First Muslim elected to Congress to use
Quran once owned by Thomas Jefferson

From the AP via the Houston Chronicle:

Rep.-elect Keith Ellison, the first Muslim elected to Congress, will use a Quran once owned by Thomas Jefferson during his ceremonial swearing-in Thursday.

The chief of the Library of Congress' rare book and special collections division, Mark Dimunation, will walk the Quran across the street to the Capitol and then walk it back after the ceremony.

And

Some critics have argued that only a Bible should be used for the swearing-in. Last month, Virginia Rep. Virgil Goode, R-Va., warned that unless immigration is tightened, "many more Muslims" will be elected and follow Ellison's lead.

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The flap over Ellison using the Koran instead of the Bible would have been my nomination for dumbest controversy of the year except that it was beaten by the flap over Barak Obama's Islamic name. Nonetheless, it runs a close second, definitely worth mentioning in the same breath because of the similarity between the two "controversies." Both are right-wing smear jobs designed to capitalize on American xenophobia and Christian intolerance. Both are decidedly unAmerican because they sow support for applying a religious test to US public officials, which would stand in direct violation of Article Six of the Constitution. In short, both are just more of the same old conservative bullshit rhetoric we've been forced to endure since 9/11.

Anyway, Ellison's response here, using a Koran once owned by the founding father who coined the phrase "wall of separation between church and state," is a pretty brilliant move, politically speaking. Great symbolism, the kind of thing for which Democrats are usually not known.

And, you know, doesn't it make more sense for a Muslim to swear on the Koran instead of the Bible? For a non-Christian, an oath on the Bible is simply a promise; swearing on one's own holy book, however, packs a bit more punch, I'd imagine.

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