{"id":1946,"date":"2006-12-01T16:27:34","date_gmt":"2006-12-01T23:27:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.struat.com\/election\/2006\/12\/01\/the-matter-of-keith-ellison\/"},"modified":"2006-12-01T16:27:34","modified_gmt":"2006-12-01T23:27:34","slug":"the-matter-of-keith-ellison","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.struat.com\/election\/2006\/12\/01\/the-matter-of-keith-ellison\/","title":{"rendered":"The Matter of Keith Ellison"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/font><\/span>Keith Ellison, D-Minn., the first Muslim elected to the United States Congress, has announced that he will not take his oath of office on the Bible, but on the bible of Islam, the Koran.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/font><\/span>He should not be allowed to do so — not because of any American hostility to the Koran, but because the act undermines American civilization.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/font><\/span>First, it is an act of hubris that perfectly exemplifies multiculturalist activism — my culture trumps <\/span>America<\/span>‘s culture. What Ellison and his Muslim and leftist supporters are saying is that it is of no consequence what America holds as its holiest book; all that matters is what any individual holds to be his holiest book.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

Forgive me, but <\/span>America<\/span> should not give a hoot what Keith Ellison’s favorite book is. Insofar as a member of Congress taking an oath to serve <\/span>America<\/span> and uphold its values is concerned, <\/span>America<\/span> is interested in only one book, the Bible. If you are incapable of taking an oath on that book, don’t serve in Congress. In your personal life, we will fight for your right to prefer any other book. We will even fight for your right to publish cartoons mocking our Bible. But, Mr. <\/span>Ellison<\/span>, <\/span>America<\/span>, not you, decides on what book its public servants take their oath.<\/a><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/font>Wait.\u00c2\u00a0 It gets better.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/font>\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/font>Devotees of multiculturalism and political correctness who do not see how damaging to the fabric of American civilization it is to allow Ellison to choose his own book need only imagine a racist elected to Congress. Would they allow him to choose Hitler’s “Mein Kampf,” the Nazis’ bible, for his oath? And if not, why not? On what grounds will those defending Ellison’s right to choose his favorite book deny that same right to a racist who is elected to public office? <\/i><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/font>\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/font>The swearing in itself involves no bible.\u00c2\u00a0 It is an en masse intonation of sorts.\u00c2\u00a0 Repeat after me — I will never be found with a fridge full of kick-backed cash.\u00c2\u00a0 Keith Ellison is going to ceremonially have the photo taken with him and his Koran, I suppose to be used in campaign literature and warm and fuzzy photos that most members of Congress — as our friend Dennis Prager points out, Jews included — have done so with the Bible.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/font>\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/font>Suppose for a minute that the swearing in with the Bible were more official.\u00c2\u00a0 If you do not believe in the bible, swearing on it is a meaningless gesture.\u00c2\u00a0 Swearing on the Koran would be a more meaningful gesture.\u00c2\u00a0 It is in this general\u00c2\u00a0reason that a person speaking in a court proceeding can forego swearing on the bible to God\u00c2\u00a0and instead “affirm”, because by definition swearing to that that does not exist is meaningless.\u00c2\u00a0 I would suggest that an atheist go ahead and suck it up and swear to the imaginary god on the superstitious ancient bible if s\/he does the calculation that it may play up unnecessary prejudices on the part of the jury or judge, but the option is over.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/font>\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/font>As for Mein Kampf… well, if somebody goes ahead and take that photograph and uses it in the ceremonial manner, I suspect s\/he would not win re-election, and the problem is thus solved without much fuss.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00c2\u00a0 Keith Ellison, D-Minn., the first Muslim elected to the United States Congress, has announced that he will not take his oath of office on the Bible, but on the bible of Islam, the Koran.\u00c2\u00a0 He should not be allowed to do so — not because of any American hostility to the Koran, but because […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1946","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.struat.com\/election\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1946","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.struat.com\/election\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.struat.com\/election\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.struat.com\/election\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.struat.com\/election\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1946"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.struat.com\/election\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1946\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.struat.com\/election\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1946"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.struat.com\/election\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1946"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.struat.com\/election\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}