Swearing his oath on the Koran: first Muslim elected to Congress.Keith Ellison (aka Keith Hakim, Keith X Ellison, Keith Ellison-Muhammed) is the first Muslim to be elected to the U.S. Congress. Controversy has now erupted over whether he will be sworn into office with his hand upon the Koran Koran: see Qur'an., the holy book of Islam Islam (ĭsläm`, ĭs`läm), [Arab.,=submission to God], world religion founded by the Prophet Muhammad. Founded in the 7th cent., Islam is the youngest of the three monotheistic world religions (with Judaism and Christianity). An adherent to Islam is a Muslim [Arab.,=one who submits].. Ellison, a 43-year-old attorney and a "former" disciple of Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, won the November 7 election for Minnesota's 5th Congressional District, a Democratic stronghold that includes part of Minneapolis. The Ellison race attracted financial support from Muslims throughout the United States, and Mideast media giant Al Jazeera and other major Muslim media throughout the world celebrated his victory. Ellison, a convert to Sunni Sunni (s `nī) [Arab. Sunna,=tradition], from ahl al-sunnah wa-l-jamaa [Arab.,=the people of the custom of the Prophet and community], the largest division of Islam. Islam, has been closely allied to the North American Imams imam (ĭmäm`) [Arab.,=leader], in Islam, a recognized leader or a religious teacher. Among the Sunni the term refers to the leader in the Friday prayer at the mosque; any pious Muslim may function as imam. The term has also been used as a synonym for caliph (see caliphate), the vicegerent of God. Federation, which reportedly teaches that Islam is incompatible with America's constitutional republican form of government and that all laws that conflict with Islamic law are unacceptable. Ellison's campaign also received backing from the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR CAIR - California Association for Institutional ResearchCAIR - Canadian Association of Interns and Residents CAIR - Center for AIDS Intervention Research CAIR - Center for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics CAIR - Changing Attitudes in Recovery CAIR - Clean Air Interstate Rule (EPA) CAIR - Community Airport Impact Review CAIR - Comprehensive Assessment Information Rule (TSCA) CAIR - Content Analysis and Information Retrieval), whose chairman, Omar M. Ahmad Ahmad. For Ottoman sultans thus named, use Ahmed., has called on Muslims to make the Koran the highest legal authority in America, and Islam the only accepted religion. |
|
||||||||||||||||

`nī)
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion