Congressman to take oath of office... on Quran

[Kuroneko]

Listen closely and you can hear a million scared little white boys huddling underneath their desks that the big, bad MUSLIM (OMGOMGOMGOMGOMG!) congressman is going to snatch their children and run away with them or some other scared crap.

Conservatives really annoy me with their bigotry and denials of it.

Sometimes I feel like the older brother of the red headed step child.

That red headed step child being American conservatives and Republicans.

Maybe I need to grab them all by their ankles and feed them into the toilet a few times to wisen them up?

[Chibi MitchellTF]

As long as an Oath on the Quran is valued as much by Muslims as an Oath on the Bible by Christians, I see no problem.

In fact, I would actually be AGAINST a non-Christian swearing on the Bible, because he would have no reason to care about such an Oath.


Note, however, that I have no idea what the specifics of the actual Oath is quoted.

[Mistress Guendolen]

As far as I know, the oath wasn't affiliated with any particular religion. If anything, the Bible was an old-school formality dating from a time when swearing an oath on a Bible really was considered more binding and serious. But ultra-conservative jagoffs of course have to treat it like it's a required part of the procedure....

[Christina Anikari]

Well an oath on the Qu'ran should be more sacred for a Muslim than an oath on the bible should be for a Christian. Whereas the bible is more God's word in Christianity the Qu'ran is in a way Allah himself for a Muslim. In general writing is held to be sacred and indeed there is a division between infidels and pagans in traditional Islam. Infidels are jews, christians, zoroastrians and a few other religions that had written religious codes whereas pagans are all those who hasn't got written religious codes. The first group has to pay a special tax and is included from a few positions but is otherwise protected according to the official interpretations of the Qu'ran whereas the first have to be converted to the true faith, that is Islam. Of course that is not what all Muslims believe but it goes a long way to show the importance of writing and written religious codes in the Muslim tradition.

[Loremistress Eirien]

Well an oath on the Qu'ran should be more sacred for a Muslim than an oath on the bible should be for a Christian. Whereas the bible is more God's word in Christianity the Qu'ran is in a way Allah himself for a Muslim.

Not just 'in a way', but outright fact for many Muslims. If you even suggest that it might just be inspired, you will likely get a bunch of hate from the more conservative half of Islam.

[Christina Anikari]

Well it is only on a metaphysical level it is Allah. It does not mean he is embodied there, that would be to reduce Allah to a physical tangible form and giving him any kind of form is pretty much the greatest sin in Islam. Just like how the oblate and wine is made into the physical flesh and blood of Christ according to the transubstantiation principle the Qu'ran is Allah, while still also being a book. It is damn complex, but it is too simple to just say that the Qu'ran is Allah, it is an aspect of Allah and Allah is an aspect of the Qu'ran. Both are many other things as well and it is really pretty damn complex.