McCain's war buddy riles Muslims

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.
Posted on Sat, Jul. 19, 2008

BY MARC CAPUTO AND BETH REINHARD
breinhard@MiamiHerald.com



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.''

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.''

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.''

''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.

MESSAGE LOST

Day's comment obscured the intent of the conference call: to reinforce McCain's assault on Democrat Barack Obama's foreign policy credentials as he prepares to visit Iraq. Meanwhile, Obama's campaign has been bashing McCain on the economy, the top concern of voters nationwide and in Florida.

Obama's camp assailed McCain until economic advisor Sen. Phil Gramm resigned as campaign co-chairman Friday over recent statements that America is becoming a ''nation of whiners'' that's in a ''mental recession.'' Obama's camp also jumped on a report in The Miami Herald on Thursday that showed Florida leads the nation in job loss.

Polls suggest the economy is Obama's strong suit, while the war is a source of credibility for McCain because voters see him as a better commander in chief. The recent reduction in violence helps bolster McCain's argument that the ''surge'' troop escalation is working in Iraq.

The GOP has assailed Obama for advocating the withdrawal of troops even though he hasn't visited Iraq since January 2006. McCain unleashed his first negative TV ad attacking Obama on the war Friday.

''I think it's incredible that he would make up his mind before he ever got the facts,'' Day told reporters. ``He certainly has a lot to learn, because when he gets there, those American kids are going to tell him the surge is working.''

Day also defended the 2004 attacks against Democrat John Kerry by the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, a type of political organization unregulated by election law that McCain has denounced. Day said McCain supported the substance of the group's commercials.

An Obama spokesman, Mark Bubriski, responded in an e-mail: ``In 2004, McCain angrily rejected the false attacks from those infamously dishonest Bush backers, but now McCain encourages them to promote false attacks on Barack Obama? That's not change we can believe in.''

MUSLIM BACKLASH

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.

More recently, Muslim leaders have criticized Obama for distancing himself from the community as part of an effort to refute false rumors that he is Muslim. When the campaign tried to set the record straight by launching the fightthesmears.com website, Muslims protested that he was calling Islam a ``smear.''

A July Newsweek poll suggests that the ''smear'' is working anyway, with 12 percent of voters falsely believing he was sworn into office on a Koran and not a Christian Bible; 26 percent incorrectly saying he was raised a Muslim, and 39 percent incorrectly believing that he went to an Islamic fundamentalist school in Indonesia as a kid. This week's New Yorker cover raised hackles with a political cartoon portraying Obama as a Muslim, intended to satirize the rumor-mongering.

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.

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.''

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