c. 2004 Religion News Service

Muslim Political Action Committee Gives Kerry `Qualified Endorsement’

(RNS) A political action committee representing major U.S. Muslim advocacy groups has given a “qualified endorsement” to Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry.

The American Muslim Taskforce-Political Action Committee (AMT-PAC), which is affiliated with an umbrella organization representing the American Muslim Alliance, Council on American-Islamic Relations, Islamic Society of North America and other groups, made its long-awaited announcement at a press conference Thursday (Oct. 21).

Earlier, the group had reportedly been leaning toward making no endorsement in the hotly contested election, but AMT-PAC chairman Agha Saeed called those reports “fallacious” and “rumors.”

After much internal debate and discussion, the group announced a “qualified endorsement” of Kerry’s campaign, but also said that it is urging Muslims to make a “protest vote,” in which they vote not necessarily in favor of Kerry, but against President George W. Bush.

Leaders say that civil liberties for Muslim Americans have been threatened during the current administration, and that this is a large reason for the endorsement.

“We believe that there has been such bias in the treatment of Muslim and Arab communities in this country,” Saeed told Religion News Service.

Saeed said that third-party candidate Ralph Nader has the admiration of many in the Muslim community for his stance on civil liberties, though he has not won their endorsement.

“He is a real ally in the struggle for civil liberties and civil rights,” said Saeed.

But “voting for him would put our community outside the mainstream, and we do not want to do that,” he said.

In 2000, a political action committee with a different name but including many of the same leaders as the AMT-PAC endorsed Bush, largely because of comments he made against racial profiling.

_Holly Lebowitz Rossi

Presbyterians Say Comments on Hezbollah Not `Official Position’

(RNS) Presbyterian leaders said inflammatory comments by members of a church delegation that met with Hezbollah officials in Lebanon do not “reflect the official position” of the church on the search for peace in the Middle East.

The Presbyterian Church (USA) came under blistering criticism from Jewish groups for sending a social policy committee to a refugee camp in southern Lebanon that is controlled by Hezbollah, a guerrilla group listed by the U.S. State Department as a terrorist organization.

Relations between Jews and Presbyterians are already at a near-breaking point after the church voted this summer to consider financial divestment from companies operating in Israel.

In Lebanon, the Associated Press quoted Ronald Stone, a retired professor at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, as saying, “Relations and conversations with Islamic leaders are a lot easier than dealings and dialogue with Jewish leaders.”

In a joint statement on Wednesday (Oct. 20), three top church leaders stood by the trip but said that the delegation _ and comments from its members _ did not represent official church policy.

“The reports of this visit should not be interpreted in any way as lessening our deep commitment to continued Jewish-Christian dialogue, Muslim-Christian dialogue, or Jewish-Christian-Muslim dialogue,” said Stated Clerk Clifton Kirkpatrick, Moderator Rick Ufford-Chase and John Detterick, executive director of the church’s General Assembly Council.

The official church response failed to soothe concerns of Jewish leaders, who said the statement failed to condemn the Hezbollah’s violent past or the “deplorable words” spoken by some delegation members.

“To suggest that dialogue with terrorists is preferable to conversations with the American Jewish community is appalling and has overtones of anti-Semitism,” said Rabbis Eric Yoffie and Paul Menitoff, top leaders of the Reform Jewish movement.

Church officials said the visit was planned two years ago to allow the church’s Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy to see the situation firsthand. The 24-member delegation received special church funding to allow the committee to hold its first-ever meeting in the Middle East.

_ Kevin Eckstrom

Robertson Says Bush Predicted No Casualties in Iraq

(RNS) Religious broadcaster Pat Robertson said President Bush told him “we’re not going to have any casualties” prior to the start of the Iraqi war.

Speaking in an interview Tuesday (Oct. 19) with CNN anchor Paula Zahn, Robertson recounted a meeting with Bush in Nashville, Tenn.

“I had deep misgivings about this war, deep misgivings. And I was trying to say `Mr. President, you better prepare the American people for casualties,”’ Robertson recalled.

“`Oh, no, we’re not going to have any casualties,”’ Robertson said the president told him.

Robertson said he responded: “`Well,’ I said, `it’s the way it’s going to be.’ And so it was messy. The Lord told me it was going to be A, a disaster, and B, messy.”

White House officials, including Karl Rove, the president’s chief political adviser, denied the president made the remark.

Rove told The New York Times he did not hear the president make such a statement.

“I was right there,” he said.

Mike McCurry, a spokesman for Sen. John Kerry, questioned who might be telling the truth on the matter.

“We believe President Bush should get the benefit of the doubt here, but he needs to come forward and answer a very simple question,” he told reporters. “Was Pat Robertson telling the truth when he said he didn’t think there’d be any casualties, or is Pat Robertson lying?”

Robertson, an evangelical who founded the Christian Coalition and made an unsuccessful bid for the Republican presidential nomination in 1988, issued a statement Wednesday reiterating his support for Bush’s re-election.

“I believe `the blessing of heaven is upon him’ and I am persuaded that he will win this election and prevail on the war against terror in order to keep America safe from her avowed enemies,” he said.

_ Adelle M. Banks

Quote of the Day: Phil Cooke, President of Cooke Pictures

(RNS) “We don’t boycott or humiliate a tribe in Africa because they don’t understand Christian values, so why do we do it to Hollywood?”

_ Phil Cooke, president and CEO of Cooke Pictures, a television consultant and production company in Santa Monica, Calif. He was quoted by NRB, the magazine of the National Religious Broadcasters, about how Christians should approach Hollywood as a mission field.

MO/PH END RNS