The Dennis Prager Mess

Here is the column that started it all. Keith Ellison, newly elected Democratic Congressman in Minnesota, is a Muslim.

Who cares, right? No big deal. First Muslim Congressman – great for diversity, multiculturalism, blah blah blah…

Ellison has stated that he will not take his oath of office on the Bible, but on the Koran.

BIG PROBLEM.

Last time I checked, this country was not founded on Islamic principles – but Judeo-Christian ones (check out Bill O’Reilly’s Culture Warrior). Therefore, if Ellison is going to swear to uphold the principles of THIS COUNTRY (and NOT of any religion), then his oath should be taken on the Bible. This is not a religious issue, but a values issue. It is not being disrespectful to Islam, the Koran, or Keith Ellison himself. He is free to practice his religion and serve the people of Minnesota.

But he has to recognize that this country comes first – and he was elected to uphold, rather than subvert, its values. It also shows, yet again, a lack of assimilation. If you live in the United States – play by the rules. Or we should kick you out.

So who, exactly, is Keith Ellison? Power line did some digging:

“Keith Ellison is the endorsed Democratic candidate for Congress in Minnesota's solidly Democratic Fifth District (Minneapolis). Ellison's local leadership of the Nation of Islam, his defense of the ‘truth’ of an attack on Minneapolis Jews as ‘the most racist white people,’ his affiliation with convicted murderer and Vice Lords gang leader Sharif Willis, his support of the Vice Lords gangbangers charged (and subsequently convicted) with the murder of Minneapolis police officer Jerry Haaf, his outrageous attacks on law enforcement authorities, his demand that Symbionese Liberation Army terrorist Sara Jane Olson be freed, his concern for the continuing freedom of convicted cop-killer Assata Shakur on the lam in Havana -- not one of these elements of Ellison's public record has seen the light of day in the local media.”

More background from the Washington Times, which highlights Democratic disapproval with Ellison’s ties to CAIR (Council on American-Islamic Relations):

“But it is top Democrats who have issued some of the most stinging rebukes of CAIR. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the Senate's second-leading Democrat, has said that CAIR ‘is unusual in its extreme rhetoric and its association with groups that are suspect.’ Sen. Charles Schumer of New York, who chairs the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, has stated flatly that CAIR ‘has ties to terrorism.’ Mr. Schumer has special disdain for Mr. Awad and CAIR's other co-founder, Omar Ahmad, saying in a 2003 hearing that both men have ‘intimate connections with Hamas.’"

If you need to be reminded about Hamas, read this.

So what will happen if Ellison takes his oath on the Koran, instead of the Bible?

Prager’s take: “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.”

This is dead on. As Monica Crowley has repeatedly noted on her radio program, radical Islamists are patient. Any small step into infiltrating American culture will be viewed as a huge victory. As I’ve blogged about before, whether it’s “Flying While Muslim!”, not being allowed to pray while at the gym, or not taking an oath of office on a Bible, the wheels are in motion – not for “tolerance”, but radical takeover.

Here is Prager’s follow-up responding to the original outrage over the first column:

“Why wouldn't Ellison bring a Bible along with the Koran? That he chose not to is the narcissism of multiculturalism that I referred to: The individual's culture trumps the national culture.

“You don't have to be Christian to acknowledge that the Bible is the source of America's values. Virtually every founder of this country knew that and acknowledged it. The argument that founders such as Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin were deists, even if accurate (it is greatly exaggerated), makes my point, not my opponents'. The founders who were not believing Christians venerated the Bible as the source of America's values just as much as practicing Christians did.

“America derives its laws from its Constitution. It derives its values from the Bible. We don't get inalienable rights from the Constitution; we get them from God. Which is exactly what the signers of the Declaration of Independence wrote: We are endowed with inalienable rights by our Creator, not by government and not by any man-made document. And that Creator and those inalienable rights emanate from the Bible. Keith Ellison's freedom to openly believe and practice Islam and to run for elective office as a Muslim is a direct result of a society molded by the Bible and the people who believed in it, a fact he should be willing to honor as he is sworn in.”
Keith Ellison is forcing the issue here. Bring both books if you want, but stop crying racism and Islamophobia every time someone wants to stand up for America.

I praise Dennis Prager – do you?