This article appeared in the Washington Post:
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A Bigot in Congress
One Muslim congressman is one too many for Virgil Goode.
Friday, December 22, 2006; Page A32
BIGOTRY COMES in various guises -- some coded, some closeted, some
colossally stupid. The bigotry displayed recently by Rep. Virgil H.
Goode Jr., a Republican who represents a patch of south-central
Virginia, falls squarely in the third category. Mr. Goode, evidently in
a state of xenophobic delirium, went on a semi-public tirade against the
looming peril and corrupting threat posed by Muslim immigration to the
United States. "I fear that in the next century we will have many more
Muslims in the United States if we do not adopt the strict immigration
policies that I believe are necessary to preserve the values and beliefs
traditional to the United States of America," he wrote in a letter to
constituents.
The inspiration for Mr. Goode's rant is Keith Ellison, a Minnesota
Democrat who last month became the first Muslim elected to Congress. Mr.
Ellison, who was born in Detroit and converted to Islam in college, has
decided to use the Koran during a ceremonial swearing-in, as is his
constitutional right. This does not sit well with Mr. Goode, who,
obnoxiously referring to his congressional colleague-to-be as "the
Muslim Representative from Minnesota," warned ominously that current
immigration policy would lead to an outbreak of elected Muslims in this
country and unfettered use of the Koran.
Forget that Muslims represent a small fraction of immigrants to America.
And leave aside the obvious point that Mr. Goode was evidently napping
in class the day they taught the traditional American values of
tolerance, diversity and religious freedom. This country's history is
rife with instances of uncivil, hateful and violent behavior toward
newcomers, be they Jewish, Irish, Italian or plenty of others whose
ethnicities did not jibe with some pinched view of what it means to be
American. Mr. Goode's dimwitted outburst of nativism is nothing new.
No, the real worry for the nation is that the rest of the world might
take Mr. Goode seriously, interpreting his biased remarks about Muslims
as proof that America really has embarked on a civilizational war
against Islam. With 535 members, you'd think that Congress would welcome
the presence of a single Muslim representative. Whether it can afford a
lawmaker of Mr. Goode's caliber is another question.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/21/AR2006122101612.html?referrer=email
or
http://tinyurl.com/ygwq2n
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Regards,
LelandJ
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