On Ellison and the Qu’ran

This issue has become a bit of a lightning rod, and shows our amazing ability as Americans to be troubled and distracted by tiny, tiny, tiny things. 

I’m not going to get into it in depth, because other people have already done so very well, and the arguments for Ellison are pretty obvious (First Amendment anyone?).  But, I will direct you to the most ridiculous of ramblings on the issue,  most notably from Dennis Prager:

Forgive me, but America should not give a hoot what Keith Ellison’s favorite book is. Insofar as a member of Congress taking an oath to serve America and uphold its values is concerned, America is interested in only one book, the Bible. If you are incapable of taking an oath on that book, don’t serve in Congress. In your personal life, we will fight for your right to prefer any other book. We will even fight for your right to publish cartoons mocking our Bible. But, Mr. Ellison, America, not you, decides on what book its public servants take their oath.

That’s good, but it gets better:

But these naive people do not appreciate that America will not change the attitude of a single American-hating Muslim by allowing Ellison to substitute the Koran for the Bible. In fact, the opposite is more likely: Ellison’s doing so will embolden Islamic extremists and make new ones, as Islamists, rightly or wrongly, see the first sign of the realization of their greatest goal — the Islamicization of America.

Gotta love it.  A man choosing to take his inconsequential  oath on the book that he believes in is the beginning of the end.  The Islamofaschoterrormaniacs are seeing our weakness, and will move in for the kill at any moment.  We’re finished.

For a much more thoughtful response, go here.

Now there are plenty of people out there who would have you believe that Islam is an inherently violent religion, and plenty of Islamists out there who are willing to prove them right.  But the fact is that we have a large Islamic population in the United States, and about 1 Billion Muslims in the world.  If they were all strapping bombs to themselves and killing Americans, I’m afraid we’d have a much larger problem than we do right now.  

Unfortunately, far too many people think that we need to be afraid of all Muslims, all of the time.  These people couldn’t tell you the first thing about the five pillars of Islam, or of the pilgrimage to Mecca and the Ka’ba.  They have been told what Islam is and have chosen to believe it.   It gives them something to fear, irrational and uninformed as it may be. 

Does this mean that I’m one of those “multiculturalists” that Prager so despises?