“I fear that in the next century we will have many more Muslims in the United States”-- U.S. Rep. Virgil Goode, Virginia’s 5th Congressional District
Update: Waldo Jaquith has been all over this mushrooming story from the get-go. Click here for his latest round-up of the national coverage.
3 comments:
... and my fear is that we'll begin to elect milktoast types who don't have the balls to say what needs to be said.
I have to say that I find it rather odd that some people have expressed anger over a Muslim senator requesting a Koran for his swearing in. Why would someone want a person to swear an oath on the Bible if it means nothing to them? Isn't the whole point of 'swearing on the Bible' to give the oath a measure of sacredness? Asking a Muslim to swear an oath on the Christian Bible would have no more meaning to that person than asking him/her to swear on a copy of the Reader's Digest. I think a lot of people are confused about this. The use of the Christian Bible for the swearing in of political officials is not meant to be an affirmation of the Judeo-Christian nature of the United States. It's meant to give gravity to the oath itself. Some people really need to get their heads out of their asses.
K,
Unfortunately, Virgil Goode speaks for many Americans, not just those Virginians who keep sending him back to the House of Representatives, whether he runs as a Democrat or Republican.
In part, that’s due to long-held prejudices in some quarters against any religion that isn’t a preferred brand of Christianity. In part, it’s due to the demonization of Muslims that the Bush administration has used to rally the fearful around the president’s agenda.
The hope here is that Goode does not speak for as many Virginians as he thinks he does. And, that he is in the process of discovering that now.
Anonymous,
When a person calls people with whom they disagree a name -- milquetoast? -- from an anonymous perch, and then can’t even spell it right ... well, what the hell is that?
Triscula,
I suspect Goode’s problem isn’t with holy books. No, it’s with people he views as inferior and less deserving of respect than others.
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