Nice post. This first muslim in the Congress strongly starts.

I wonder if the same ritual is true as well to our legislative bodies, Chamber of Deputies and Conucilors, and if it is true, I wonder if Mr. R.Bismuth had to make an oath on the quran or the Torah???

Where is Prager getting his information from? Did he make this up, or what? He’s full of crap (as usual). The swearing-in ceremony for the House of Representatives never includes a religious book.

An oath is not required either, as the Constitution in all instances includes the option of affirming rather than swearing an oath, since many Christians (Quakers and Mennonites, for example) believe that Jesus fordabe the taking of oaths (Matthew 23:16-22).

Why are so many Americans (especially the right wing pundit types) so ignorant of their own Constitution and traditions?

What happened to the principle of religious liberty? It’s not really liberty if one can be coerced into conforming to a belief one doesn’t share, is it? Prager’s outrage is simple bigotry, nothing more, nothing less. It’s disgusting and un-American.

Where is Prager getting his information from? Did he make this up, or what? He’s full of crap (as usual). The swearing-in ceremony for the House of Representatives never includes a religious book.

And as usual, subzero is jumping on the first opportunity to criticize americans. endorsed by a totally false story...

Don't ask me how I know, but as far as I understand it, for a Muslim, swearing by anything except for God (Allah), is almost blasphemic, as the Oneness of God (tawhid?) is core to the Islamic belief.

Does that apply to the Quran also?

P.S. Unrelated to this post, but I'm looking for help on my Middle East internet project - I promise it would be worth it - any ideas anyone?

Simcha has clearly elucidated for us the great failure of American conservatism: it is, at its heart, irrational. And irrationality, as Plato reminds us, is ultimately self-destructive--one has but to look to the results of the recent U.S. elections to see the proof of this. After six years of attacking as traitors any of their fellow citizens who disagreed with them, the Republican party lies in tatters. It seems, at the end, most of us felt betrayed.

Simcha's is a fine, albeit brief, example of their failed technique: recognizing that no logical defense of such mindless and unAmerican bigotry is possible, he attacks subzero's motives and impugns subzero's source of information. This base appeal to baser emotions attempts to strip reason from dialogue and has worked for some time in U.S. elections. Here this demagogic device fails, as it's crafted to appeal to a right-wing Christian, American audience. (The "base" the Republicans recently so dramatically failed to mobilize.) Its use with a mostly non-American, mostly Muslim audience would be laughable if weren't so pathetic and, well, irrational. Unfortunately, this mindlessness has become manifest as American foreign policy and has to date laid waste at least one large country and hundreds of thousands of people. A bit late in the day to restore reason to government, but typically the later a counter-reformation comes, the more thorough and cleansing it is. (Could you spare us a few serviceable guillotines, Hannibal? :) )