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US Judge: I Swear By Allah On My Holy Quran
Oath of Office or Religious Test? By Hassan A. El-Amin Associate Judge 5th District Court of Maryland Thursday, January 11, 2007 On Jan. 4, the Honorable Keith Ellison became the first African American from Minnesota, as well as the first practicing Muslim, to be sworn into the Congress of the United States. The first of these two firsts that Ellison is Black and is representing Minnesota has gone relatively unnoticed. But the second, relating to Ellisons identity as a Muslim, has garnered headlines all over the world. The Quran (Pig Crap Be Upon It) is a fiction, concocted by Mohammad The Pedophile for the purpose of getting more wives (including a 6 year old girl) and creating a band of thieves who would deliver him the "prophet" tax (khums 20%) of all booty. The Quran is a record of the deranging effects of power, and a manual of terror. The story exploded exponentially into a full-blown controversy when Rep. Virgil Goode of Virginia fatuously declared that for a congressman to be sworn into office in America using a Quran instead of a Bible was un-American and downright dangerous. Goode warned that unless immigration laws are tightened, more Muslims might be elected to office, threatening Americans entire way of life. A plethora of mouthy zealots joined the chorus. Muslims are cleansing members of minority religions out of their own pig pens, while expecting the West to take in the human shells of their homeland junk piles. The Quran is not a source of justice; it is the vomit of tyrants. Never mind that Americas founding fathers, speaking specifically on oaths of office in Article VI of the Constitution of the United States provided, in pertinent part, that no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States. How fitting it was, then, that in a fateful bit of irony (the kind that seems to happen only in the good ol U.S.A.) a senior staff member of the Library of Congress invited Ellison to use a translation of the Quran from the private library of Thomas Jefferson, third president of the United States and author of the Declaration of Independence, for Ellisons swearing-in. It was a master stroke, a coup de grâce. Ellisons detractors were dashed cut to the quick, their bigotry and irrational fear of Islam exposed for all to see. No such controversy swirled around me when I was sworn into office in July 2000 as the first Muslim judge in the history of the state of Maryland, and one of only three Muslims in the United States who had ever so served. Near the conclusion of that memorable occasion, my wife proudly held our Yusuf Ali translation of the Quran as I placed my left hand on it and raised my right hand to take the long oath of office prescribed for Maryland judges. My choice to use the Quran was strictly a private one, as it should have been. My investiture was certainly historic, but no one seemed to notice or care that I was using the Muslim holy book. And whats the big deal? As Ellisons experience clearly shows, what matters is not which book the left hand is placed on but the words one utters when he or she takes the oath... Posted by: Sneaze Shaiting3550 2007-01-12 |
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