Last month, he made nation-wide news, and apparently, he doesn’t want to let that fame go. Democrat Keith Ellison is a Minnesota state legislator who won the Congressional race in Minnesota’s fifth district last month, making him the first Muslim member of Congress. Now, he is again making news because of his announcement that he will not take his oath of office on the Bible, but on the holy book of Islam: the Koran.
While some are arguing that Mr. Ellison’s announcement is perfectly acceptable in this religiously-free country, others say taking an oath of office on the Koran would defy America’s traditional values. In his “America, Not Keith Ellison, decides what book a congressman takes his oath on,” columnist Dennis Prager writes, “He should not be allowed to do so—not because of any American hostility to the Koran, but because the act undermines American civilization.”
It seems, however, that Mr. Ellison is viewing his new office as just the opportunity to make another breakthrough in tolerance in America…against people like Mr. Prager. “…my campaign office,” Mr. Ellison told Democracy Now! “since the very beginning, looked like the UN. We had everybody in the room, people of all faiths, all cultures, all colors, working together.”
Would preventing Mr. Ellison from taking his oath on the Koran be denying him religious freedom, or would it be protecting America’s values? Or, from a slightly different perspective, perhaps forcing him to take his oath on a Bible would be blaspheming the very idea of the book in his hand!
Isn’t the real issue, though, our society’s lack of conviction? That we would even want to elect a Muslim, a homosexual, or an atheist bespeaks a failure to remain steadfast to the values on which this country was founded. When the writers of the Constitution spoke about religious freedom, were they thinking of Christian versus Muslim or Hindu? Or Baptist versus Catholic or Quaker?
If Mr. Ellison swears on the Koran, he will be defying the early nation of America—where morality and fear of God was the norm, but is he defying the America of today? Is he defying the Americans who voted him—a Muslim—into office? Isn’t he rather being more honest than the atheist legislators who have preceded him by swearing a false allegiance before a God they don’t believe in?
Is the real perversion a Muslim who takes an oath on the Koran, or this purportedly Christian nation that elects a Muslim?
Sources:
http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/view.php?StoryID=20061202-075343-6941r
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/politics/16143899.htm
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/11/08/1457241
You’re actually WORSE than the mullahs in Iran. They at least reserve seats in their theocracy for minority religions. You want to eliminate the minority altogether.
That’s fascism with a theocratic wrapping.