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Zawahiri endorses McCain Plan to Bomb Iran; McCain seeks Endorsement of Catholic-Haters; 8 Percent of Pakistanis Back McCain

Juan Cole 05/07/2008

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Senator John McCain, who seeks endorsements from haters of Roman Catholics, is alleging that Hamas has “endorsed” Barack Obama. He darkly suggests that this means something.

It is a despicable, dirty campaign trick. Who do you think the Ku Klux Klan will be endorsing? And if the Grand Dragons plump for McCain, does that tell us anything about McCain except that he is pasty faced? You can’t logically read off anything at all from an unsolicited endorsement.

Actually it occurred to me to ask who is endorsing McCain in the Muslim world.

Well, it turns out that al-
Qaeda No. 2 Ayman al-Zawahiri
has declared that he is actually on McCain’s side in wanting to destroy Iran. Al-Zawahiri is hurt that McCain keeps confusing hyper-Sunni al-Qaeda with radical Shiism: “Ayman al-Zawahiri said al-Qaeda wants to see the destruction of Iran – a Shiite nation battling the terrorists . . . “The dispute between America and Iran is a genuine struggle, and the possibility of the US striking Iran is real,” al-Zawahiri said. . .” Al-Zawahiri hopes that the US struggle with Iran will destroy the latter and weaken the former, putting al-Qaeda in a position to administer the coup de grace.

In essence, al-Zawahiri is endorsing McCain’s plan to “bomb, bomb, bomb/ bomb, bomb Iran.”

Then, it turns out that 8 percent of Pakistanis support McCain. 30 percent support Hillary Clinton, and she leads in this Muslim country over Obama (13%). But surely it is Pakistani liberals who are favoring Hillary, the sort people who supported Benazir Bhutto.

So which Pakistanis are supporting McCain? Presumably the conservative Muslims who can’t accept the leadership of a woman. And wouldn’t some of those be, like, part of the so-called ‘transcendent challenge’?

But lets consider the people from whom McCain has actively sought an endorsement. Many of them seem to engage in a lot of hate speech against Catholics, Muslims and others.

John McCain’s spiritual guides:

John Hagee, whose endorsement John McCain actively sought, compares the Roman Catholic Church to Hitler and depicts it as drinking the blood of the Jews through history:

John McCain praised Rod Parsely as a spiritual guide; he is caught on camera below:

Parseley accuses the federal government of enabling a genocide against African-Americans.

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About the Author

Juan Cole is the founder and chief editor of Informed Comment. He is Richard P. Mitchell Professor of History at the University of Michigan He is author of, among many other books, Muhammad: Prophet of Peace amid the Clash of Empires and The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. Follow him on Twitter at @jricole or the Informed Comment Facebook Page

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