Agencies - Dearborn: Arab-American and Muslim leaders are demanding an apology from John McCain’s campaign for severing ties with a Lebanese-American businessman serving on the Republican presidential candidate’s Michigan finance committee.

Ali Jawad, founder of the Lebanese American Heritage Club, was listed with five other finance committee members on an invitation to a fundraising dinner McCain plans to attend on Tuesday.

Jawad was asked to resign from the committee after a Michigan blogger wrote that he had ties to the Lebanese group Hezbollah, comments they say are based on rumour and innuendo.

The president of the Arab American Political Action Committee and publisher of the Arab American News said: "We do not want a president who makes a decision ... based on false information …This is an insult to every Arab-American and Muslim-American in the country."

McCain is "starting off on the wrong foot" with Arab- and Muslim-Americans with this decision, and if the candidate stands by it he could lose many of its voters, he continued.

Besides an apology, Jawad's supporters also want McCain to ask the businessman to rejoin the finance committee. Jawad said it would be premature to say whether he would accept such a request.

Jawad told The Associated Press on Monday evening that the accusations were false, including any links to Hezbollah.

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