{"id":3478,"date":"2008-09-02T18:43:00","date_gmt":"2008-09-02T15:43:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/?p=3478"},"modified":"2014-01-01T20:09:28","modified_gmt":"2014-01-01T18:09:28","slug":"mccain-no-muslim-president-us-better-with-christian-one","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/2008\/09\/02\/mccain-no-muslim-president-us-better-with-christian-one\/","title":{"rendered":"McCain: No Muslim president, U.S. better with Christian one"},"content":{"rendered":"

BY HELEN KENNEDY
\nNEWYORK DAILY NEWS<\/p>\n

STAFF WRITER<\/p>\n

Saturday, September 29th 2007, 4:00 AM<\/p>\n

\n
<\/form>\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

John McCain<\/p>\n

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GOP presidential candidate John McCain says America is better off with a Christian President and he doesn’t want a Muslim in the Oval Office.<\/p>\n

“I admire the Islam. There’s a lot of good principles in it,” he said. “But I just have to say in all candor that since this nation was founded primarily on Christian principles, personally, I prefer someone who I know who has a solid grounding in my faith.”<\/p>\n

In a wide-ranging interview about religion and faith with the Web site\u00a0Beliefnet<\/span><\/span>, McCain said he wouldn’t “rule out under any circumstance” someone who wasn’t Christian, but said, “I just feel that that’s an important part of our qualifications to lead.”<\/p>\n

A Mormon such as rival candidate Mitt Romney, he said, would be okay.<\/p>\n

“The Mormon religion is a religion that I don’t share, but I respect.<\/p>\n

“More importantly, I’ve known so many people of the Mormon faith who have been so magnificent,” he said.<\/p>\n

McCain later clarified his remarks, saying, “I would vote for a Muslim if he or she was the candidate best able to lead the country and to defend our political values.”<\/p>\n

A Muslim rights group ripped the Arizona Republican’s remarks.<\/p>\n

“That kind of attitude goes against the American tradition of religious pluralism and inclusion,” said Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations.<\/p>\n

He urged McCain to “clarify his remarks” and “stress his acceptance of political candidates of any faith.”<\/p>\n

The Anti-Defamation League, a Jewish advocacy group, could not be reached for comment because its offices were closed for the Sukkoth holiday.<\/p>\n

In the interview, the senator also said the “Constitution established the United States of America as a Christian nation.”<\/p>\n

There is no mention of God, Jesus or Christ in that entirely secular document.<\/p>\n

The interview, which included the revelation that he’s talking to his pastor about undergoing a full-immersion baptism after the campaign, sent Beliefnet’s irreverent “God-o-meter” spinning.<\/p>\n

“How can the religious right hate this guy?” the site asked.<\/p>\n

Beliefnet columnist David Kuo said McCain was “pandering to what he thinks the Christian conservative community wants to hear” and predicted he “will have a lot of explaining to do about this interview.”<\/p>\n

The remarks came as he was starting to show gains in the polls.<\/p>\n

McCain alienated evangelical voters in 2000 when he branded the Revs. Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell “agents of intolerance.”<\/p>\n

hkennedy@nydailynews.com<\/span><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BY HELEN KENNEDY NEWYORK DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER Saturday, September 29th 2007, 4:00 AM John McCain GOP presidential candidate John McCain says America is better off with a Christian President and he doesn’t want a Muslim in the Oval Office. “I admire the Islam. There’s a lot of good principles in it,” he said. “But […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":643583,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[490,34],"tags":[8280],"class_list":["post-3478","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-north-america","category-usa","tag-religons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3478","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/83"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3478"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3478\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/643583"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3478"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3478"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3478"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}