A Muslim In Congress... So What?
Published Thu, Dec 21 2006 1:29 AM
Technorati Tags: News and Politics, Elections, Republicans, Democrats, Political Correctness, Multiculturalism and Intolerance, Open Trackbacks
It seems to me that the flap over Rep. Keith Ellison is a bit overblown. I believe in conservative values, particularly in Christian values, but the furor over Rep. Ellison's choice to use the Koran during his private swearing in for office is much ado about nothing. Now we have a Republican Congressman warning that the election of a Muslim to Congress is a threat to our traditional values.
It started with Dennis Prager. Mr. Prager said that the Bible was the only religious book that was relevant in the United States, and that the Mr. Ellison's choice to use the Koran would undermine Western Civilization. That's a bit over the top, since no Congressman is officially sworn in on a Bible, or any other text. Congress is sworn in en masse and none of them with a Bible.
According to Mr. Prager, “If you are incapable of taking an oath on that book, don’t serve in Congress,” referring to the Bible. Mr. Prager is dead wrong. The Constitution of the United States prohibits any religious test for serving in office in the last paragraph of Article VI.
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.
So what about the Koran? Rep. Ellison would swear on the Koran in an unofficial, private, ceremony. That's up to him, and while I may not agree with the Koran, he's free to exercise his own religion as he sees fit. Rep. Goode (R. VA) sees something ominous in all of this though.
In his letter, which was dated Dec. 5, Mr. Goode said that Americans needed to “wake up” or else there would “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,” said Mr. Goode, who vowed to use the Bible when taking his own oath of office.
I don't have a problem with more Muslims being elected to office, as long as they swear and are bound by their oath to uphold the Constitution of the United States. I know that there are a lot of people out there that are worried that the "Religion of Peace" is anything but peaceful. Mr. Goode is apparently one of them.
I'm well aware that there is a global war on terror going on, and that most of the terrorists that we have to deal with are radical Islamic fundamentalists, or as they are frequently referred to Islamo-fascists or Islamo-nazis. I'm not trying to dismiss the threat of Islamic terrorism. It's real.
But not all Muslims are terrorists. And not all terrorists are Muslims. There are plenty of domestic terrorists that have nothing to do with Islam. The Earth Liberation Front comes to mind. There are also plenty of international terrorists that have nothing to do with Islam. It wasn't that long ago that Northern Ireland was experiencing a great deal of terrorism, with Protestants and Catholics (that's right, Christians) committing the terrorist acts.
Mr. Goode and Mr. Prager are wrong. The election of Muslims to serve in our government doesn't mark the beginning of the end of Western Civilization. It also isn't a threat to our traditional values, unless those values are bigotry and intolerance.
I do have a problem with Mr. Ellison's election, but it has nothing to do with his religion. Rather it has to do with his politics.
To begin with, I'm really tired of hyphenated Americans. Mr. Ellison says he's an African-American. Why the emphasis on African? Why not just American? If his American ancestors can be traced back to 1742 then he's an American plain and simple. Tacking African in front and hyphenating it isn't inclusive, it's divisive. If his religion doesn't matter then why should his race?
Secondly, I'm not too impressed with some of the secular issues Mr. Ellison wants to focus on. The New York Times article mentions two: increasing the federal minimum wage, and providing universal health insurance.
Increasing the federal minimum wage is not a good idea. In the first place, Congress doesn't really have the authority to set a minimum wage for all workers in the country. Not all businesses that employ people are involved in interstate commerce. Any business that isn't involved in interstate commerce doesn't fall under the congress' authority to regulate interstate commerce.
In the second place, most workers are already making more than the minimum wage, but where a business has many workers making minimum wage and the minimum wage is raised, that business' labor expenses go up. Inevitably that means either fewer job openings are available for new workers or the business' prices have to go up to pass the increased cost on to the consumer. Ultimately raising the minimum wage will cause higher unemployment or an inflationary rise in consumer prices. This is a perfect example of good intentions having undesirable consequences.
Just as increasing the federal minimum wage is a bad idea, so too is providing universal health insurance through the government. Similar arguments against this can be made.
Firstly, that congress doesn't have the authority under the constitution to provide universal health insurance. Secondly, providing universal health insurance will drive up the cost of health care all around, resulting in even more confiscatory taxation. Third, socialized medicine doesn't work very well. We only need to look to the health care systems in Canada and Great Britain to see the horror stories that abound when bureaucrats make your health care decisions for you.
So my problems with Mr. Ellison have to do with his socialist politics and the fact that he's a Democrat. They have nothing whatsoever to do with the fact that he's a Muslim. Focusing on his religion distracts us from the true reason's why his election is not good for our nation. Socialists and liberals are the true danger to our traditional values. Sadly they've been joined by the so-called champions of our values.
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