YOUR GOVERNMENT enforces a culture of greed, bigotry, intolerance and ignorance.
When newly elected Democrat Congressman Keith Ellison asked to be sworn in with a Quran, Republican Congressman Virgil Goode sent a letter to his constituents which included the following:
When I raise my hand to take the oath on Swearing In Day, I will
have the Bible in my other hand. I do not subscribe to using the Quran
in any way.
The Muslim representative from Minnesota was elected
by the voters of that district and if American citizens don’t wake up
and adopt the Virgil Goode position on immigration there will likely be
many more Muslims elected to office and demanding the use of the Quran.We
need to stop illegal immigration totally and reduce legal immigration
and end the diversity visas policy pushed hard by President Clinton and
allowing many persons from the Middle East to come to this country.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……The Ten Commandments and “In God We Trust”
are on the wall in my office. A Muslim student came by the office and
asked why I did not have anything on my wall about the Quran.My
response was clear, “As long as I have the honor of representing the
citizens of the 5th District of Virginia in the United States House of
Representatives, the Quran is not going to be on the wall of my
office.”
That such blatant bigotry and intolerance is acceptable for a Congressman to send out to his supporters is indicative of the whole climate of offical and unofficial repression aimed at Muslims, Arabs, and South Asians since 9/11.
Moreover, what effect does this statement have on the Muslim world, especially when Bush or any other leaders of the Republican Party do not condemn it or even distance themselves from good old boy Virgil Goode?
Goode’s outrageous comments, which he has refused to apologize for, only feed into the increasing polarization of the world between Bush’s imperial crusade on the one hand and Islamic fundamentalists on the other hand. This is not a situation we can tolerate or choose a side in.
Indeed, Goode’s rant only brings home the need for a visible and powerful opposition inside the United States to everything the Bush regime is doing and charts a different future for the world.