Thomas Jefferson’s Koran
When Keith Ellison, a Minnesota Democrat, became the first Muslim sworn into office as a Congressman yesterday, some people were very nervous.
And we don’t mean because of any anti-Muslim sentiment.
During the individual swearing-in ceremony performed by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Ellison placed his hand on a two-volume copy of the Koran once owned by Thomas Jefferson.
Watching anxiously on the sidelines were officials from the Library of Congress who had agreed to lend the Muslim holy book purchased by Jefferson for the brief oath of office ceremony.
The photo op finished, the Koran was placed in a box and whisked away.
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which brings us back to the founding fathers view of
religion and politics…the two don’t mix…and
the founding fathers were convinced that religion
ie faith could and should play a major role
in the moral development of the nation but was
not to be allowed to intrued on the political
judgments of the nation..
One of the reasons that republicans took a “thumpin”
was because the party led by Karl Rove pursued a
strategy of seeking support from evangelicals based
on the committment of republicans to take positions
on religious themes that placated those right of center
religious leaders like jerry fallwell, and pat robertson
just to name a few…this of course is unacceptable
to the great majority of americans who although they
are a people of faith, don’t believe that they have
any right to impose their faith on others….
so those who were upset with the newly elected representative taking an oath on his bible, the koran
rather than the new testment were demonstrating
their own intolerance and desire to impose their
view of religion on the rest of us which has been
the downfall of the republican party nationally
and particularly here in new york where mike long and
the conservative party have made religious values
the hallmark of who gets their support…the conservative
party is in fact the voice of the “church” and it has
no business dictating to secular republicans what
their positions should be on any issue