Muslims for America Statement regarding Congressman Goode’s recent comments
By Akir Khan
Muslims for America strongly disagrees with Congressman Virgil Goode’s letter recently sent to his constituents. America is a county that was founded by immigrants coming to this country to seek religions freedom and tolerance and we will continue to welcome all legal immigrants (Christians, Jews, Muslims, and all other religions) into our great county. We value the role that approximately 7 million hard-working Muslim-Americans play in our society as doctors, businessmen, lawyers, engineers and research scientists, but we also need more Muslim-Americans working in our government as translators and community liaisons with the FBI and Department of Homeland Security.
We hope that Congressman Goode’s comments will not deter other Muslim-Americans from playing an integral role in government and the political process and that is much needed in a post-9/11 world. Muslims for America has continued to support our President and Congress in the War on Terror and have continuously oppose the hijacking of Islam by the 9/11 terrorists. We feel that the opinions expressed by Congressman Goode may represent his lack of knowledge about Islam and we look forward to communicating with Congressman Goode’s office to help overcome any confusion that he has about Muslim-Americans.
January 4th, 2007 at 3:31 pm
Perfect conclusion First Muslim congressman replies to criticism by borrowing some pages — the Koran — from Jefferson.
WHEN freshman U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., announced he would use a Koran at his ceremonial swearing in today, it provoked a bizarre statement by Virginia Republican Rep. Virgil Goode Jr. He warned that unless the United States cracks down on illegal immigration, “there will likely be many more Muslims elected to office and demanding the use of the Koran.”
Never mind that Ellison, a Muslim convert and trial lawyer, is a Michigan native and can trace his family roots in the United States to the 1700s. Conservative talk show hosts and bloggers followed Goode’s lead, demanding that a Bible be used for the taking of all official oaths of office. That ignores the reality that the U.S. Constitution proscribes any religious test for elected officials. Furthermore, the mass swearing in of members of Congress does not involve religious documents. Each elected official can use whatever text he desires at the private, individual ceremony that follows.
A member of the U.S. Holocaust Museum board, presidential appointee and radio commentator Dennis Prager, even went so far as to demand that Ellison resign from Congress if he refuses to use a Bible. His view was swiftly rejected by the museum board as “antithetical to the mission of the museum as an institution promoting tolerance and respect for all peoples regardless of their race, religion or ethnicity.”
Rep. Goode’s comments were widely denounced as religious bigotry in newspaper editorials across the country and by many Democratic officials. One of the few Republicans to join the chorus was South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, who stated that “religious diversity is a strength, not a weakness in this country. We need immigration reform, but not for the reasons Mr. Goode cited.” Graham applauded Ellison “for swearing allegiance to a document that is consistent with his faith.”
In their zeal to promote the use of the Bible, many of Ellison’s critics are forgetting that the authors of the Constitution went to great lengths to separate church and state as a bulwark against the religious discrimination many of the colonists fled England to escape. Thomas Jefferson, whose birthplace Goode represents, considered his authorship of Virginia’s Act for Establishing Religious Freedom as one of his greatest accomplishments, along with drafting the Declaration of Independence and founding the University of Virginia. He and the Founders rejected any attempt to make Christianity the nation’s official creed.
Ellison has shown grace and diplomacy throughout the controversy, saying he hopes to become friends with colleague Goode and further his understanding of Muslims. Ellison’s final gesture at the ceremonial swearing in today is the ideal conclusion to an otherwise tawdry episode.
The new congressman is using a Koran from the Library of Congress archives originally owned and initialed by Jefferson himself, a pointed reminder that America was founded on the principle that no faith, creed or lack thereof should receive official favor or prejudice.
Judging by the public comments of the past few weeks, it’s a lesson far too many Americans have forgotten.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/editorial/4442874.html
January 4th, 2007 at 3:33 pm
A Congressman, a Muslim and a Buddhist Walk Into a Bar…
By Sarah Wheaton
With all the uproar over the decision by Representative-elect Keith Ellison, the first Muslim to serve in Congress, to swear-in using the Koran, we’ve neglected the fact that another faith is making its first showing in the Capitol with not one but two freshmen.
But first, we’d like to alert you to an inaccuracy in the above sentence to underscore a point that’s been lost in the din. Mr. Ellison is not swearing in on the Koran. And no incoming members of Congress swear in on the Bible. Everyone is sworn in together during a private ceremony without any religious text. It’s only during a ceremonial photo-op that a book may be brought out. Representative Bill Pascrell, a New Jersey Democrat, chided Representative Virgil Goode for perpetuating the common misunderstanding in a letter to his constituents that in turn criticized Mr. Ellison.
But anyway, two Buddhists will be sworn in on Thursday, and we asked them what they plan to use for the ceremonial event.
Representative-elect Hank Johnson, a Georgia Democrat who ousted Representative Cynthia McKinney in the Democratic primary, became a Buddhist decades ago, though his family does not share that faith. A spokesperson said that Mr. Johnson plans to use a Bible, citing tradition.
Besides, there is no book in Buddhism that’s equivalent to the Bible or the Koran, said Representative-elect Mazie Hirono, a Hawaii Democrat. She said she probably would not use any book, but that in the past, when she was sworn in as lieutenant governor, she used a friend’s family Bible.
Ms. Hirono does not practice daily, but she is influenced by Buddhist values. It is “characteristic of Buddhism that there is respect and tolerance for other religions,” she said.