In mid-November 2006 it was reported that Keith Ellison

Keith Ellison (politician)

Keith Maurice Ellison is the U.S. Representative for , serving since 2007. He is a member of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party. The district centers on Minneapolis. He was re-elected in 2010. Ellison is a co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus.He is the first Muslim to be elected to the...

, the first Muslim

Muslim

A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...

 elected to the United States Congress

United States Congress

The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....

 (for Minnesota

Minnesota

Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...

's 5th congressional district

Minnesota's 5th congressional district

Minnesota's 5th congressional district is a geographically small urban and suburban congressional district in Minnesota. It covers eastern Hennepin County, including the entire city of Minneapolis, along with parts of Anoka and Ramsey counties. It was created in 1883 and was named the "Bloody...

), "will take his oath of office

Oath of office

An oath of office is an oath or affirmation a person takes before undertaking the duties of an office, usually a position in government or within a religious body, although such oaths are sometimes required of officers of other organizations...

 with his hand upon the Qur'an

Qur'an

The Quran , also transliterated Qur'an, Koran, Alcoran, Qur’ān, Coran, Kuran, and al-Qur’ān, is the central religious text of Islam, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God . It is regarded widely as the finest piece of literature in the Arabic language...

, the Islam

Islam

Islam . The most common are and .   : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...

ic holy book

Religious text

Religious texts, also known as scripture, scriptures, holy writ, or holy books, are the texts which various religious traditions consider to be sacred, or of central importance to their religious tradition...

." In reaction to the news, conservative

American conservatism

Conservatism in the United States has played an important role in American politics since the 1950s. Historian Gregory Schneider identifies several constants in American conservatism: respect for tradition, support of republicanism, preservation of "the rule of law and the Christian religion", and...

 media pundit Dennis Prager

Dennis Prager

Dennis Prager is an American syndicated radio talk show host, syndicated columnist, author, and public speaker. He is noted for his conservative political and social views emanating from conservative Judeo-Christian values. He holds that there is an "American Trinity" of essential principles,...

 criticized the decision in his November 28, 2006 column entitled "America, not Keith Ellison, decides what book a Congressman takes his oath on."

The column attracted national attention from both Ellison and Prager supporters. Presented with the fact that all members of the House officially swear in (or affirm) en masse without the use of any religious text, and that such works are only used in ceremonial reenactments afterwards, Prager stated "that’s the whole point: it’s exactly because it’s ceremonial that it matters". In response to a wave of criticism, Prager released another column on the topic on December 5, 2006 entitled "A response to my many critics - and a solution".

The controversy became more heated when Rep. Virgil Goode

Virgil Goode

Virgil Hamlin Goode, Jr. , is an American politician, last serving as a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives. He represented the 5th congressional district of Virginia from 1997 to 2009...

 (R - VA) issued a letter to his constituents stating his view that Ellison's decision to use the Qur'an is a threat to "the values and beliefs traditional to the United States of America...[and] if American citizens don’t wake up and adopt the Virgil Goode position on immigration there will likely be many more Muslims elected to office and demanding the use of the Koran." The entering of Goode into the controversy caused many other members of Congress to weigh in.

On January 3, 2007, The Washington Post

The Washington Post

The Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...

reported that Ellison would use the Qur'an owned by Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson was the principal author of the United States Declaration of Independence and the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom , the third President of the United States and founder of the University of Virginia...

.

Constitutional provisions

Critics of Prager point out that the United States Constitution

United States Constitution

The Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the United States of America. It is the framework for the organization of the United States government and for the relationship of the federal government with the states, citizens, and all people within the United States.The first three...

 provides "no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States" (Article VI, section 3

No religious test clause

The No Religious Test Clause of the United States Constitution is found in Article VI, paragraph 3, and states that:This has been interpreted to mean that no federal employee, whether elected or appointed, career or political, can be required to adhere to or accept any religion or belief...

) and at least four Presidents have not been sworn in on a Bible.

In his December 5, 2006 article on the subject Prager denied that he was promoting a de facto religious test. "I never even hinted that there should be a religious test. It has never occurred to me that only Christians run for office in America. The idea is particularly laughable in my case since I am not now, nor ever have been, a Christian. ...I want people of every faith and of no faith who affirm the values I affirm to enter political life. My belief that the Bible should be present at any oath (or affirmation) of office has nothing whatsoever to do with the religion of the office holder. ...You don't have to be Christian to acknowledge that the Bible is the source of America's values. Virtually every founder of this country knew that and acknowledged it."

Law Professor Eugene Volokh

Eugene Volokh

Eugene Volokh is an American legal commentator and the Gary T. Schwartz Professor of Law at the UCLA School of Law...

 noted that the Constitution states officials "'shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious Test shall ever be required ....' The option of giving an affirmation rather than oath ...[shows] the Constitution thus already expressly authorizes people not to swear at all, but to affirm, without reference to God or to a sacred work. Atheists and agnostics are thus protected, as well as members of certain Christian groups [such as Quakers]. Why would Muslims and others not be equally protected from having to perform a religious ritual that expressly invokes a religion in which they do not believe?" Volokh's point here is furthered by the fact that then Rep.-elect Mazie Hirono

Mazie Hirono

is the U.S. Representative for , serving since 2007. She is a member of the Democratic Party.She was the second Asian immigrant elected lieutenant governor of a state of the United States. She ran against Linda Lingle for governor of Hawaii in 2002, one of the few gubernatorial races in United...

 (D-Hawaii), who is a Buddhist, announced that she would use the affirmation option and "has no plans to use any religious text in the swearing-in ceremony."

Text of the Oath

The Senate Historical Office writes about the oath administrated to all elected or re-elected Federal Legislatures, "At the start of each new Congress, in January of every odd-numbered year, the entire House of Representatives and one-third of the Senate performs a solemn and festive constitutional rite that is as old as the Republic. ...The Constitution contains an oath of office only for the president. For other officials, including members of Congress, that document specifies only that they "shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation to support this constitution." In 1789, the First Congress reworked this requirement into a simple fourteen-word oath: ‘I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support the Constitution of the United States.’" "The current oath is a product of the 1860s, drafted by Civil War-era members of Congress intent on ensnaring traitors." The words of the oath are "I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter: So help me God."

Law Professor Eugene Volokh points out that the inclusion of "So help me God" is not legally necessary, as the Constitution "expressly authorizes people not to swear at all, but to affirm, without reference to God or to a sacred work." While there is no guideline at the Federal level, many state Constitutions require those choosing to affirm, to substitute "So help me God" with "Under the pains and penalties of perjury."

The Asian Tribune has reported that "Instead of ‘So Help me God’, Ellison, an African American and of Islamic faith, will pledge to uphold the Constitution of the United States ending with the phrase ‘Allahhu Akbar’ meaning God is Great in Arabic."

Oath Ceremonies

The United States Congress does not officially swear anyone in using any holy book, "No Member of Congress is officially sworn in with a Bible. Under House rules, the official swearing-in ceremony is done in the House chambers, with the Speaker of the House administering the oath of office en masse. No Bibles or other holy books are used at all. Members may, if they choose, also have a private ceremony with family and friends. At these unofficial ceremonies, Members frequently solemnize the event by taking an oath while holding a personal family Bible." "By tradition, all members of the House are sworn in together on the House floor. It's in the photo-op ceremony that a Bible is used or in Ellison's case, the Quran." The tradition of the photo reenactment oath "dates to the birth of photography, so congressmen could send photos back to their hometown newspapers." The Press Secretary with the House Administration Committee stated that what Representatives do at the private ceremony is "between the new member and the Speaker’s office. They have to ‘work that out’." All incoming freshman to the 110th Congress "will be sworn in on Jan. 4 by the new Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi

Nancy Pelosi

Nancy Patricia D'Alesandro Pelosi is the Minority Leader of the United States House of Representatives and served as the 60th Speaker of the United States House of Representatives from 2007 to 2011...

."

When questioned about this "Prager argued in a telephone interview [with the Associated Press] that the ceremony was no less significant than the actual swearing-in. 'Oh, that’s the whole point: it’s exactly because it’s ceremonial that it matters to me,' he said. 'Ceremonies are exceedingly important. That is the way a society states what is most significant to it.' Mr Prager argued that the issue was not about freedom of religion. 'I want Jews like myself to take the oath on the Bible, even though the New Testament is not our Bible,' he said. Asked if it would be a problem for a Jewish legislator to take the oath on a the Bible that included only the Old Testament, Mr Prager responded, 'Yes, it would,' because he said the point is to honor the 'Bible of this country.'"
In his Dec. 5, 2006 article he expanded on the point "the very fact that it is a ceremony makes my point far more forcefully. Obviously, Mr. Ellison will have already been officially sworn in. Therefore, the use of the Koran has absolutely nothing to do with taking an oath on the book he holds sacred. It is used entirely to send a message to the American people. So all the arguments that he must be able to swear on the book he holds sacred are moot. He will have already been sworn in. Ceremonies matter a lot. As I told the Associated Press, ceremonies are essential to the continuity of a civilization. Therefore, the first time in American history that a congressman has decided to jettison the Bible for another text should not go unnoticed—or elicit yawns, as it has from conservative and libertarian critics." "This is all symbolic, which makes it even more pointless to say [Ellison] can only take an oath on what he believes," Prager said in another interview.

Questions on "unbroken tradition"

Many critics have taken Prager to task for saying that swearing in with a Bible is a "tradition that has been unbroken since George Washington

George Washington

George Washington was the dominant military and political leader of the new United States of America from 1775 to 1799. He led the American victory over Great Britain in the American Revolutionary War as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army from 1775 to 1783, and presided over the writing of...

." They point out that "In 1825, John Quincy Adams

John Quincy Adams

John Quincy Adams was the sixth President of the United States . He served as an American diplomat, Senator, and Congressional representative. He was a member of the Federalist, Democratic-Republican, National Republican, and later Anti-Masonic and Whig parties. Adams was the son of former...

 took the presidential oath using a law volume [that contained a copy of the Constitution] instead of a Bible, and in 1853, Franklin Pierce

Franklin Pierce

Franklin Pierce was the 14th President of the United States and is the only President from New Hampshire. Pierce was a Democrat and a "doughface" who served in the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate. Pierce took part in the Mexican-American War and became a brigadier general in the Army...

 affirmed the oath rather than swearing it. Herbert Hoover

Herbert Hoover

Herbert Clark Hoover was the 31st President of the United States . Hoover was originally a professional mining engineer and author. As the United States Secretary of Commerce in the 1920s under Presidents Warren Harding and Calvin Coolidge, he promoted partnerships between government and business...

, citing his Quaker beliefs, also affirmed his oath in 1929 but did use a Bible, according to the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies. Theodore Roosevelt

Theodore Roosevelt

Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt was the 26th President of the United States . He is noted for his exuberant personality, range of interests and achievements, and his leadership of the Progressive Movement, as well as his "cowboy" persona and robust masculinity...

 used no Bible in taking his first oath of office in 1901, but did in 1905." Other sources have noted that after John F. Kennedy

John F. Kennedy

John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....

 was assassinated a Catholic Missal

Missal

A missal is a liturgical book containing all instructions and texts necessary for the celebration of Mass throughout the year.-History:Before the compilation of such books, several books were used when celebrating Mass...

 was used as no Bible could be found when Lyndon B. Johnson

Lyndon B. Johnson

Lyndon Baines Johnson , often referred to as LBJ, was the 36th President of the United States after his service as the 37th Vice President of the United States...

 (who was not even Catholic himself, but a Disciple of Christ

Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)

The Christian Church is a Mainline Protestant denomination in North America. It is often referred to as The Christian Church, The Disciples of Christ, or more simply as The Disciples...

) had to assume the Presidency.

Prager has responded to some of this information in interviews. Eugene Volokh

Eugene Volokh

Eugene Volokh is an American legal commentator and the Gary T. Schwartz Professor of Law at the UCLA School of Law...

 pointed out on "Paula Zahn Now" that Hoover didn’t swear on a Bible, but affirmed and took no oath. Prager replied "Herbert Hoover had a Bible. ...He just didn't swear by it, because I believe he was a Quaker. That's a very different story." On "Hannity and Colmes" Prager stated "The only president who did not have a Bible was Theodore Roosevelt, first term, and it was because [President William] McKinley

William McKinley

William McKinley, Jr. was the 25th President of the United States . He is best known for winning fiercely fought elections, while supporting the gold standard and high tariffs; he succeeded in forging a Republican coalition that for the most part dominated national politics until the 1930s...

 had just been shot. Every president used a Bible." (Prager also questioned Colmes’ Boston Globe source that said in 1991 Massachusetts Gov. William Weld

William Weld

William Floyd Weld is a former governor of the US state of Massachusetts. He served as that state's 68th governor from 1991 to 1997. From 1981 to 1988, he was a federal prosecutor in the United States Justice Department...

 was sworn in without a Bible.)

The Library of Congress

Library of Congress

The Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...

 notes that "As the first Catholic

Catholic

The word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...

 elected president, Kennedy

John F. Kennedy

John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....

 was the first to use a Catholic (Douay-Rheims

Douai Bible

The Douay–Rheims Bible is a translation of the Bible from the Latin Vulgate into English made by members of the English College, Douai, in the service of the Catholic Church...

) version of the Bible for his oath." This means that Kennedy’s Bible was different from the Bibles of all other Presidents (past or present) as it contained the Deuterocanonical books

Deuterocanonical books

Deuterocanonical books is a term used since the sixteenth century in the Catholic Church and Eastern Christianity to describe certain books and passages of the Christian Old Testament that are not part of the Hebrew Bible. The term is used in contrast to the protocanonical books, which are...

 which Protestants call the Apocrypha and reject, claiming these works are non-canonical.

Prager rescinds call for Ellison not to serve

Despite writing that Ellison wants to use "the Koran. He should not be allowed to do so ...If you are incapable of taking an oath on that book [the Bible], don't serve in Congress", in a telephone interview with the Associated Press, Mr Prager said he did not think Mr Ellison should be banned from serving. "I don’t think anything legal should be done about this." In an interview with USA Today's Andrea Stone, Prager announced "that he's going to keep pressing the issue, though he conceded that trying to ban Ellison from choosing to use a Qur'an 'may well be' unconstitutional. He'll be writing and talking about this issue again". Prager said "I'm not arguing legality. I'm arguing what you should do."

Prager dismisses Tanakh Oaths

Prager's Nov. 28, 2006 article claimed that "for all of American history, Jews elected to public office have taken their oath on the Bible, even though they do not believe in the New Testament". While for all of American history Jews elected to public office have indeed taken their oath on the Bible, several American members of Judaism

Judaism

Judaism ) is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people...

 elected to political office "have departed from the [Christian] Bible as well. Hawaii Gov. Linda Lingle

Linda Lingle

Linda Lingle was the sixth Governor of Hawaii. Lingle holds a number of distinctions: first Republican elected governor of Hawaii since the departure of William F...

 used the Tanakh

Tanakh

The Tanakh is a name used in Judaism for the canon of the Hebrew Bible. The Tanakh is also known as the Masoretic Text or the Miqra. The name is an acronym formed from the initial Hebrew letters of the Masoretic Text's three traditional subdivisions: The Torah , Nevi'im and Ketuvim —hence...

 when she took her oath in 2002, and Madeleine Kunin placed her hand on Jewish prayer books when she was sworn in as the first female governor of Vermont in 1985." In the Federal Congress Debbie Wasserman Schultz

Debbie Wasserman Schultz

Debbie Wasserman Schultz is the U.S. Representative for , serving since 2005. She is a member of the Democratic Party and the Chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee. She previously served in the Florida House of Representatives and the Florida Senate...

 also used a Tanakh

Tanakh

The Tanakh is a name used in Judaism for the canon of the Hebrew Bible. The Tanakh is also known as the Masoretic Text or the Miqra. The name is an acronym formed from the initial Hebrew letters of the Masoretic Text's three traditional subdivisions: The Torah , Nevi'im and Ketuvim —hence...

 (see above), as did Ed Koch

Ed Koch

Edward Irving "Ed" Koch is an American lawyer, politician, and political commentator. He served in the United States House of Representatives from 1969 to 1977 and three terms as mayor of New York City from 1978 to 1989...

 (D-NY) who served in the US House from 1969 to 1977. Likewise, Rep. Henry Waxman

Henry Waxman

Henry Arnold Waxman is the U.S. Representative for , serving in Congress since 1975. He is a member of the Democratic Party. He is considered to be one of the most influential liberal members of Congress...

 (D-CA) who is now entering his seventeenth term of office, stated "he had never used a [Christian] Bible at his own swearing-in ceremonies."

When asked about this Prager said these "Jewish officeholders who had insisted on the Hebrew Bible were "secularists" who didn't believe what was in it anyway."

When confronted on November 30, 2006 CNN's Paula Zahn Now by Eugene Volokh

Eugene Volokh

Eugene Volokh is an American legal commentator and the Gary T. Schwartz Professor of Law at the UCLA School of Law...

 with the fact that "[Associate] Justice [of the Supreme Court, Arthur] Goldberg

Arthur Goldberg

Arthur Joseph Goldberg was an American statesman and jurist who served as the U.S. Secretary of Labor, Supreme Court Justice and Ambassador to the United Nations.-Early life:...

 used the Tanakh, the Jewish Bible." Prager responded "Justice Goldberg used [the] Old Testament, which is part of the American Bible." Volokh began to point out that the lack of New Testament in Goldberg's Bible proved that Prager's assertions were mistaken, but was cut off as the segment ran out of time.

In his Dec. 5, 2006 article Prager again acknowledged some Jews had used the Tanakh, "Even the vast majority of Jews elected to office have used a Bible containing both the Old and New Testaments, even though Jews do not regard the New Testament as part of their Bible. A tiny number of Jews have used only the Old Testament. As a religious Jew, I of course understand their decision, but I disagree with it."

Oath ceremonies of first Buddhists in Congressional history

The New York Times pointed out with all the focus on Ellison's religious sensibilities, "we’ve neglected the fact that another faith is making its first showing in the Capitol with not one but two freshmen". Mazie Hirono

Mazie Hirono

is the U.S. Representative for , serving since 2007. She is a member of the Democratic Party.She was the second Asian immigrant elected lieutenant governor of a state of the United States. She ran against Linda Lingle for governor of Hawaii in 2002, one of the few gubernatorial races in United...

 (D-Hawaii) and Hank Johnson

Hank Johnson

Henry C. "Hank" Johnson Jr. is the U.S. Representative for , serving since 2007. He is a member of the Democratic Party. The district is based in DeKalb County, a largely suburban county east of Atlanta. It also includes portions of Gwinnett and Rockdale counties.-Life, education and...

 (D - GA), both elected in 2006, are the first Buddhists in American history to serve in the United States Congress. The Times reported that "A spokesperson said that Mr. Johnson plans to use a Bible, citing tradition", and Hirono "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."

Prager calls on Ellison to bring Bible with Qur'an

In his December 5, 2006 column entitled "A response to my many critics - and a solution", Prager's solution in the title is for Ellison to swear on the Islamic Qur'an which he believes to be sacred along with the Christian Bible which he does not. Prager wrote "It is not I, but Keith Ellison, who has engaged in disuniting the country. He can still help reunite it by simply bringing both books to his ceremonial swearing-in. Had he originally announced that he would do that, I would have written a different column -- filled with praise of him. And there would be a lot less cursing and anger in America." In a Dec. 7, 2006 interview Prager continued along these lines, saying "I'm afraid we are becoming a diverse, secular society without any roots, and this is symbolically an example of that. The Bible is the repository of our values, not the Constitution...and I'm asking him to honor that and include the Bible along with the Koran."

As an example Prager has referenced the case in 1999 when "M. Osman Siddique

M. Osman Siddique

M. Osman Siddique is an American politician and former diplomat. He served as the United States Ambassador to the Republic of Fiji and to the Republic of Nauru, to the Kingdom of Tonga and to Tuvalu from 1999-2001. He was the US Ambassador during the 2000 Fijian coup d'état...

, a Virginia businessman of Bangladeshi origin, used the Quran to take the oath when he became the U.S. ambassador to Fiji

Fiji

Fiji , officially the Republic of Fiji , is an island nation in Melanesia in the South Pacific Ocean about northeast of New Zealand's North Island...

 and three other Pacific nations: Nauru

Nauru

Nauru , officially the Republic of Nauru and formerly known as Pleasant Island, is an island country in Micronesia in the South Pacific. Its nearest neighbour is Banaba Island in Kiribati, to the east. Nauru is the world's smallest republic, covering just...

, Tonga

Tonga

Tonga, officially the Kingdom of Tonga , is a state and an archipelago in the South Pacific Ocean, comprising 176 islands scattered over of ocean in the South Pacific...

 and Tuvalu

Tuvalu

Tuvalu , formerly known as the Ellice Islands, is a Polynesian island nation located in the Pacific Ocean, midway between Hawaii and Australia. Its nearest neighbours are Kiribati, Nauru, Samoa and Fiji. It comprises four reef islands and five true atolls...

. He took the oath on the Bible and the Quran, with the Quran on top". Siddique was "the first Muslim to be appointed to represent the United States abroad as an Ambassador. Following his swearing-in ceremony, Siddique said he believed he was the first American ambassador of the Islamic faith to take the oath of office with his hand on the Holy Qur’an. The Christian Bible is traditionally used to swear in US officials and Siddique said his wife, Catherine Mary Siddique, provided one for the ceremony."

Appearing on MSNBC

MSNBC

MSNBC is a cable news channel based in the United States available in the US, Germany , South Africa, the Middle East and Canada...

 with Tucker Carlson

Tucker Carlson

Tucker Swanson McNear Carlson is an American political news correspondent and conservative commentator for the Fox News Channel...

, Prager said "If he [Ellison] had the Koran and a Bible as one Muslim ambassador did about 10 years ago, I think it was the ambassador to the Fiji Islands, don‘t recall exactly, I wouldn‘t have ever written the column. ...If he can‘t bring the Bible along with his Koran, that's a statement that we ought to take seriously. ...We should pressure him to doing the great thing to unify Americans and bring the Bible along with the Koran. That's not exactly a terrible demand. It doesn't in any way compromise his Islamic faith. It says that he is saying to the American people, look, I am part of you. I don't want to demolish the tradition that has been unbroken since George Washington. I don't think that's too much to ask of Keith Ellison."

Ellison did not denigrate the Bible and spoke of the influence both Catholicism and Islam had on his development saying "people draw strength and moral courage from a variety of religious traditions. Mine have come from both Catholicism and Islam. I was raised Catholic and later became a Muslim while attending Wayne State University. I am inspired by the Quran's message of an encompassing divine love, and a deep faith guides my life every day."

Sharia rather than Constitution?

Some commentators and opinion pages responding to the Prager column have claimed that Ellison's desire to use the Qur'an is a sign that he is "disloyal" to the Constitution. Jan Markell of Christian World View Weekend asked, "Doesn't this then mean he is pledging allegiance to Islamic Law (Sharia

Sharia

Sharia law, is the moral code and religious law of Islam. Sharia is derived from two primary sources of Islamic law: the precepts set forth in the Quran, and the example set by the Islamic prophet Muhammad in the Sunnah. Fiqh jurisprudence interprets and extends the application of sharia to...

) rather than our Constitution?" Perry Birman in a letter to the Sun Sentinel asserted "America was not founded upon the values in the Quran. The Quran states that only Islamic law (Sharia) is valid -- thus rendering our Constitution null and void from its perspective. If Mr. Ellison wants to be sworn in in this manner, I recommend he run for election in a country that embraces the principles in the Quran. A country like Iran

Iran

Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...

 or Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia , commonly known in British English as Saudi Arabia and in Arabic as as-Sa‘ūdiyyah , is the largest state in Western Asia by land area, constituting the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and the second-largest in the Arab World...

."

J. Grant Swank, Jr. Pastor, New Hope Church, Windham, Maine

Windham, Maine

Windham is a town in Cumberland County, Maine, United States. The population was 17,001 at the 2010 census. It includes the villages of South Windham and North Windham...

 said "Keith Ellison, D-MN, is not a ‘patriot,’ though he claims to be. He is a radical Muslim who believes the Koran is above all other documents for it is the divine revelation. That would make the Koran above the United States Constitution. He believes in the sharia 'legal and justice system' which has barbarism as its base. Study Muslim nations to open the eyes to the atrocities carried out via sharia — females hung from roadway poles, females piled into earth mounds to have their heads bashed in, youths strapped to public posts for lashings and so forth and so forth. Yet he has been elected to the United States Congress for the purpose of making laws for Americans. Yet he is antithetical to American values, particularly the Judeo-Christian

Judeo-Christian

Judeo-Christian is a term used in the United States since the 1940s to refer to standards of ethics said to be held in common by Judaism and Christianity, for example the Ten Commandments...

 heritage. ...Noting Ellison’s public statements, there is no way that he can follow through with such a swearing in. He has loyalties that oppose everything basic in America."

A similar editorial by the Investor's Business Daily

Investor's Business Daily

Investor's Business Daily is a national newspaper in the United States, published Monday through Friday, that covers international business, finance, and the global economy...

 said "The issue, rather, is one of loyalty. ...This [oath] presents a potential conflict for Ellison, who in recent years converted to orthodox Sunni Islam...Can he [Ellison] make such a pledge ‘without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion’? Many orthodox Muslims, even those living in America as citizens, believe that the Quran, not the Constitution, should be the highest authority in the land. ... In other words, the Constitution is blasphemous to Allah. It's not clear if Ellison shares this belief, but it's something he should answer before he's seated with new members. Islamic apologists in the media will shy from any questions that look like a religious test. But leaders in Congress have a duty to ensure loyalty and security, especially in time of war. ...Ellison is dead-set on using the Quran. Why is he so adamant? We can't get inside his head to know if it's because he feels he'll be pledging allegiance to the Quran and all it represents, rather than the Constitution and all it represents."

Bryan Fischer

Bryan Fischer

Bryan Fischer is the Director of Issues Analysis for the American Family Association . He hosts the talk radio program Focal Point on American Family Radio and posts on the AFA-run blog Rightly Concerned....

 of Renew America stated "in Islamic theology, it is permissible to lie to infidels if it will provide strategic advantage for the Islamic cause. Treaties with infidels can be broken with impunity when they no longer serve the Muslim cause. Islamic theology...contains what is called the doctrine of ketman

Ketman

Kitman is the act of paying lip service to authority while holding personal opposition. It is a sort of political or religious camouflage, for the purpose of survival, in circumstances where open opposition would result in persecution...

, or mental reservation, which is 'telling the truth, but not the whole truth, with the intention to mislead.' This is the Islamic version of crossing your fingers behind your back when telling a lie. American citizens have a right to know if Ellison adheres to this tenet of Islamic faith. This is directly relevant to his swearing in, for the oath requires him to swear allegiance to the Constitution ‘without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion.’"

These type of comments fail to note that Ellison has served in the Minnesota State House of Representatives

Minnesota House of Representatives

The Minnesota House of Representatives is the lower house in the Minnesota State Legislature. There are 134 members elected to two-year terms, twice the number of members in the Minnesota Senate. Each senate district is divided in half and given the suffix A or B...

 (serving District 58B) beginning on January 8, 2003 when he swore "to uphold the Constitutions of the United States and the State of Minnesota". This swearing in complied with Article VI, section 3 of the US Constitution which states (emphasis added) "The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States." No one, including his opponents in the 2006 election, has ever claimed Ellison has violated this oath. Like the swearing in en masse in the Federal House of Representatives "No good book was involved when Ellison took the oath of office on the floor of the Minnesota House. According to House Chief Clerk Al Mathiowetz, members raise their hands together and are administered the oath by a jurist, usually a member of the Minnesota Supreme Court."

Prager's Dec. 27, 2006 column

On December 27, 2006 Prager returned to the issue in a column called "The culture war is about the authority of a book" Prager espoused that the root of the controversy was over people arguing if the Torah

Torah

Torah- A scroll containing the first five books of the BibleThe Torah , is name given by Jews to the first five books of the bible—Genesis , Exodus , Leviticus , Numbers and Deuteronomy Torah- A scroll containing the first five books of the BibleThe Torah , is name given by Jews to the first five...

 was inspired or not, "Does the person believe in the divinity and authority of the Five Books of Moses, the first five books of the Bible, known as the Torah? ...What matters is not whether people believe in God but what text, if any, they believe to be divine. ...a belief or lack of belief in the divinity of a book dating back over 2,500 years is at the center of the Culture War in America...it not only explains these divisions; it also explains the hatred that much of the Left has for Jewish, Protestant, Catholic and Mormon Bible-believers. For the Left, such beliefs are irrational, absurd and immoral. Which is exactly how most conservatives regard most leftist beliefs...This divide explains why the wrath of the Left has fallen on those of us who lament the exclusion of the Bible at a ceremonial swearing-in of an American congressman. The Left wants to see that book [the Torah] dethroned. And that, in a nutshell, is what the present civil war is about."

Prager also listed beliefs he claimed were held by liberals, "leftist beliefs, such as: there is nothing inherently superior in a child being raised by a mother and father rather than by two fathers or two mothers; men and women are not basically different, but only socially influenced to be different; Marxism

Marxism

Marxism is an economic and sociopolitical worldview and method of socioeconomic inquiry that centers upon a materialist interpretation of history, a dialectical view of social change, and an analysis and critique of the development of capitalism. Marxism was pioneered in the early to mid 19th...

 was scientific; that the Soviet Union was not an evil empire; it was immoral for Israel to bomb Saddam Hussein's nuclear reactor

Operation Opera

Operation Babylon was a surprise Israeli air strike carried out on June 7, 1981, that destroyed a nuclear reactor under construction 17 kilometers southeast of Baghdad, Iraq....

; morality is relative to the individual or society; there is no moral judgment to be made about a woman aborting a healthy human fetus solely because she doesn't want a baby at this time; material poverty, not moral poverty, causes violent crime, etc."

It has been noted by many that Keith Ellison’s support of access to abortion and gay rights is at odds with the traditional interpretation of the Qur'an, "Chances are, if Muslims saw another candidate with Ellison's stands on gay rights, abortion, and his suspiciously boiler plate platform on Israel, Iran, and the Middle East, they would not support him. Yet Ellison has the admiration of his Muslim constituents...the notoriety supersedes the reservations. Beyond this, Muslims in the west should realize that they are seeing the face of future generations take shape, generations that might adopt cultural and political values that aren't necessarily the same as their forebearers or against Islam as they choose to practice it. Politically speaking, issues like equal rights for gays within a pluralistic society make sense when Muslims demand the same equal protection".

Organizational Responses

The American Family Association

American Family Association

The American Family Association is a 501 non-profit organization that promotes conservative Christian values, such as opposition to same-sex marriage, pornography, and abortion, as well as other public policy goals such as deregulation of the oil industry and lobbying against the Employee Free...

 supported Dennis Prager’s column about Ellison’s intention to use the Qur'an at his oath ceremonies. However several other advocacy groups were critical of him including, the Arab American Institute

Arab American Institute

Founded in 1985, the Arab American Institute is a non-profit membership organization based in Washington D.C. that focuses on the issues and interests of Arab-Americans nationwide. James Zogby, brother of pollster John Zogby, is founder and president of the AAI....

, Americans United for Separation of Church and State

Americans United for Separation of Church and State

Americans United for Separation of Church and State is a group that advocates separation of church and state, a legal doctrine interpreted by AU as being enshrined in the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.-Mission:The guiding principle of Americans...

, The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty

The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty

The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty is a non-profit organization based in Washington, DC that describes itself as "a non-profit, public interest law firm defending the freedom of religion of people of all faiths." The Becket Fund operates in three arenas: in the courts of law , in the court of...

, and the American Jewish Committee

American Jewish Committee

The American Jewish Committee was "founded in 1906 with the aim of rallying all sections of American Jewry to defend the rights of Jews all over the world...

. Also the Anti-Defamation League

Anti-Defamation League

The Anti-Defamation League is an international non-governmental organization based in the United States. Describing itself as "the nation's premier civil rights/human relations agency", the ADL states that it "fights anti-Semitism and all forms of bigotry, defends democratic ideals and protects...

, and the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism issued statements critical of Prager that he responded to in interviews.

The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council's resolution

Because of his part in the controversy, the Council on American-Islamic Relations

Council on American-Islamic Relations

The Council on American-Islamic Relations is America's largest Muslim civil liberties advocacy organization that deals with civil advocacy and promotes human rights...

 (CAIR) called for Prager to be removed from the council overseeing the U.S. Holocaust Memorial

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum is the United States' official memorial to the Holocaust. Adjacent to the National Mall in Washington, D.C., the USHMM provides for the documentation, study, and interpretation of Holocaust history...

. CAIR's executive director said "No one who holds such bigoted, intolerant and divisive views should be in a policymaking position at a taxpayer-funded institution that seeks to educate Americans about the destructive impact hatred has had, and continues to have, on every society." Some members of the Memorial Council like Ed Koch

Ed Koch

Edward Irving "Ed" Koch is an American lawyer, politician, and political commentator. He served in the United States House of Representatives from 1969 to 1977 and three terms as mayor of New York City from 1978 to 1989...

 were vocal in advocating his removal. In the end the executive committee of the council issued a resolution that has been seen as "distancing" the Council from Prager's remarks.

Tucker Carlson

In an interview with Prager on his MSNBC show Tucker Carlson

Tucker Carlson

Tucker Swanson McNear Carlson is an American political news correspondent and conservative commentator for the Fox News Channel...

 found Prager's logic confusing, saying "I'm no great defender of the Koran, but I'm not sure why America is imperiled by Keith Ellison's taking the oath on it. ...it's hard for me to believe I'm defending the Koran here. But that document [the Constitution] says very clearly no religious test will ever be required for holding office and you're implying holding up a religious test. ...If you don't believe in the God at the very center [of] that document [the Christian Bible], you still have to acknowledge the centrality of the document? With respect, that doesn't make sense. ...Here we have a Jew pushing a Muslim to use the Christian Bible. This is - that's America."

David Kuo

David Kuo, author of “Tempting Faith” and previous deputy director of the Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, took issue with Prager’s statement that “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." Kuo wrote “So the Bible is America's holiest book? Was there a vote? Did Oprah decide? Was it Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson was the principal author of the United States Declaration of Independence and the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom , the third President of the United States and founder of the University of Virginia...

? And if so was it his version of the Bible? Does that mean it is true of every American citizen? Even Kevin Federline

Kevin Federline

Kevin Earl Federline is an American dancer, rapper, fashion model, and actor. Previously engaged to actress Shar Jackson, Federline is best known for his two-year marriage to pop singer Britney Spears...

? And if it is true then America, with its indifference to the poor and lust for money and power, would be seriously backsliding and in need of spiritual counseling. ... The Bible may be America's most symbolically holy book for many people. But that is only within the context of American civil religion. And only within the context of civil religion is there a question of whether or not the Koran can be used for a swearing in ceremony. There, again, the answer is an easy one - yes.”

Michael Savage

On Nov. 28, 2006, conservative commentator Michael Savage

Michael Savage (commentator)

Michael Savage is a conservative American radio host, author, and political commentator. He is the host of The Savage Nation, a nationally syndicated talk show that airs throughout the United States on Talk Radio Network...

 said on his show “The Savage Nation

The Savage Nation

The Savage Nation is an American radio show hosted by conservative commentator Michael Savage on Talk Radio Network. His show is heard by 8-10 million listeners a week and syndicated across the U.S. in over 300 markets, making it the 3rd most listened to radio show in the country...

”: “Keith Ellison won't swear to uphold the oath of office on the Bible, but on the Quran instead. This is unbelievable to me. So what's next? A witch gets elected, and she says she's gonna only be sworn in with her hand over a pentagram

Pentagram

A pentagram is the shape of a five-pointed star drawn with five straight strokes...

? Where does this end? Tell me when this ends, the tyranny of the psycho, whacked-out minority. Tell me when it ends.”

Mike S. Adams

Mike S. Adams, a conservative columnist for Townhall.com

Townhall.com

Townhall.com is a web-based publication primarily dedicated to conservative United States politics. It was previously operated by the Heritage Foundation, but is now owned and operated by Salem Communications...

 (alongside Prager

Dennis Prager

Dennis Prager is an American syndicated radio talk show host, syndicated columnist, author, and public speaker. He is noted for his conservative political and social views emanating from conservative Judeo-Christian values. He holds that there is an "American Trinity" of essential principles,...

) announced: “I am seldom embarrassed to be a Republican. But recent Republican efforts to keep newly elected Democrat [sic] Representative Keith Ellison from taking his oath of office on the Koran are indeed embarrassing. These efforts have been justified by some as a necessary part of the War on Terror

War on Terror

The War on Terror is a term commonly applied to an international military campaign led by the United States and the United Kingdom with the support of other North Atlantic Treaty Organisation as well as non-NATO countries...

 and by others as a stance against multi-culturalism. I view these efforts as acts of unmitigated religious bigotry. ...some have noted that Muslim extremists would see Ellison’s oath on the Koran as a victory that would encourage them to commit acts of violence in the name of Islam. That is true. But Muslim extremists would see a prevention of Ellison’s oath on the Koran as an insult that would encourage them to commit acts of violence in the name of Islam. In that respect Muslim extremists[’] ...emotional instability justifies Jihad ...under any conceivable circumstance. ...Since we can expect a negative consequence no matter what we do with Ellison’s request we should make a decision based on principle rather than pragmatism. In my view, the overriding principle is individual religious liberty, not collectivism hidden beneath the veil of mainstream conservatism.”

Gary Bauer

Gary Bauer, head of “American Values” advocacy group, said “carefulness is needed in this situation – especially in light of the fact that one of the first things Ellison did after being elected was ‘to go speak to a number of very questionable radical Islamic rights organizations. So I think we're going to find a lot of things about him very disturbing. I must admit, I've got mixed emotions about it, I think this new Muslim congressman is going to be trouble because of what he believes -- not his Islamic faith as much as his radicalism on key issues and the fact that he will, I think, be a vote against any kind of serious war against Islamofascism.’”

Ahmed Rehab

Ahmed Rehab the Executive Director of CAIR

Council on American-Islamic Relations

The Council on American-Islamic Relations is America's largest Muslim civil liberties advocacy organization that deals with civil advocacy and promotes human rights...

-Chicago took issue with Prager “For one, it is irresponsible, at the very least, to compare the relatively uneventful effect of one congressman’s ceremonial oath to the tragic effects of a monstrous attack that took 3,000 innocent lives and scarred our nation forever. Likewise, it is insane to compare a democratically-elected and committed leader of this country to its most deadly assailants. The only reason why Prager thought up such a farcical and far-fetched allusion in the first place is that Ellison is Muslim. It is inconceivable that he would have invoked the 9-11 terrorist attack had Ellison ascribed to any faith other than Islam. Secondly, what is with the Bible litmus test? Since when does America stipulate that its elected officials must show loyalty to a specific theology before they can be loyal citizens and trustworthy public officers? Indeed, one needs dig no deeper than the very title of Prager’s column to excavate the morbid irony in his two-faced treatise: ‘America, Not Keith Ellison, decides what book a congressman takes his oath on.’ OK, so what does the U.S. Constitution – a.k.a. America - decide for Ellison? ...‘no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States.’ ...our secular democracy is not governed by an allegiance to the faith of whoever is in the demographic majority or whoever landed on our shores first, but is governed by what many of us affectionately call ‘our Constitution.’”

Mary Graber

Mary Graber, a fellow conservative columnist with Prager at townhall.com, wrote “It's not just about the Koran or the Bible. It’s about all the books and documents that follow—like the Constitution. It’s about being on the same page, for the one who takes office with his hand on the Koran, as Congressman-elect Keith Ellison proposes to do, makes a profound statement. By rejecting the Bible, he rejects its and our country’s principles of reason and free will

Free will

"To make my own decisions whether I am successful or not due to uncontrollable forces" -Troy MorrisonA pragmatic definition of free willFree will is the ability of agents to make choices free from certain kinds of constraints. The existence of free will and its exact nature and definition have long...

. He rejects a book written and confirmed by many over thousands of years for a book based on the revelation of one man who claims to be a prophet. He rejects a book that values engagement through reason for one that is intended to be recited and obeyed. Keith Ellison wants to govern in a country whose values he rejects. Keith Ellison rejected American values quite deliberately and not insignificantly as a college student at Wayne State University in the early 1980s. He made that choice in the tradition of the 1960s radicals who turned to other religions in their wholesale rejection of Western values—with white radicals turning to Eastern and pagan religions repackaged as New Age

New Age

The New Age movement is a Western spiritual movement that developed in the second half of the 20th century. Its central precepts have been described as "drawing on both Eastern and Western spiritual and metaphysical traditions and then infusing them with influences from self-help and motivational...

 “spirituality,” and black radicals turning to the putative religion of their African forebears: Islam.” Grabar saw Ellison’s articles in Law School in support of Louis Farrakhan as proof he joined the Nation of Islam

Nation of Islam

The Nation of Islam is a mainly African-American new religious movement founded in Detroit, Michigan by Wallace D. Fard Muhammad in July 1930 to improve the spiritual, mental, social, and economic condition of African-Americans in the United States of America. The movement teaches black pride and...

 (an association Ellison, a Sunni, denies), Graber said the controversy “is about someone who followed the lead of a black separatist, Malcolm X

Malcolm X

Malcolm X , born Malcolm Little and also known as El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz , was an African American Muslim minister and human rights activist. To his admirers he was a courageous advocate for the rights of African Americans, a man who indicted white America in the harshest terms for its...

, who rejected our principles of justice, the law, and reasoned debate for that of by “any means necessary”—symbolized by the clenched fist. This isn’t about religion as a “choice,” as one of many in a smorgasbord of religious choices. This is about the culture that follows from these two radically different books: the Koran and the Bible. It’s about how we think and the values we hold and pass on. It’s about our culture and our democracy, Christian in origin. It’s about those who voted for Ellison, and who now ridicule debates about his oath, those who place their faith in a vague Unitarianism

Unitarianism

Unitarianism is a Christian theological movement, named for its understanding of God as one person, in direct contrast to Trinitarianism which defines God as three persons coexisting consubstantially as one in being....

 of one world/one god. They are too stupid to realize that when the system based on reason and free will is neutered the way is opened for the system based on raw power.” Grabar saw the controversy as stemming from a liberal academic conspiracy, “The holy war for the hearts and minds of the young was begun in the classroom over forty years ago, during the formative years of Ellison’s professors....This has been a decades-long project. In classrooms, the anti-American message was promoted through an attack on the notions of truth and reason, through sophisticated sounding theories of postmodernism

Postmodernism

Postmodernism is a philosophical movement evolved in reaction to modernism, the tendency in contemporary culture to accept only objective truth and to be inherently suspicious towards a global cultural narrative or meta-narrative. Postmodernist thought is an intentional departure from the...

....In spite of decades of civil rights

Civil rights

Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from unwarranted infringement by governments and private organizations, and ensure one's ability to participate in the civil and political life of the state without discrimination or repression.Civil rights include...

 legislation, affirmative action

Affirmative action

Affirmative action refers to policies that take factors including "race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation or national origin" into consideration in order to benefit an underrepresented group, usually as a means to counter the effects of a history of discrimination.-Origins:The term...

, and special funding for minorities, professors are still repeating the same lectures about the terrible Western hegemony. I have been required to teach from anthologies that present such skewed views of West and had been instructed to put on my syllabi that an objective of each literature class is to learn about ‘gender, race, and class.’ There is a reason that after their own acts of murder, terrorism, and intimidation, the Nation of Islam radicals and their white supporters set out to destroy the curriculum. They were training the next generation. The multiculturalists presented reason and truth as notions of a Western imperialistic culture; as a result, now reigning in our educational institutions is the unquestioned dogma of multiculturalism

Multiculturalism

Multiculturalism is the appreciation, acceptance or promotion of multiple cultures, applied to the demographic make-up of a specific place, usually at the organizational level, e.g...

 that dismisses debate about the dangers of Keith Ellison as merely ‘intolerance.’”

Michael Medved

Michael Medved

Michael Medved

Michael Medved is an American radio host, author, political commentator and film critic. His Seattle, Washington-based nationally syndicated talk show, The Michael Medved Show, airs throughout the U.S...

, host of the nationally syndicated "Michael Medved Show" and a contributing editor at Townhall.com

Townhall.com

Townhall.com is a web-based publication primarily dedicated to conservative United States politics. It was previously operated by the Heritage Foundation, but is now owned and operated by Salem Communications...

, wrote: “There is no logical or constitutional basis for denying a duly elected member of Congress the right to select the holy book he chooses to use in taking his oath of office. ...Some religious conservatives have made themselves look terrible — mean-spirited and intolerant and theocratic — by objecting to this innocuous gesture, and generating a phony controversy over longstanding traditions of religious pluralism. ...It is hard to see how the prospect of one House member out of 435 using his Koran to swear allegiance to the Constitution represents the ‘Islamicization’ of anything. If some Muslim fanatics insisted that we change our currency to bear the legend "In Allah We Trust," or demanded that government cafeterias stop serving daytime food during the fasting month of Ramadan

Ramadan

Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic calendar, which lasts 29 or 30 days. It is the Islamic month of fasting, in which participating Muslims refrain from eating, drinking, smoking and sex during daylight hours and is intended to teach Muslims about patience, spirituality, humility and...

, that would represent an outrageous attempt to Islamize the nation. ...If this personal decision represents the ‘Islamicization’ of the society, then what does my friend Dennis make of the yearly invitations to Muslim Imams to conduct opening prayers for the House or Senate? We've also seen White House celebrations under both Clinton

Bill Clinton

William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...

 and Bush

George W. Bush

George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....

 of major Muslim feasts (Eid al Adha and Eid al Fitr) in which Presidents publicly honor Islamic traditions. There's even a stamp from the US Post Office

United States Postal Service

The United States Postal Service is an independent agency of the United States government responsible for providing postal service in the United States...

 to celebrate Islamic holidays — complementing similar stamps that honor Christmas

Christmas

Christmas or Christmas Day is an annual holiday generally celebrated on December 25 by billions of people around the world. It is a Christian feast that commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ, liturgically closing the Advent season and initiating the season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days...

, Hanukah and Kwanzaa

Kwanzaa

Kwanzaa is a week long celebration held in the United States honoring universal African-American heritage and culture, observed from December 26 to January 1 each year. It features activities such as lighting a candle holder with seven candles and culminates in a feast and gift giving...

. ...We may not like their religion, but as long as its adherents conduct themselves as loyal and law-abiding Americans we have no right to restrict its practice. ...His Islamic faith received extensive coverage during the campaign and no one from his district will be surprised when he takes the oath on the Koran. If we respect the electoral process, aren't the voters entitled to choose a Muslim representative, and having made that choice, aren't they also entitled to expect that his new colleagues won't compel him to hide or disregard the Islamic faith he very publicly professed? ...Should the Congress force new members to choose one particular version or translation of the Bible, because that's the edition favored by a majority? There are obvious and important differences in the Biblical text approved by the Catholic Church, various Protestant denominations, by Jews (no New Testament), and by Mormons (adding the Book of Mormon). Do we need a new bureaucracy to approve certain Holy Books and disapprove others? ...[When Prager writes] ‘America is interested in only one book, the Bible.’ This startling, flat-footed assertion is the equivalent of declaring the Bible to be America's sole, official, governmentally sanctioned Holy Book. Wouldn't such endorsement represent precisely the sort of ‘establishment of religion’ that our founders explicitly prohibited in the First Amendment?”

Clarence Page

Clarence Page

Clarence Page

Clarence Page is an American journalist, syndicated columnist, and senior member of The Chicago Tribune editorial board.-Early years:...

 a Pulitzer Prize

Pulitzer Prize

The Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...

-winning syndicated columnist wrote, “Poor naive me. Here I thought it was an encouraging sign of this country's respect for liberty and diversity that Americans would elect a Muslim to Congress in the midst of an international war against Islamic terrorists. No country is perfect, but we've come a long way on the tolerance scale since World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

 when thousands of innocent Japanese Americans were rounded up into camps

Japanese American internment

Japanese-American internment was the relocation and internment by the United States government in 1942 of approximately 110,000 Japanese Americans and Japanese who lived along the Pacific coast of the United States to camps called "War Relocation Camps," in the wake of Imperial Japan's attack on...

 far from home just for having Japanese ancestry.” Page took issue with Prager’s implication that “‘the act (of taking the oath on the Koran) undermines American culture.’ Again, poor naive me. I had no idea that American civilization was so fragile. Prager must think that Koran is some truly powerful book.” Page noted with amusement that “Prager appears to have performed a minor miracle: He has made Ellison look sympathetic in the eyes of a newspaper that opposed his election. ‘Mr. Prager is not only wrong,’ a [New York] Sun

New York Sun

The New York Sun was a weekday daily newspaper published in New York City from 2002 to 2008. When it debuted on April 16, 2002, adopting the name, motto, and masthead of an otherwise unrelated earlier New York paper, The Sun , it became the first general-interest broadsheet newspaper to be started...

 editorial said, ‘but his comments are so outrageous and, by our lights, almost unbelievably ignorant, that one just has to shake one's head in wonder.’” Agreeing with the statements of Sen. Norm Coleman

Norm Coleman

Norman Bertram Coleman, Jr. is an American attorney and politician. He was a United States senator from Minnesota from 2003 to 2009. Coleman was elected in 2002 and served in the 108th, 109th, and 110th Congresses. Before becoming a senator, he was mayor of Saint Paul, Minnesota, from 1994 to 2002...

 who disagreed with Prager’s column while dismissing attempts to remove him from the Holocaust Memorial Council, Page wrote “Both sides should back off in the spirit of all-American tolerance and mutual respect for differences. After all, we need to set a good example for Iraq

Iraq

Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....

.”

Daisy Khan

Daisy Khan from the “American Society for Muslim Advancement” said “Well, I think the foundational values of America, our freedom of religion and freedom to express your religion and to practice in the way that you see your values. And I think what is important is this is a very proud moment for Americans, American Muslims and all Americans, and I think it is sad that somebody would try to ruin this moment for all of us by trying [to interject controversy]...America is great, and we have to uphold America's greatest values, which is coming together of all. You know, we're a multi-cultural, multi-religious society and we have to work together to create a good society. ... an oath is something that is very important. And I think it's his integrity that he's speaking from, not a lack of integrity.”

Kathleen Parker

Columnist Kathleen Parker

Kathleen Parker

Kathleen Parker is an American syndicated columnist. Her columns are syndicated nationally by The Washington Post. Parker is a consulting faculty member at the Buckley School of Public Speaking, and is a regular guest on television shows like The O'Reilly Factor and The Chris Matthews Show....

 in an article called “The wolf who cried racist” scoffed at CAIR’s calling for Prager’s removal off the Holocaust Council “CAIR routinely demonstrates intolerance for any opinion deemed insensitive to its views and targets individuals and institutions for cyber-posses and technomobs.” “Hoisting the red flag, as Prager has done, isn't an act of bigotry — or even schmuckery. It is the understandable reflex of a man, who, as Prager himself puts it, knows that a Bible-swearing nation has been, and will be, a better place for Jews to live than one that swears on the Koran. Genius is not required to grasp that concept, but civility is critical to debating these issues.” Referring to Koch calling Prager a bigot and a schmuck who should not be on the Holocaust council she said “Name-calling and showboating righteousness — or demanding punitive action against those who voice an unpopular opinion — is the wrong way up a dead-end street. Radical Islam loves that sort of dogmatic intransigence.”

Rev. Dr. C. Welton Gaddy

Reverend Dr. C. Welton Gaddy president of The Interfaith Alliance

The Interfaith Alliance

Interfaith Alliance is an interfaith organization in the United States founded in 1994. Its stated goal is to protect faith and freedom by respecting individual rights, protecting the boundaries between religion and government, and uniting diverse voices to challenge extremism and build common...

, host of “State of Belief

State of Belief

State of Belief is a weekly radio program on four U.S. radio stations and the Internet, hosted by Rev. Welton Gaddy, president of Interfaith Alliance....

” on Air America Radio

Air America Radio

Air America was an American radio network specializing in progressive talk programming...

 called Prager’s Nov. 28th column a “self-righteous screed”. He also wrote “Mr. Prager said that this act ‘undermines American civilization,’ and that when a Congressman takes an oath of office, ‘America is interested in only one book, the Bible.’ Obviously, Mr. Prager and those he has inflamed have little faith in American civilization and underestimate the American people. ...And most Americans are not interested in only one book. We passionately believe in religious freedom and we respect the beliefs of others as well as the sacred scriptures of all religions.”

Malik Zulu Shabazz

Malik Zulu Shabazz

Malik Zulu Shabazz

Malik Zulu Shabazz is an American attorney and the National Chairman of the New Black Panther Party. He is a frequent guest on television talk shows, such as Face the Nation, Meet the Press, The O'Reilly Factor, and Hannity.-Early life and legal career:Shabazz was born and raised in Los Angeles,...

, the National Chairman of the New Black Panther Party said “If the congressman has freedom of religion in his constitutional rights, he should be able to use the book of his choice. ... All Muslims respect the Bible, but he should have the opportunity [to use the Quran if he wants]. Islam has contributed a lot to America. In the middle of the Supreme Court is—in the rotunda is a statue or bust of the Prophet Muhammad showing the respect that American law and jurisprudence has for the revealer of the Quran. Many of our American presidents are Masons and Shriners who got to the 33rd degree and studied the Quran in secret and have the star and the crescent on their fez. So Islam is at the basis of Western and American civilization. If Tom [sic; former Rep. Mark] Foley

Mark Foley

Mark Adam Foley is a former member of the United States House of Representatives. He served from 1995 until 2006, representing the 16th District of Florida as a member of the Republican Party....

 [R-FL] and [former House Majority Leader] Tom DeLay

Tom DeLay

Thomas Dale "Tom" DeLay is a former member of the United States House of Representatives, representing Texas's 22nd congressional district from 1984 until 2006. He was Republican Party House Majority Leader from 2003 to 2005, when he resigned because of criminal money laundering charges in...

 [R-TX] can swear on a Bible and commit severe acts of corruption after that...So much unrighteousness takes place after that swearing-in, we should disassociate all holy books from Congress until Congress has cleaned up.”

Paul C. Campos

Columnist Paul Campos

Paul Campos

Paul F. Campos is a law professor, author and journalist currently on the faculty of the University of Colorado in Boulder. His books include Against the Law Paul F. Campos is a law professor, author and journalist currently on the faculty of the University of Colorado in Boulder. His books include...

 says Prager’s demand that the Christian Bible be used in Congressional oaths is a “betrayal of his ancestors, who sacrificed so much for their faith...In the end, people like Prager display far more contempt for genuine religious belief than the most militant atheist. In Prager's view, sincerely affirming one's devotion to the Christian faith - something that innumerable people have been tortured to death for doing or refusing to do - is less important than the political advantages to be gained from swearing a blasphemous oath on a sacred text that he doesn't actually believe in.”

Alan Dershowitz

Civil rights lawyer, Alan Dershowitz

Alan Dershowitz

Alan Morton Dershowitz is an American lawyer, jurist, and political commentator. He has spent most of his career at Harvard Law School where in 1967, at the age of 28, he became the youngest full professor of law in its history...

 thought Prager's position was ironic considering the difficulties past American Jews have had, he wrote "Jacob Henry, a Jew who was elected to North Carolina's legislature in 1808, but was blocked from taking his seat by a law requiring him to accept the divinity of the New Testament, posed the following rhetorical question: 'Will you drive from your shores and from the shelter of your constitution all who do not lay their oblations on the same altar, observe the same ritual, and subscribe to the same dogmas? If so, which among the various sects into which we are divided shall be the favored one?' As if to demonstrate that intolerance once practiced against Jews can also be practiced by some Jews against other minorities, a Jewish right wing talk show host named Dennis Prager led a campaign to disallow the first Muslim elected to Congress (in November 2006) to take an oath of office on the Koran.'"

Judge Roy Moore

Former Alabama state Judge Roy Moore

Roy Moore

Roy Stewart Moore is an American jurist and Republican politician noted for his refusal, as the elected Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Alabama, to remove a monument of the Ten Commandments from the state courthouse despite orders to do so from a federal judge...

 called on Congress to not allow Ellison to take his seat, saying “To support the Constitution of the United States one must uphold an underlying principle of that document, liberty of conscience, which is the right of every person to worship God according to the dictates of his conscience, without interference by the government. ... The Islamic faith rejects our God and believes that the state must mandate the worship of its own god, Allah. ... Islamic law is simply incompatible with our law. Jaafar Sheikh Idris, founder and chairman of American Open University, a radical Islamic school that has received funding from suspected al-Qaida sources and which supports Islamic law, recently stated that ‘Islam cannot be separated from the state,’ and that no Muslim elected to Congress or the White House can swear to uphold the United States Constitution and still be a Muslim, because the law of Allah as expressed in the Quran is supreme. Idris was recently deported for his illegal activities. ...Perhaps Ellison is confused about what he believes, or else he has another agenda. In either event, according to Idris, Ellison cannot swear an oath on the Quran and an allegiance to our Constitution at the same time. Our Constitution states, ‘Each House [of Congress] shall be the judge ... of the qualifications of its own members.’ Enough evidence exists for Congress to question Ellison's qualifications to be a member of Congress as well as his commitment to the Constitution in view of his apparent determination to embrace the Quran and an Islamic philosophy directly contrary to the principles of the Constitution. But common sense alone dictates that in the midst of a war with Islamic terrorists we should not place someone in a position of great power who shares their doctrine. In 1943, we would never have allowed a member of Congress to take their oath on ‘Mein Kampf,’ or someone in the 1950s to swear allegiance to the ‘Communist Manifesto.’ Congress has the authority and should act to prohibit Ellison from taking the congressional oath today!”

Eugene Volokh

The McClatchy chain of newspapers noted the response of Eugene Volokh

Eugene Volokh

Eugene Volokh is an American legal commentator and the Gary T. Schwartz Professor of Law at the UCLA School of Law...

, a professor of law at the University of California, Los Angeles

University of California, Los Angeles

The University of California, Los Angeles is a public research university located in the Westwood neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, USA. It was founded in 1919 as the "Southern Branch" of the University of California and is the second oldest of the ten campuses...

, who wrote for the National Review Online

National Review

National Review is a biweekly magazine founded by the late author William F. Buckley, Jr., in 1955 and based in New York City. It describes itself as "America's most widely read and influential magazine and web site for conservative news, commentary, and opinion."Although the print version of the...

.
In his article Volokh takes issue with Prager “whose work I often much like”, saying he “mistakes the purpose of the oath, and misunderstands the Constitution.” Volokh quotes the Federal Rules of Evidence to illustrate the purpose of taking oaths “‘Before testifying, every witness shall be required to declare that the witness will testify truthfully, by oath or affirmation administered in a form calculated to awaken the witness’ conscience and impress the witness’ mind with the duty to do so.’ If you want the oath to be maximally effective, then it is indeed entirely true that ‘all that matters is what any individual holds to be his holiest book.’ That book is the one that will most impress the oathtaker’s mind with the duty to comply with the oath.” Volokh declared that while Prager may be seeking “some unifying value system” he was making a de facto religious test which is unconstitutional, “For the devout, taking an oath upon a religious book is a religious act. Requiring the performance of a religious act using the holy book of a particular religion is a religious test. If Congress were indeed to take the view [proposed in Prager’s column] that ‘If you are incapable of taking an oath on that book [the Bible], don’t serve in Congress,’ it would be imposing an unconstitutional religious test.”

Minnesotans' responses

Besides the aformentioned Senator Norm Coleman, other residents from from Ellison's home state of Minnesota have commented on the controversy.

Tammy Lee, the Independence Party

Independence Party of Minnesota

The Independence Party of Minnesota , formerly the Reform Party of Minnesota, is the third largest political party in Minnesota, behind the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party and Republican Party . It is the political party of former Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura , and endorsed former U.S...

 opponent of Ellison in the 2006 election, said, "This country was founded on principles of freedom of religion. Our Constitution guarantees it, and as a newly elected member of Congress who's going to uphold the Constitution, he has every right to choose what religious traditions he wants to practice."

Ron Eibensteiner, former state Republican Party chairman said "It doesn't matter if he wants to be sworn in on the Qur'an; that's perfectly fine. We have in this country freedom of religion and free speech."

Dan Barreiro

Dan Barreiro

Dan Barreiro is a sports radio talk-show host on KFAN 100.3-FM in the twin cities of Minneapolis-St. Paul. Born in Gary, Indiana, Barreiro was a sports columnist at the Star Tribune for 17 years after previously working for the Dallas Morning News...

 radio talk show host for KFAN 1130-AM of Minneapolis-St. Paul said he was "a bit bewildered" by the concern over Ellison’s use of the Quran. On his "Bumper-to-Bumper" radio show "The general consensus I got was that most people were not terrified at the prospect that this was something that he might do. Certainly there is no law that mandates that a person put their hand on a Bible as any kind of litmus test of their loyalty to the country."

Debbie Wasserman Schultz

Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz

Debbie Wasserman Schultz

Debbie Wasserman Schultz is the U.S. Representative for , serving since 2005. She is a member of the Democratic Party and the Chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee. She previously served in the Florida House of Representatives and the Florida Senate...

, (D-Fla) stated "Each of us has every right to lay our hand on the Bible that we were raised with; that's what America is all about, diversity, understanding and tolerance. It doesn't appear that Dennis Prager has learned anything from his time on the Holocaust commission."

Tom Tancredo

Rep. Tom Tancredo

Tom Tancredo

Thomas Gerard "Tom" Tancredo is an American politician from Colorado, who represented the state's sixth congressional district in the United States House of Representatives from 1999 to 2009, as a Republican...

  (R-Colorado), known as "a prominent conservative" supported Ellison saying, "He wants to take his oath on the Quran, that's fine. I think whatever you believe is necessary for you to uphold your obligations to the Constitution, that is fine with me."

Emanuel Cleaver II

Rep. Emanuel Cleaver II (D- Missouri) stated, "I do not believe that the law or rules should be changed to require one official holy book for use in administering our oath of office. As a Member of Congress and as an ordained minister, I believe America's founders erected a wall between church and state – not to keep religion or faith out of public discourse – but instead, to keep the government out of an individual's faith and out of churches or other places of worship. I recall that our founders prohibited any religious test to qualify for public office and our Constitution already protects public prayer and other public observances of an individual's religious expressions. Imposing one holy book for the administration of a federal oath of office will diminish the religious liberties of all Americans, including my colleagues in Congress who do not share my Christian faith but may be Jewish, Mormon, Muslim, Buddhist, Atheist or some other belief."

John Warner

Senator John Warner

John Warner

John William Warner, KBE is an American Republican politician who served as Secretary of the Navy from 1972 to 1974 and as a five-term United States Senator from Virginia from January 2, 1979, to January 3, 2009...

 (R-VA), said that "As we continue to seek new strategies to protect our nation, I feel strongly that America must continue its outreach to the majority of moderate, peaceful members of the Islamic faith, as partners in combating terrorism. I respect the Constitutional right of Members of Congress, indeed, of every U.S. citizen, freely to exercise the religion of their choice, including those of the Islamic faith utilizing the Koran in accordance with the tenets of their religion."

Impact of Rep. Virgil Goode

A new level of gravity came to the controversy when responding to "a flood of e-mails from constituents" about Ellison's oath, fifth term Rep. Virgil H. Goode, Jr.

Virgil Goode

Virgil Hamlin Goode, Jr. , is an American politician, last serving as a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives. He represented the 5th congressional district of Virginia from 1997 to 2009...

 (R-VA) issued a letter on the matter. Goode wrote "When I raise my hand to take the oath on Swearing In Day, I will have the Bible in my other hand. I do not subscribe to using the Koran in any way. The Muslim Representative from Minnesota was elected by the voters of that district and if American citizens don’t wake up and adopt the Virgil Goode position on immigration there will 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."

Goode's letter generated much criticism from Muslim-American advocacy groups and from his fellow United States Legislators. Among those critical of Goode, are Reps. Bill Pascrell Jr. (D-NJ), Jim Moran

Jim Moran

James Patrick "Jim" Moran, Jr. is the U.S. Representative for , serving since 1991. He is a member of the Democratic Party. The district is located in Northern Virginia and includes the cities of Falls Church and Alexandria, all of Arlington County, and a portion of Fairfax County.Jim Moran was...

 (D–VA), Michael Honda (D-CA), Rahm Emanuel

Rahm Emanuel

Rahm Israel Emanuel is an American politician and the 55th and current Mayor of Chicago. He was formerly White House Chief of Staff to President Barack Obama...

 (D–IL), and Nancy Pelosi

Nancy Pelosi

Nancy Patricia D'Alesandro Pelosi is the Minority Leader of the United States House of Representatives and served as the 60th Speaker of the United States House of Representatives from 2007 to 2011...

 (D-CA) plus Sens. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) and Lindsey Graham

Lindsey Graham

Lindsey Olin Graham is the senior U.S. Senator from South Carolina and a member of the Republican Party. Previously he served as the U.S. Representative for .-Early life, education and career:...

 (R–SC).

Goode's spokesman, Linwood Duncan, said "no apology was forthcoming, and that the congressman stands by the letter."

Ellison's Union Hall remarks

On Jan. 2, 2007 in the Minneapolis suburb of St. Anthony, Ellison spoke to a reporter at his send-off at a union hall. He dismissed the controversy, saying "I'm just excited and looking forward to serving this great country of ours." Saying that "a majority of the constituents who have contacted his office about the matter are ‘overwhelmingly supportive of religious tolerance.’ When asked if he thought the issue would blow over during his upcoming term, he laughed and said "I think it will blow over by next week!"

Thomas Jefferson's Qur'an

On January 3, 2007 the Washington Post announced that Ellison "will hold the personal copy once owned by Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson was the principal author of the United States Declaration of Independence and the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom , the third President of the United States and founder of the University of Virginia...

" loaned to him by "the rare book and special collections division at the Library of Congress

Library of Congress

The Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...

". Jefferson's home at Monticello

Monticello

Monticello is a National Historic Landmark just outside Charlottesville, Virginia, United States. It was the estate of Thomas Jefferson, the principal author of the United States Declaration of Independence, third President of the United States, and founder of the University of Virginia; it is...

 is coincidentally in Virginia's 5th congressional district

Virginia's 5th congressional district

Virginia's fifth congressional district is a United States congressional district in the commonwealth of Virginia. It covers all or part of Greene, Campbell, Bedford, Albermarle, Nelson, Fluvanna, Buckingham, Cumberland, Appomattox, Prince Edward, Charlotte, Lunenburg, Franklin, Henry,...

 which is represented in the Federal Congress by Virgil Goode, a major figure in the controversy (see above).

Mark Dimunation, head of the rare book and special collections division at the Library of Congress

Library of Congress

The Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...

 (and former resident of the Congressional District Ellison now represents) said he was contacted early in December 2006 by Ellison, who told him "He wanted to use a Koran that was special." In the past the Library of Congress has also loaned out rare Bibles "for inaugurations and other special occasions." Dimunation, who "will walk the Quran across the street to the Capitol and bring it back after the ceremony", said "As a rare book librarian, there is something special about the idea that Thomas Jefferson's books are being walked across the street to the Capitol building, to bring in yet another session of governmental structure that he helped create."

Kevin J. Hayes, author of How Thomas Jefferson Read the Qur’an, wrote that Jefferson purchased the Qur'an at the printing office of the Virginia Gazette in the autumn of 1765. This is seen as a development of his legal studies on natural law

Natural law

Natural law, or the law of nature , is any system of law which is purportedly determined by nature, and thus universal. Classically, natural law refers to the use of reason to analyze human nature and deduce binding rules of moral behavior. Natural law is contrasted with the positive law Natural...

. "The standard work in the field, Freiherr von Pufendorf's Of the Law and Nature and Nations, gave readers an almost endless number of possible references to track down and thus offered Jefferson an excellent guide to further reading. Though Pufendorf's work reflects a prejudice against Islam characteristic of the time in which it was written, he nonetheless cited precedent from the Qur'an in several instances. Jefferson acquired his Qur'an not long after the injustice of the Stamp Act

Stamp Act

A stamp act is any legislation that requires a tax to be paid on the transfer of certain documents. Those that pay the tax receive an official stamp on their documents, making them legal documents. The taxes raised under a stamp act are called stamp duty. This system of taxation was first devised...

 had forced him to question seriously the heritage of English constitutional law and to seek ultimate answers in the ideas of natural law and natural rights. Reading the Qur'an also let him continue studying the history of religion."

Jefferson's Qur'an is an English translation by George Sale

George Sale

George Sale was an Orientalist and practising solicitor, best known for his 1734 translation of the Qur'an into English. He was also author of The General Dictionary, in ten volumes, folio....

 published in London in 1764, (a later pressing of the 1734 edition). Chief librarian Dimunation stated that Sale's translation "is considered the text that shaped Europe's understanding of the Quran." Congress acquired this Qur'an in 1815 as part of the more than 6,400-volume collection Jefferson sold them for $24,000 to replace the congressional library burned by British troops in 1814 during the War of 1812

War of 1812

The War of 1812 was a military conflict fought between the forces of the United States of America and those of the British Empire. The Americans declared war in 1812 for several reasons, including trade restrictions because of Britain's ongoing war with France, impressment of American merchant...

. The Qur'an survived the 1851 fire in the Capitol that destroyed most of Jefferson's collection. It is a two-volume work, bound in leather with marble boards, and was given a leather binding in 1919. Its title page reads, ``The Koran, commonly called 'The Alcoran of Mohammed.'" Jefferson marked his ownership of the book by writing the letter "J" next to the letter "T" that was already at the bottom of pages.

Ellison spokesman Rick Jauert said "Keith is paying respect not only to the founding fathers' belief in religious freedom but the Constitution itself." Ellison, who was originally told about the Qur'an from an anonymous letter, spoke to the Associated Press in a phone interview. He said that using Jefferson's Qur'an makes a point, "It demonstrates that from the very beginning of our country, we had people who were visionary, who were religiously tolerant, who believed that knowledge and wisdom could be gleaned from any number of sources, including the Quran. A visionary like Thomas Jefferson was not afraid of a different belief system," Ellison said. "This just shows that religious tolerance is the bedrock of our country, and religious differences are nothing to be afraid of."

Ellison at interfaith service

On Jan. 4, 2007 before the first session of the 110th Congress, Ellison at a multi-faith prayer service recited verse Al-Hujurat 49:13 from the Quran which said: ‘Oh, humanity, we created you from a single pair, male and female, and made you tribes and nations so that you would know each other and not despise each other.’”

Ellison meets Goode

After the official swearing in en masse, representatives greeted each other on the House floor and Ellison and Virgil Goode (see above) were introduced, shook hands and agreed to talk at length later.

Ceremonial reenactment

After the members of the 110th House of Representatives were sworn in officially en masse, Ellison was the first Representative scheduled to have his picture taken with the new Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi

Nancy Pelosi

Nancy Patricia D'Alesandro Pelosi is the Minority Leader of the United States House of Representatives and served as the 60th Speaker of the United States House of Representatives from 2007 to 2011...

. Though the Library of Congress is directly across the street from the Capitol, Thomas Jefferson’s Quran took fifteen minutes to arrive as it was brought through "a long, winding underground route via tunnels...to protect the Quran from the elements." Once inside the Capitol the Quran was placed in a rectangular box, and handled with a green felt wrapper then guards ran the book through security x-ray machines. Ellison was impressed by the two-volume set, saying "Look at that. That’s something else. Oh my God. This is great." A few minutes later, Nancy Pelosi arrived and photos of a ceremonial reenactment oath were taken. There were so many of Ellison’s family in attendance that the ceremony was done in two takes. Among his family was his mother Clida Ellison who thought that the controversy had a positive effect, "because many people in America are going to learn what the diversity of America is all about." Clida Ellison noted that she is a practicing Roman Catholic who goes to Mass every day. Ellison expressed his satisfaction that the controversy was behind him, ``It was good, we did it, it's over, and now it's time to get down to business. ...maybe we don't have to talk about it so much anymore. Not that I'm complaining, but the pressing issues the country is facing are just a little bit more on my mind right now."

British parallel

Mohammad Sarwar

Mohammad Sarwar

Mohammad Sarwar is a British Labour Party politician who was a Member of Parliament in Glasgow from 1997 to 2010, first for Glasgow Govan and then from 2005 for Glasgow Central. He was the first ever British Muslim MP....

 — the United Kingdom's first Muslim Member of Parliament

Member of Parliament

A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

 — was elected in the 1997 general election

United Kingdom general election, 1997

The United Kingdom general election, 1997 was held on 1 May 1997, more than five years after the previous election on 9 April 1992, to elect 659 members to the British House of Commons. The Labour Party ended its 18 years in opposition under the leadership of Tony Blair, and won the general...

. He swore the Oath of Allegiance

Oath of Allegiance (UK)

The Oath of Allegiance is a promise to be loyal to the British monarch, and their heirs and successors, sworn by certain public servants in the United Kingdom, and also by newly naturalised subjects in citizenship ceremonies.The Oaths Act 1888 The Oath of Allegiance (Judicial or Official Oath) is...

on the Qur'an.

Sources