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Representative Virgil Goode Jr. sent a letter to hundreds of voters in his Virginia district warning them that the recent election of a Muslim to Congress sets a dangerous precedent, specifically condemning Keith Ellison (a Minnesota Representative) for his plan to use the Koran during his swearing-in ceremony in January.(1) To satisfy the white trash rabble, he offered to use Thomas Jefferson's Koran.(2)
Goode's letter, dated December 5, urged Amerikans to "wake up", warning that there will "likely be many more Muslims elected to office and demanding the use of the Koran." He went on: 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 and to prevent our resources from being swamped.
In reality, there is some small amount of separation of church and state in Congress: the official swearing in ceremony takes place without any religious books, and Congress members must swear to uphold the constitution. Members of Congress can then opt to use the Bible or Koran or other texts in private ceremonial events.
Ironically, Ellison isn't any more of a recent immigrant than Goode, and he converted to Islam in college. But the details don't matter to politicians like Goode who find it useful to stir up reactionary nationalist sentiments among Amerikans. Goode should have to answer for the violence that his letter is instigating. Ellison has received death threats and hostile calls and emails, something that will no doubt increase with the public statements from Goode.
Goode's assertion that immigration will undermine traditional values and beliefs of the U.$. smacks of fascist protectionism. Amerikan "traditional values" include obtaining wealth at the expense of oppressed peoples in other countries, preferably with religious justification about the moral superiority of the Amerikan people--a superiority that allows them to plunder the wealth and resources of other countries for the benefit of Amerika. As long as Muslims and Arabs and Mexicans and Africans (and everyone else who is not an Amerikan citizen) are portrayed as lawless, amoral, and uneducated it is easy to justify military invasions, puppet governments and U.$. backed coups. This is all in the interests of promoting "democracy" and preventing threats to Amerikan "traditional values" around the world.
Ellison is a Democrat, and many Congressional Democrats have stepped up to condemn Goode's ridiculous statements. But this doesn't mean the Democrats are better on questions of Amerikan values or morality. Ellison got elected because he was able to put forward the mainstream pro-imperialist political positions that Amerikans in Minnesota support. Democrats cloak their imperialist positions with inclusive rhetoric, but in the end no one in Congress is calling for open borders or an end to Amerikan military and corporate plunder around the world. Greater inclusion of Muslim citizens in Congress will not do anything to end the mass murder and exploitation of Muslim citizens of Arab countries because this exploitation is not about religion: it is about wealth.
According to the New York Times, Goode's condemnation of Ellison followed vocal criticisms from Dennis Prager, a columnist and radio talk show host, who claimed Ellison's use of the Koran at his swearing in ceremony would undermine American civilization. The New York Times quoted Prager: "'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,' said Mr. Prager, who said the Bible was the only relevant religious text in the United States. 'If you are incapable of taking an oath on that book, don't serve in Congress,' Mr. Prager said."
This pitting of one religion against another as the foundation of Amerika underscores the strength of Christianity as a part of imperialism and particularly Amerikan imperialism. This is not to excuse other religions from their role in the oppression of people around the world. Religion is fundamentally a form of mysticism; all forms of religion encourage people to believe in something blindly, regardless of any evidence to the contrary. This belief promotes powerlessness: people should not trust in some higher power that their suffering on earth will be rewarded in an afterlife. Such trust discourages people from fighting against their oppressors, instead justifying the power of the oppressors as part of some grand plan.
Religion does not aid the people in struggle, but it just so happens that most of the Muslim people are in oppressed nations. Lately the imperialists use the word "Islam" as code language for attacks on oppressed nations, and we have to defeat this strategy.
In the united $tates, our stupid left-wing of parasitism seeks to rally Islam-bashers and equal opportunity exploiters with democratic values. The only struggle that can positively affect the majority of such people is a conspiratorial and authoritarian struggle. Our goody-goodies in the left-wing of parasitism have only the will to be steam-rolled. Only a small minority inside U.$. borders can understand the truth of the future of world peace directly and openly.
Notes:
1. New York Times, December 21, 2006
2. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/01/04/opinion/main2329808.shtml ;
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/01/03/politics/main2328450.shtml