http://news.aol.com/elections/story/_a/ellison-to-use-jefferson-koran-for/20070103155809990001
*The first Muslim elected to [Congress](javascript:
says he will take his oath of office using a Koran once owned by Thomas Jefferson to make the point that “religious differences are nothing to be afraid of.”
Rep.-elect Keith Ellison, D-Minn., decided to use the centuries-old Koran during his ceremonial swearing-in on Thursday after he learned that it is kept at the Library of Congress. Jefferson, the nation’s third president and a collector of books in all topics and languages, sold the book to Congress in 1815 as part of a collection.
“It demonstrates that from the very beginning of our country, we had people who were visionary, who were religiously tolerant, who believed that knowledge and wisdom could be gleaned from any number of sources, including the Koran,” Ellison said in a telephone interview Wednesday.*
*Ellison’s decision to use Jefferson’s Koran was first reported by The Washington Post on Wednesday.
Jefferson was born in Albemarle County, in what is now Goode’s congressional district in central Virginia. Goode’s office did not return phone and e-mail messages left Wednesday.
An English translation of the Arabic, Jefferson’s Koran was published in 1764 in London, a later printing of one originally published in 1734.
“This is considered the text that shaped Europe’s understanding of the Koran,” Dimunation said.
It was acquired in 1815 as part of a more than 6,400-volume collection that Jefferson sold for $24,000 to replace the congressional library that had been burned by British troops the year before, in the War of 1812.
“It was a real bargain,” Dimunation said.
The Koran survived an 1851 fire in the Capitol. Dimunation described it as a two-volume work, bound in leather with marble boards*
The guy shut them up by using a copy of the Quran that belonged to Thomas Jefferson!
however some are not happy about the decision ofcourse: http://www.afa.net/aa112806_2.asp
“When all elected officials take their oaths of office with their hands on the very same book, they all affirm that some unifying value system underlies American civilization. If Keith Ellison is allowed to change that, he will be doing more damage to the unity of America and to the value system that has formed this country than the terrorists of 9-11. It is hard to believe that this is the legacy most Muslim Americans want to bequeath to America. But if it is, it is not only Europe that is in trouble.”
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i would think it makes perfect sense to let a man swear on something that is most meaningful to him. 