First Muslim Congressman to be Sworn In using Thomas Jefferson's Koran  

First Muslim Congressman to be Sworn In using Thomas Jefferson's Koran!! Quote

It's always good when founding father Thomas Jefferson gets in the news. And he's in the news today. A copy of the Koran Jefferson once owned is going to be used to swear in the nations first Muslim Congresman!

Some interesting articles about it in the news this morning-

[link to www.theindychannel.com]

"UPDATED: 6:11 pm EST January 3, 2007
WASHINGTON -- The first Muslim elected to Congress is still planning to use a Quran during his ceremonial swearing-in on Thursday.

It'll be a Quran that was once owned by Thomas Jefferson.

Mark Dimunation, the chief of the Library of Congress' rare book and special collections division, will walk the Quran across the street to the Capitol and then walk it back after the ceremony.

Rep.-elect Keith Ellison, D-Minn., contacted the library about the book last month, Dimunation said.

Some critics have argued that only a Bible should be used for the swearing-in.

Ellison spokesman Rick Jauert said the new congressman "wants this to be a special day, and using Thomas Jefferson's Quran makes it even more special."

"Jefferson's Quran dates religious tolerance to the founders of our country," he added.

Ellison's plans have caused controversy among some conservative Christians and their supporters. Critics have said that only a Bible should be used for the swearing-in.

Republican Rep. Virgil Goode recently warned his Virginia constituents in a letter that "many more Muslims" will be elected demanding to use the Quran unless immigration is tightened.

"I do not subscribe to using the Koran in any way," Goode wrote. "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," he said.

"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," Goode said.

Ellison was born in Detroit, converted to Islam in college and said he can trace his family history back to the 17th century.

"I'm as American as they come," Ellison said.

[link to www.wctrib.com]

Rep.-elect Keith Ellison, D-Minn., decided to use the centuries-old Quran during his ceremonial swearing-in on Thursday after he learned that it is kept at the Library of Congress. Jefferson, the nation's third president and a collector of books in all topics and languages, sold the book to Congress in 1815 as part of a collection.

"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," Ellison said in a telephone interview Wednesday.

"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."

Some critics have argued that only a Bible should be used for the swearing-in. Last month, Rep. Virgil Goode, R-Va., warned that unless immigration is tightened, "many more Muslims" will be elected and follow Ellison's lead...

Ellison said he was surprised about the controversy over his decision to use a Quran. He said he's gotten more than 1,000 letters, e-mails and phone calls about it, most positive, but some not.

He said he hoped to meet Goode for coffee "and let him know I'm not a scary guy."

[link to www.thenation.com]

The controversy over Ellison's desire to swear his oath on a Koran, which had been stoked by conservative commentators initially, reached something of a fever pitch when Virginia Congressman Virgil Goode, an otherwise obscure Republican, declared in a letter to a constituent that "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 Qur'an in any way."

...Goode made several television appearances during which he pushed this line, even after it was pointed out to him that Ellison was born in the United States and traced his family's roots in this country back at least to 1742.

...Predictably, Goode found a forum on Fox News, where he stood by his statements and said, without a hint of irony, that "I wish more people would take a stand and stand up for the principles on which this country was founded."

What made Goode's ignorance of those founding principles remarkable was the fact that he represents Virginia's Albemarle County, where Thomas Jefferson was born in 1743.

On Thursday, it will not be Virgil Goode who pays tribute to Jefferson.

It will be Keith Ellison.