muslims to terrorists during a defense of the Iraq War on Friday, saying ``The Muslims have said either we kneel or they're going to kill us.''

There are indeed Muslims who have said things like that. There is a Muslim organization that is dedicated, in its own words, to "eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and 'sabotaging' its miserable house by their hands and the hands of the believers so that it is eliminated and God's religion is made victorious over all other religions."

Why does that come in for no mention in this story? It isn't really surprising, given the tendencies and perspectives of the mainstream media -- it would have been more surprising if they had mentioned it. But in a sane world, Bud Day's remarks would be judged for their accuracy: some Muslims are indeed doing what he said, and to claim offense and pretend that he was tarring all Muslims is just more CAIR victimology. Of course, if it weren't effective, they wouldn't do it. Here once again, the attention is on Day's "gaffe," not where it should be: on the accuracy of his remarks and the activities of jihadists in the U.S. and around the world.

Col. Bud Day riled Muslim leaders with the remarks made in a conference call with reporters arranged by the Republican Party of Florida on McCain's behalf.

He added: ``I don't intend to kneel and I don't advocate to anybody that we kneel, and John doesn't advocate to anybody that we kneel.''

McCain's presidential campaign wouldn't comment. A Republican Party spokeswoman said later that Day acknowledged he misspoke and ''made an unfortunate mistake'' because he meant to say ''terrorists'' and not ``Muslims.''

Of course. Because as everyone knows, the terrorists aren't Muslims. They're Methodists. And they aren't acting in the name of Islam and according to Islamic teachings. Rather, they're acting according to the teachings of John Wesley.

Muslim leaders and Arab-American groups quickly denounced the ''bigoted'' comments by Day, a Pensacola resident, Medal of Honor recipient and member of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth attack machine from 2004.

''This is as close to racist as it gets. These are cheap street tactics,'' said Khaled Saffuri, who helped organize Arab outreach for President Bush's 2000 campaign but is now a Libertarian. ``Even if this is called a mistake or a slip of the tongue, it shows a bigger problem with racism. McCain and the Republican party should denounce this.''

Kenneth Timmerman wrote in 2004: "Saffuri's ties to radical Islamists and apologists for terror are neither superficial nor coincidental."

''It's perpetuating a form of Islam-ophobia,'' said Saif Ishoof, a Miami Republican and president of the Center for Voter Advocacy, a nonpartisan group in Florida that educates Muslims about the political process.

[...]

Day's gaffe on Muslims adds to what the community describes as a sweeping backlash from many directions. Many leaders complain that they have been vilified as terrorists since the Sept. 11 attacks launched by a segment of radical extremists who don't represent the 1.1 billion Muslims worldwide. [...]

Muslim leaders say there are about seven million Muslims in the United States, but other estimates put the size of the community around 2.5 million. The founder of the American Arab Institute, James Zogby, said Thursday that the ''rhetoric'' of Bush and McCain have furthered misunderstanding of Muslims by frequently pairing ''Islam'' and the words ''terrorist'' and ''fascism'' in stump speeches.

Once again, the fact that Muslims themselves are furthering these "misunderstandings" by committing acts of violence and justifying them by reference to Islamic teaching goes utterly ignored, as if it were only Bush and McCain (and their "Islamophobic" advisers) who are responsible for linking Islam with terrorism.

But as for calling Obama a Muslim, Zogby said, Democrat Hillary Clinton's supporters bear some of the blame.

''I got those e-mails. I saw them. They were nasty,'' Zogby said. 'They try to sow suspicion and fear by saying: `We don't know him. He's not one of us.' The insult is to all American Muslims. To use 'Muslim' as the the ultimate slur does real damage here and abroad. And it's bigoted.''

That wasn't Day's intent, said Republican Party of Florida spokeswoman Katie Gordon.

'Clearly, he did not intend to alienate the Muslim community in any way. He was talking about terrorists. He mistakenly used the word `Muslim,' '' Gordon said. ``That was 30 seconds of a 30-minute call in which he talked eloquently about his and the senator's experience in the war and the senator's leadership qualities.''

He didn't mean it! Please don't hurt us!

A skunk by any other name still stinks. Come on folks the PC crap is going to get us killed in our beds !  Where are the torches and pitch forks, where is the righteous indignation when we are told to LIE rather than speak the truth ?

Misspoke, I don't think so. Bud Day has a head on his shoulders and uses it to THINK with (course McCain will throw Bud under the bus....we can't have the truth in open forum at the same time that our troops are SHOOTING MUSLIM Jihadists in TWO (2) countries . Can we?  Besides the Republican nominee might tick off the majority of voters (who are Muslim immigrants) in say DETRIOT and that would be bad).

I can't stand this anymore !!! If the truth hurts, tough !!!!! Throw me in jail for speaking the truth.     Koran = Islam = terrorist.

(CM) theSuperPatriot said: They are trying to influence the election and anything else they can.

It is MORE than that. This election is small potatoes in the quest for Muslim world domination. A tolerant society (such as ours) is easy conquest, yell intolerance (or racism or religious bigotry) and your detractors shut up. Then soon you have the ONLY voice. This method of silencing your detractors is being used by a number of groups right now in America and used effectively. We need to wake up to it !  It is not wrong for us, the people of America, to cry FOUL to this method of silencing our dissent to their message. We NEED to begin responding that we are IN-tolerant of their message of IN-tolerance.  

As a side: we do have free speech in America. You can say what you like. And other people do not have to agree with you. If they don't agree with you, they do NOT have the right to SILENCE you. Or has this also past into the PC twilight zone?

Seriously, PC is changing our society. Afraid to offend, we don't verbalize the differance between good and bad, evil and righteous. My grandfather would turn over his grave. BUT there is a black and a white, a right and a wrong. Not just any god will do to worship.

I have written and rewritten the end of this entry for two hours (deleted yet again) and find that the true differance of TOLERANCE and INTOLERANCE is something that I have personally stuggled with all my life. Being of strict religious convictions I have never EXPECTED accomodation from anyone to my religious choices. I will start another thread to explore this.