YOU SWEAR ON WHAT?

For some reason I thought of Congressman Keith Ellison the other day. I think it was from hearing him sharing his thoughts on NPR about Obama and the rumors to the effect that he is a secret Muslim. Who better to opine but a self converted Muslim like Ellison? Ellison attributed this rumor to the GOP of course. It really doesn't matter if it's true. The white man and his institutions are always to blame. It's simply impossible to criticize Obama without being accused of racism.

Then I remembered that Ellison was sworn in on Jefferson's Koran. Very poetic that. And yet something seemed wrong. Jefferson was well read, but the likelihood of his being able to read Arabic is vanishingly small. So Jefferson's Koran would have been a translation. I looked it up and so it was!

Now not being a son of the desert myself, I can't be 100% certain, but I do believe that orthodox Muslims consider any Koran not in Arabic no Koran at all, at least not for important stuff like swearing an oath. So Keith the Muslim may be no more ardent a Muslim that Obama is a Christian. Somehow that's comforting.