This article originally appears in The American Thinker
What do you get when you throw a stick of dynamite into a room full of nitroglycerin?
Let me rephrase that: What do you get when religion, politics, and powerful symbols of American tradition all intersect to form a combination of controversy and conundrum?
The decision by newly minted Congressman Keith Ellison (D-MN) to take his oath of office on the Koran rather than the bible has many conservatives up in arms and many of the rest of us scratching our heads. There has been an enormous amount of ink spilled by those who believe that Ellison’s choice of the Koran as a symbol to seal his oath somehow threatens American civilization. Columnist and syndicated radio host Dennis Prager pulled no punches:
First, it is an act of hubris that perfectly exemplifies multiculturalist activism—my culture trumps America’s culture. What Ellison and his Muslim and leftist supporters are saying is that it is of no consequence what America holds as its holiest book; all that matters is what any individual holds to be his holiest book.Forgive me, but America should not give a hoot what Keith Ellison’s favorite book is. Insofar as a member of Congress taking an oath to serve America and uphold its values is concerned, America is interested in only one book, the Bible. If you are incapable of taking an oath on that book, don’t serve in Congress. In your personal life, we will fight for your right to prefer any other book. We will even fight for your right to publish cartoons mocking our Bible. But, Mr. Ellison, America, not you, decides on what book its public servants take their oath.
I sincerely hope that Prager was able to take something to cure whatever was ailing him the day he wrote that article. Referring to Ellison’s “culture” (he was born and raised in this country) and the Koran as Ellison’s “favorite book” was evidence of someone either suffering from a severe case of hyperbole or Prager was demonstrating a towering ignorance about the tradition and meaning of oaths.
Prager wasn’t the only one to be caught up in this hysteria over where Ellison’s hand was going to be when he swore to uphold the Constitution. Virginia Congressman Virgil Goode felt it necessary to send an email to hundreds of his constituents warning them that Ellison was just the tip of the iceberg; that unless we followed the Mr. Goode’s advice and drastically curtailed the immigration of Muslims to America, we would end up with more Congressmen who would take the oath using the Koran:
In his letter, which was dated Dec. 5, Mr. Goode said that Americans needed to “wake up†or else there would “likely be many more Muslims elected to office and demanding the use of the Koran.â€â€œI fear that in the next century we will have many more Muslims in the United States if we do not adopt the strict immigration policies that I believe are necessary to preserve the values and beliefs traditional to the United States of America and to prevent our resources from being swamped,†said Mr. Goode, who vowed to use the Bible when taking his own oath of office.
I am glad that Mr. Goode vowed to use the bible when being sworn in. This despite the fact that no one in this country or on planet earth for that matter ever suggested that he would use anything else. Goode reassured us even more when he published a short column in USA Today where he dutifully informed us that he has a copy of the 10 commandments on the wall of his office (presumably not the original) and that he does not subscribe to any of the tenets of the Koran nor will he display the book in his office. I’m sure this comes as an immense relief to his constituents although what relevance it has to his duties as a Congressman remains something of a mystery. Perhaps Goode believes that populating the country with strawmen is in his job description.
But Goode does his level best to ignore history and generate hysteria when he tries raise the spectre of some kind of Muslim invasion that would not only overwhelm our “resources” but even worse, mean the election of more Muslim Congressmen, probably Democrats. In fact, Goode has very little to worry about. The history of every immigrant group who has come to America has shown that the same fears expressed by Goode about the newcomers undermining our values and culture were used by nativist and anti-immigration forces in the past.
For the Irish, it was questioning how they could be loyal to both Rome and the US government. For the Italians, it was the fear that their birthrate would overwhelm the “real” Americans and we’d wake up one day and everyone would have a last name that ended in a vowel. And don’t forget the mafia while your at it. Mexican immigrants in the past raised many of the same fears plus the added bugaboo of everyone having to learn Spanish in order to get by. I would argue that this has become more of a threat as the push to assimilate more recent Mexican immigrants has been blunted by many of those multiculturalists that Goode and Prager rail against. But Mexicans who have been here for generations turned out (not surprisingly) to be regular Americans who speak English, complain about high taxes, and even vote Republican sometimes.
The question is why we should expect anything less from Muslims than we did from Irish, Italians, or Mexicans? In fact, Muslims who have been here for several generations have adapted very nicely, thank you. Like all other immigrants in our history, they learn English, adapt American values, work hard, and are loyal, patriotic citizens. And like other immigrant groups, they have those who find it hard to fit in and adapt. There are enclaves of Muslims that wish to remain separate. And the lure of radical Islamism is certainly a reality that we must deal with. But are we to deny entry into this country for an entire religious sect because of the violent proclivities of the few? This has never been the American way and despite the fact that we are at war with Islamic extremists, we shouldn’t change now.
I’m sure Ellison is enjoying all the attention. It is distracting people from examining his hyper-liberal record as well as some curious connections the new Congressman has with the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR). For a stunning review of these connections as well as a close look at some of his jaw dropping positions on the issues, the boys at Powerline covered Ellison’s campaign so well that the local paper, the Minneapolis Star-Tribune didn’t even bother. Or perhaps what the Powerline crew uncovered would have been absolutely devastating to his candidacy which is why the liberal “Strib” never wrote a word about Ellison’s radicalism.
Be that as it may, as a political junkie I can always appreciate a good political maneuver. And Ellison has come up with a beaut. He will take the oath on a Koran owned by none other than the author of the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson:
“He wanted to use a Koran that was special,” said Mark Dimunation, chief of the rare book and special collections division at the Library of Congress, who was contacted by the Minnesota Dem early in December. Dimunation, who grew up in Ellison’s 5th District, was happy to help.Jefferson’s copy is an English translation by George Sale published in the 1750s; it survived the 1851 fire that destroyed most of Jefferson’s collection and has his customary initialing on the pages. This isn’t the first historic book used for swearing-in ceremonies—the Library has allowed VIPs to use rare Bibles for inaugurations and other special occasions.
Pretty shrewd. And I’ll bet Mr. Goode and perhaps even Dennis Prager are having apoplexy over Ellison’s political master stroke.
All of this ignores two salient facts. The first being that the oath taken using the bible (or the Koran or the Hindu Bhagvad Gita if you’re so inclined) is actually the second oath taken by the incoming Congressmen. It is a photo-op, nothing more. The first oath is administered in private with no holy book at all. This not only raises the question of what the fuss is all about but also just what an oath or affirmation means?
An oath is a personal guarantee. Despite Dennis Prager’s contention that the Congressional oath is somehow a rite that belongs to America, anytime someone swears – with or without a sacred text – that individual is giving a personal assurance that the terms of the oath will be upheld. Until recently, the bible was a powerful talisman to use when taking an oath because it was believed (and still is thought by some) that if you break an oath after swearing it on the bible, you go straight to hell when you die and burn for eternity with no possibility of being given a reprieve. This had the salutatory effect of assuring one and all that the individual swearing on the bible really meant it.
Times change and few would make a similar argument today. Instead, the consequences for breaking an oath are entirely secular in nature. In the case of a Congressman violating their oath to be loyal to America, one would think a very long jail term would be in the offing.
But it is the symbolic power of the oath as a reminder both to a Congressman and to his constituents that the stakes of service are high and that being true to the United States is extremely important. And if one is concerned about the Congressman holding that promise sacred by using a symbol to denote the seriousness and gravity of the moment, shouldn’t that symbol reflect the deepest beliefs of the oath taker rather than some arbitrary construct that would be meaningless in a religious sense?
This is an issue that will not go away. Someday, a fundamentalist Muslim may be elected to Congress and questions will again be raised about “serving two masters” and whether or not someone who believes in the efficacy of Sharia law can serve after swearing allegiance to the Constitution. I don’t think that day will come anytime soon. But when it does, I hope the hysteria can be kept to a minimum and we can examine the issue with reason and tolerance. For a nation founded on religious diversity, I see no reason why we shouldn’t be able to manage without descending into the darkness of ignorance and bigotry.
8:53 am
Rick:
You are more of an historian than I, but I beg to differ with your assertion that this nation was “founded on religious diversity.” On thecontrary, this nation was founded almost entirely on Christian-inspired, Protestant, Enlightenment notions of man’s place and role in the world, and man’s relationship with God. Founded on a modern concept of “diversity” – no way.
Tolerant – yes, but at the time, that meant a small number of Catholics and Jews. What tolerance meant at the time, mostly, was that the Congregationalists in New England couldn’t lord it over the Presbyterians in New York.
9:42 am
Rick:
You are obviously not familiar with the Quran or its interpretation the Hadith which preach Jihad as the only path to paradise. Jihad is taking up the sword of allah for the spread of islam and shari’a law over non-believers and their countries (USA among others). This philosophy is the root cause of all muslim evil perpetrated around the world including 9/11. Terrorism is a tool of the jihadits, as is armed conflict and insurection (Iraq, Somalia, Sudan). For a US Cong. to swear alligience to the constitution of the USA using the quran is a direct conflict of now warring philosophies. If he thinks that what he is doing is legitimate in the eyes of prcticing muslims, he is sadly mistaken. In islam he is commiting apostasy and therefore would be condemmed to death under shari’a law. No matter how you cut it, this is a travesty and an insult to every American and all servicemen who ever served in the mid-east including me.
Jim Steel
Pensacola, FL
11:00 am
Rick,
The use of Thomas Jefferson’s Qur’an is, in the final analysis, a secondary issue. If you would take the time, at some point in your career, to read the Qur’an (not an easy book to read and it may take more than just a few months – it took me three years), some translations of the Sunnah, commentaries on the Sunnah and an honest, scholarly (not hagiography)of the life and career of the Prophet, you will begin to appreciate the seriousness of the matter before us. An orthodox Muslim cannot swear an oath to uphold any body of ideas or form of government that are put above Shari’a and the words of Allah. This is no mere conjecture on my part, since every orthodox, traditional school of Islamic theology upholds the hermeneutic principle that the Qur’an is a divine dictation. Only under the uniquely Islamic doctrine of “taqiyya” may Ellison do this with a clear conscience. He is permitted to deliberately deceive kafirs for the sake of advancing the jihad against dar al Harb.
Thus, we must regard Ellison’s oath, regardless of which book he takes it on, as a mere formality. His obligation as a Muslim trumps the U.S. Constitution.
Lastly, my complaint, as a humble citizen, is that those who work in media, government, and education have shown the greatest resistance to doing the hard work of learning Islamic theology, texts, and jihad history. A growing number of humble citizens, like myself, whose degrees are not from the most elite universities, have taken a first principle of Sun Tzu to heart: we are learning about our enemy. I just wish those of you who have a wider audience would do likewise. It would add more depth of insight to your grasp of the scimitar that hangs over our heads.
3:38 pm
Rick,
First, I’d like to say I read your site everyday. I agree with most of your points and views. However, I strongly disagree with your stance on the “much ado about nothing” on the Qur’an and Ellison’s oath. There is nothing (in my limited knowledge) in the Qur’an that comes close to the liberal values of a democracy. As the other gentlemen have replied, there is no way Ellison can follow both (US Constitution and Qur’an). Its a travesty that the people in Minnesota elected this guy. I guess I’m considered a close-minded racist, but I have history as proof of the contributions of Islam to world society.
Keep up the good work and go Bears!
Mike
Peoria, IL
4:43 pm
Much ado about nothing is right. Keith Ellison is to Mecca as John Kerry is to Rome and George W. Bush is to Oral’s Erection. They do not serve a higher power, but rather seek it for themselves.
Chip
11:39 pm
Rick, I’d have to agree with Mike Ulrich.
I do read your site daily, and I find myself agreeing with you on several issues, but this I’d have to disagree. The Quran speaks nothing of tolerance. Taqqiya is a dangerous Trojan Horse.
6:33 pm
Oh for crying out loud!
I am not an Islamic apologist, but there are plenty of calls for tolerance, mercy and compassion in the Quran. Such as: “There shall be no compulsion in religion.” 2:256.
Yes, there is some pretty nasty stuff in the Quran as well, just as there is in the Bible (both old & new Testaments), which is really not hard to find, if you have actually read the Bible including: promises and descriptions of terrible fates for unbelievers and outsiders, advocates for slavery, and lays out the proper protocol for mass murder (hint: in Deuteronomy).
11:39 am
Post 9/11, this is nothing more than Thumbing his Nose at the American People…I feel as though I’ve been slapped in the face.
I await the day, someone taking the Oath of Office, places his hand on Mein Kamph, Mao’s Litte Red Book, or the Communist Manifesto.
We then will see how “we can examine the issue with reason and tolerance.”
Thomas Jefferson is spinning in his grave.
11:47 am
One other point…
If Thomas Jefferson owned a koran, why did he NOT convert to Islam?
Is it just possible, Thomas Jefferson totally REJECTED the koran, in FAVOR of Christianity?
12:46 pm
a.s.r.r. (#7),
Can you cite some examples of this “pretty nasty stuff” in the New Testament?
Chip
11:16 pm
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2:29 pm
Ah yes, Thomas Jefferson…the President who ended our paying blackmail to the Muslims in Tripoli and had this to say when he reported to Congress about his diplomatic contact with Tripoli’s ambassador in London, Sidi Haji Abdrahaman.
jefferson was making an effort to end the bribes paid and the slavetaking of Americans and asked the ambassador by what right he extorted tribute and took slaves among Americans and Europeans:
“The ambassador answered us that [the right] was founded on the Laws of the Prophet, that it was written in their Koran, that all nations who should not have answered their authority were sinners, that it was their right and duty to make war upon them wherever they could be found, and to make slaves of all they could take as prisoners, and that every Mussulman who should be slain in battle was sure to go to Paradise.”
In view of Jefferson’s subsequent conduct,he obviously learned something about Islam and the likelyhood of `live and let live’ from the Ambassador.
Perhaps we need to review the lesson in our modern age..since the Islamist mindset has not changed in the least.
4:17 pm
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