The Unbearabe Weight of Ignorance

Among the many stories that came out of the Congressional elections earlier this month was that of Keith Ellison, a newly elected Congressman from Minnesota who became the first Muslim elected to Congress. Apparently, this has pissed off some of the right-wingers something fierce. The latest "problem" is that Ellison will swear his Constitutional oath with his hand on a Koran, rather than a Bible. Any sane person would think, "so?", to this point, but not Dennis Prager. For Dennis, this is the beginning of the end times:

Keith Ellison, D-Minn., the first Muslim elected to the United States Congress, has announced that he will not take his oath of office on the Bible, but on the bible of Islam, the Koran.

He should not be allowed to do so -- not because of any American hostility to the Koran, but because the act undermines American civilization.

That's right - a religious person swearing an oath upon his particular religious book "undermines American civilization." For reasons adequately discussed here, here, and here, Prager is just completely out in right field on this one.

As ignorant as Prager's bloviations are, some of the comments to that column are downright frightening. The number of people willing to overlook the plain meaning of the Constitution, and their fundamental misunderstanding of the document, is depressing (how can anyone call a Muslim insisting on swearing to the Koran part of the "secular" left!?!). Occasionally, the comments cross over to appalling:

Being a Muslim is not a religion, it is a disease, a disease that needs to be eradicated from the United States of America before it's to late, it appears to have already infected the brains of the people in Minnesota who voted this jerk off in to office.

That pearl of wisdom comes from someone called "hntr admin," pimping a website called headsneedtoroll.org. Seems fairly clear whose heads he's talking about.