Glenn Beck said the following on his show the other day (Hat Tip to Ali)
Now, if you`re a regular watcher of this program, you know I believe that radical Islam, not mainstream Islam, is our biggest enemy and could lead to our destruction. Having said that, here is the point tonight.Keith Ellison, being sworn in on the Koran, is not only OK, it is quintessentially American. While radical Islam may be in danger, peaceful Islam presents our greatest hope for victory. We must, as citizens, be able to separate our fears from the facts. Here`s how I got there.
Last week, Keith Ellison was in Dearborn, Michigan, and he announced to his supporters that he would be using the Koran for his oath. The audience, when he said this, erupted in cheers of “Allah Akbar.”
That is a phrase that just sends chills down my spine. It seems frightening on the surface because, well, you hear it when people are slitting other people`s throats. But actually, “Allah Akbar” just means “God is great.”
Now, there are those nut jobs who use it right before they blow something up, but that doesn`t mean that it or the Koran is evil. It`s the exact same thing when crazy people quote the Bible right before they shoot an abortion doctor.
And the Bible and the Koran are not evil, but the people who twist the words of their sacred texts for their own sick agendas are. It is vital that we understand the difference.
Now, on our broader note, I want to put the whole “should the Koran be used in a swearing-in ceremony” question into context. This issue is exactly why we have freedom of religion in America.
No matter what anybody in the ACLU wants to tell you, freedom of religion is not about “let`s get the baby Jesus out of the town square.” The whole concept of freedom of religion, the concept upon which our country was founded on, was designed so that you weren`t forced to belong to the Church of England. You`re free to practice whatever religion you wanted to practice.
It`s the same thing now. You don`t have to be a Christian to be an elected official. You can be a Muslim, a Jew, an atheist. If Tom Cruise somehow or another found himself elected to public office, which is a stretch, and he wanted to swear on a copy of “Dianetics”, I personally think it would be hysterical, but I`d also strongly support his right to do so.
In a historical context, Teddy Roosevelt didn`t use a Bible when he was sworn in. Neither did John Quincy Adams, believe it or not. When he took the oath of office for president, he actually used a law book.
So, why are so many people upset today that Ellison is using a Koran? The answer, I believe, is fear. What we are afraid of, what we don`t understand causes that fear, and we are afraid of it every step of the way.
What we need to understand is that, while some Muslims are evil and want to destroy us, the vast majority of Muslims are peaceful people, and they represent our greatest hope for victory.
So, here`s what I know tonight. There is hatemongering on both sides of this issue. There are people among us who just want to stir up fear and mistrust of all Muslims, and there are those Muslims who want to elicit the same feelings about us non-Muslims.
If we want to avoid our ultimate destruction as people, then these people on both sides of this issue need to shut the pie holes and be relegated to the lunatic fringes of our society where they belong.
Here`s what I don`t know. I don`t know exactly — AND I`ve done some thinking on this today. I don`t know exactly how my words will be taken out of context by people on both sides of the argument — oh, but they will be — and used against me somehow or another
Transcript from January 2, 2007 Glenn Beck Show
Article: Keith Ellison to use Thomas Jefferson’s Qur’an for swearing in
Filed under: Practical Solutions
That was pretty big of him to make that turn around
I still don’t like him. Nope, infact some times I want to open hand slap him in the mouth with a hand filled with baby powder and oil.
However, I hope to see more of this from him inshaAllah Ta’ala.
Farooq: You are absolutely correct. He also knew he would draw some criticism from his “apology” but he went ahead with it anyway.
Hijabisoverrated: Baby Powder and Oil? LOL
Anyone going to his swearing in ceremony tomorrow? If so I would love to go with yall. I think its something my son needs to see.
I’m speechless. I think that a silent observation is apropriate now.
I found this quote from my blog today:
“Propaganda does not deceive people; it merely helps them to deceive themselves”
Regarding Keith Ellison, is there a better way to say than; “The readiness is all”?
Indeed, he did his homework very well. Now people began to question if Jefferson could read Arabic? Soon they will find out that Muslims lived across Americas for centuries, since the time of Columbus, and nobody can deny and deceive their history:
http://gess.wordpress.com/2006/10/08/buying-and-selling-korans-qurans-in-nineteenth-century-rio-de-janeiro/
http://gess.wordpress.com/2006/09/13/the-ummah-slowly-bled/
http://gess.wordpress.com/2006/09/07/out-of-this-world-islamic-irruptions-in-the-literary-americas/
http://gess.wordpress.com/2006/08/08/religion-and-slave-rebellion-in-bahia/
..and more on the same site.
I have posted this article today:
“Thomas Jefferson was undeniably the Founder best versed in Islamic religion and history; his library, early writing, and legislation clearly affirmed this.32 He owned Sales’s translation of the Qur’an, along with numerous works on the Ottomans and Barbary pirates.33 There is evidence that he attempted to teach himself Arabic.34 But he also explored what most of his contemporaries apparently ignored: theories of religious toleration in which Muslims were featured. In 1776, he wrote Notes on Religion in which he directly quoted John Locke’s seventeenth-century work, A Letter on Toleration: “‘. . .neither Pagan nor Mahomedan nor Jew ought to be excluded from the civil rights of the Commonwealth because of his religion.’”35 In 1788, this same phrase would echo in North Carolina as part of the Federalist defense of the Constitution’s ban on religious tests. Although this citation remained among Jefferson’s unpublished papers, it signified the early American circulation of ideals of toleration based in British precedent. The linkage of pagan, Muslim, and Jew was a broad but meaningful category of faith, determined and consistent here in the connection between Locke and Jefferson. Intellectual connections between these two thinkers and Islam may be further established based on Jefferson’s categorization of Locke’s work in his library. He catalogued his books by number and, under the category philosophy, placed La certitude des preuves du Mahometisme, or The Certainty of the Proofs of Mahometism, one book apart from Locke’s letter on toleration.36
http://gess.wordpress.com/2007/01/04/could-a-muslim-be-president/
I do expect more from Keith Ellison in the future. Indeed, “The readiness is all”!
wakipaki:
yeah man, you know for the “effect”
Gess: Thanks for the history lesson, I never knew…
Hijabisoverrated: You crack me up…
WackyPaki & all,
You can spread the words by downloading the articles and send to your friends or into your blog on your own name.