The entire affair surrounding the election of a Muslim in U.S. Congress is getting ridiculous. Some people should ask themselves this question every now and then: how will the world perceive this? You can bet on it that this will get attention in the Muslim world (and more generally Muslims worldwide), once they find out about it. More importantly, perhaps, what about Muslims living in the U.S.? If Ellison would have a history of extremism, criticism like this could be justified. However, this being not so, the only result of the seeming ‘controversy’, is that American Muslims will – rightfully perhaps – feel alienated.
Anyway,
In a letter sent to hundreds of voters this month, Representative Virgil H. Goode Jr., Republican of Virginia, warned that the recent election of the first Muslim to Congress posed a serious threat to the nation’s traditional values.
Mr. Goode was referring to Keith Ellison, the Minnesota Democrat and criminal defense lawyer who converted to Islam as a college student and was elected to the House in November. Mr. Ellison’s plan to use the Koran during his private swearing-in ceremony in January had outraged some Virginia voters, prompting Mr. Goode to issue a written response to them, a spokesman for Mr. Goode said.
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.�
“I 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.
Ah, great, religious bigotry – and I am speaking from the perspective of someone who constantly criticizes immigration / integration and who is a Christian – it’s not about taking an oath on one’s Holy Book you know: it’s about what specific Holy Book one takes an oath on.
And everybody knows that America is meant to be a purely Christian, Protestant, nation without accepting other religions, let alone respecting them.
There are two kinds of religions: Christianity and horrible ones.
Right?
