On Dec. 22, Michael McElroy wrote an interesting post on the political blog of the New York Times, "The Caucus", regarding the announcement of the newly elected first Muslim member of US House of Representatives, Keith Ellison, who have said that he would take oath on the Quran in a private ceremony in January, and the bigoted reaction the announcement received from Rep. Virgil Goode, Virgina Congressman and others. "Blogtalk: The Koran Debate".
Then I stumbled upon this blog and found it thought-provoking so I put my two cents in the comments section. My comment was published on Dec. 24th and was numbered 213 on the comments list. Then next day, on Dec 25th, someone named C. J. MacAlpine quoted my comment and commented on it and the original blog. It was nunbered 241.
I am reproducing the blog, my comment and C. J. MacAlpine's comment:
Blogtalk: The Koran Debate
In an age of instantaneous electronic mail, text messages and video-conferences, a typed letter has caused a political frenzy. The letter sent by Rep. Virgil Goode of Virginia warning his constituents about Keith Ellison, the first Muslim elected to Congress, has stirred up dust on both sides of the street, with Mr. Goode getting his fair share of derision from left-leaning blogs. But, some conservative sites supported the Representative.
While many of the more prominent conservative blogs and bloggers — Redstate, Michelle Malkin, and the former Congressman, Tom Delay, veered away from the issue — Powerline took it on.
The blog qualified a bit — “I personally don’t think that the issue of Ellison taking his oath of office on the Koran is a good one for conservatives to emphasize” — but broke down for its readers the important parts of the letter. “The key point here is the MSM’s unthinking acceptance of Ellison’s reassurance that the separation of church and state applies to Muslims just as naturally as it does to members of other faiths. The problem is that, to my knowledge, there is no significant branch of Islam that recognizes anything like a separation of church and state.
The Virginia based Nova Town Hall tackled a couple of issues raised by Mr. Goode.
“As to the question of whether one should be allowed to take an oath on the Koran rather than the Bible, … the Koran appears to permit quite a few additional behaviors one would not hope to see in a courtroom.”
The blog then questioned why any religious text should be used in the swearing in of public officials at all.
Later, the blog addressed Mr. Goode’s fears of Mr. Ellison’s influence on immigration.
My Comment
213.December 24th, 2006 1:21 pm
Is it going to be another “Muhammad Ali Episode”, this time in politics, all over again? I hope not. Is Keith Ellison going to be the one who will break the barriers against Musllim’s involvement in mainstream political process in America as Muhammad Ali did in sports? I hope he is.
There were Virgil Goodes of Muhammad ALi era who nobody cares to know about. I believe this Virgil Goode will be just a foot note in the book of American political history while Mr. Ellison will claim at least a chapter in it.
— Posted by Khalid Masood Butt
C. J. MacAlpine's Comment
241.December 25th, 2006 11:43 pm
“Is it going to be another “Muhammad Ali Episode”, this time in politics, all over again? I hope not. Is Keith Ellison going to be the one who will break the barriers against Muslim’s involvement in mainstream political process in America as Muhammad Ali did in sports? I hope he is.”
This is hardly an enlightened viewpoint. Someone whose spiritual axis lies with a religion who approves of killing non-believers, throwing black African children alive into fire and committing gang rape upon their mothers does not bode well for assuming any kind of political power in this country. You may not want to admit it, but there really are people in the world who do not like you and you need top recognize them for what they are. I have no problems with Mr. Ellison’s religion, I have problems with it assuming political power in my country. I doubt that he or any other Muslim would appreciate myself - a descendant of New England Puritans seeking political office in their country.
— Posted by C. J. MacAlpine
