Quran Influenced America's Founding Fathers
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Courtesy Of: The Detroit Free Press
January 5, 2007
BY NIRAJ WARIKOO
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER
January 5, 2007
BY NIRAJ WARIKOO
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER
Detroit native Keith Ellison, the first Muslim Congressman, told the Free Press Friday that he used the Quran during his oath of office because the Islamic holy book helped influence the founding fathers of America.
Ellison, a Minnesota Democrat, garnered international attention Thursday when he used a Quran once owned by Thomas Jefferson during his ceremonial swearing-in ceremony for the House of Representatives.
The Quran is "definitely an important historical document in our national history and demonstrates that Jefferson was a broad visionary thinker who not only possessed a Quran, but read it," Ellison said in an interview with the Free Press. "It would have been something that contributed to his own thinking."
The Quran is "definitely an important historical document in our national history and demonstrates that Jefferson was a broad visionary thinker who not only possessed a Quran, but read it," Ellison said in an interview with the Free Press. "It would have been something that contributed to his own thinking."
Ellison was criticized by some commentators for using the Quran during his oath off office. Ellison said he decided to use Jefferson's Quran after receiving a letter from someone who told him about the copy, which is with the Library of Congress. U.S. Rep. Virgil Goode, a Virginia Republican, slammed Ellison for using a Quran.
But Ellison said Friday that Jefferson's Quran "shows that from the earliest times of this republic, the Koran was in the consciousness of people who brought about democracy."
Contact Niraj Warikoo at nwarikoo@freepress.com and 248-351-2998
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