Posted on 04/20/2015 7:15:46 AM PDT by SJackson
Congressman Ellison and Jeffersons Koran
Posted By Dr. Stephen M. Kirby On April 20, 2015 @ 12:02 am In Daily Mailer,FrontPage | No Comments
On January 4, 2007, newly elected Congressman Keith Ellison made history. He became not only the first Muslim to be elected to the United States Congress, but he also took the ceremonial oath of office holding his hand on the Koran that had been owned by Thomas Jefferson. Dozens of television cameras, including one from the Arab network Al-Arabiya, were on hand to record this historical event.
Ellison had explained the importance of this ceremony in an interview the day before, …in a private ceremony I’ll put my hand on a book that is the basis of my faith, which is Islam (Keith Ellison and the Jefferson Koran, The Nation – The Beat Blog, January 3, 2007).
A few weeks after the swearing-in, Ellison said that the Koran is the scripture that I read every day and its the book that I draw inspiration from (Rep. Keith Ellison: First Muslim in Congress, FinalCall.com News, January 20, 2007).
The significance of this event was even recognized two years later, on June 4th, 2009, as President Obama was giving a speech in Cairo, Egypt. In the portion of the speech when Obama was talking about how Muslim-Americans had enriched the United States, he pointed out that Congressman Ellison had taken his oath on Jeffersons Holy Koran.
So President Obama and Congressman Ellison proclaimed that Ellison had placed his hand on an actual Koran for this ceremony.
Jeffersons Koran
The Koran Ellison used was a two volume translation of the Koran done by George Sale, a non-Muslim. It was titled The Koran, Commonly Called the Alcoran of Mohammed. It was first printed in 1734, but the two volume translation used by Ellison was from a second printing done in 1764. Digital copies of both volumes of this second printing can be located online. So lets examine this particular Koran.
In the first volume Sale had three sections before his actual translation of the Koran began: Dedication, Introduction, and Preliminary Discourse. In the Dedication, Sale lamented the detestation with which the name Muhammad was laden. But then Sale contrasted the religion and laws of Muhammad to the laws of Jesus and Moses, whose laws came really from heaven. So according to Sale, Muhammads religion and laws had not come from heaven. Sale then went on to note that Muhammad used an imposture [fraud] to set up a new religion.
In the Introduction, Sale wrote that the Koran was a forgery (p. vii) and it pretends to be the Word of God (p. xiii). Sale criticized Muhammad for imposing a false religion on mankind (p. x). And Sale explained that he was providing an impartial version of the Koran because
it is absolutely necessary to undeceive those who, from the ignorant or unfair translations which have appeared, have entertained too favourable an opinion of the original, and also to enable us effectually to expose the imposture [fraud] (pp. vii-viii)
In the Preliminary Discourse, Sale repeatedly pointed out that Muhammad had pretended to be a messenger from God (pp. 52-53, 93, and 96). Sale stated that Muhammad had pretended to receive the revelations which compose his Koran (p. 55). And on numerous pages Sale repeated his assertion that Muhammad had pretended to receive those revelations (pp. 56, 64, 66, 82, 84, 100, 143, 190, and 192).
Sale addresses Muhammads Night Journey on pp. 61-62 of the Preliminary Discourse. In this journey Muhammad claimed to have traveled from Mecca to the seven levels of Heaven. He claimed he was accompanied by the angel Jibril (Gabriel) and rode on Al-Buraq, a white, horse-like animal, smaller than a mule and bigger than a donkey. Muhammad claimed that he had visited the first six levels of Heaven, meeting one or more of the earlier prophets on each level. On the seventh level he had met Abraham and Allah, and received certain instructions from Allah. Sale wrote that Muhammad feigns to have made a journey to heaven, and only pretended that he had spoken with Allah. Sale summed up his feelings about Muhammads Night Journey:
And I am apt to think this fiction, notwithstanding its extravagance, was one of the most artful contrivances Mohammed ever put in practice
And Sale believed that Islam was simply a human invention based on violence:
It is certainly one of the most convincing proofs that Mohammedism was no other than a human invention, that it owed its progress and establishment almost entirely to the sword
(Preliminary Discourse, p. 65)
Questions Sent to Congressman Ellison
There had been much excitement over Congressman Ellison using Jeffersons Koran for his ceremonial swearing-in. Jeffersons Koran had been declared an official Koran by Ellison and President Obama. Yet this translation of the Koran had been done by a non-Muslim who not only considered Islam to be a manmade religion that it owed its progress and establishment almost entirely to the sword, but who also considered Muhammad to be a charlatan, and the Koran itself to be false and a forgery.
With this in mind, on March 13, 2015, I sent an e-mail to Congressman Ellison in Washington DC, in care of his Communications Director, Mike Casca. The e-mail summarized the information above with regard to Sales beliefs about Islam, Muhammad, and the Koran, and I presented the following two questions for the Congressmans consideration:
They are infidels, who say, Verily God is Christ, the son of Mary.
Vol. 1, p. 133 (Koran 5:17)
(So Christians are infidels.)
War is injoined [sic] you against the Infidels
Vol. 1, p. 38 (Koran 2: 216)
for the infidels are your open enemies.
Vol. 1, p. 114 (Koran 4:101)
Take not the Jews, or Christians for your friends; they are friends one to the other
Vol.1, p. 141 (Koran 5:51)
Thou shalt surely find the most violent of all men in enmity against the true believers [Muslims], to be the Jews, and the idolators
Vol. 1, p. 147 (Koran 5:82)
My first e-mail to the Congressman went unanswered. After I had sent a second e-mail on March 19th, Casca responded that same day asking when I needed the answers. I replied that with the Congressmans busy schedule, one or two weeks would be fine.
Now, four weeks, and two unanswered e-mails to Casca later, it appears that the Congressman has decided not to respond.
Based on the available evidence, Congressman Ellison apparently considers Sales work to be an accurate translation of the meaning of the verses in the Koran, and to also be a legitimate Koran. Consequently, it might be worthwhile for the congressmans Jewish and Christian constituents to ask him why he has such high esteem for a book that speaks ill of Jews and Christians, and specifically calls Christians the open enemies of Muslims.
So lets close with some verses from the book upon which Congressman Ellison placed his hand, and from which he said he draws inspiration:
As for the infidels they shall be the fewel [fuel] of hell fire.
Vol. 1, p. 55 (Koran 3:10)
O true believers [Muslims]! wage war against such of the infidels as are near you; and let them find severity in you
Vol. 1, p. 265 (Koran 9:123)
When ye encounter the unbelievers [non-Muslims], strike off their heads, until ye have made a great slaughter among them
Vol. 2, p. 376 (Koran 47:4)
Mohammed is the apostle of God: and those who are with him are fierce against the unbelievers, but compassionate towards one another.
Vol. 2, p. 387 (Koran 48:29)
Dr. Stephen M. Kirby is the author of three books about Islam. His latest book is Islam According to Muhammad, Not Your Neighbor.
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Somebody needs to ask the 5th district mufti, what the hell is going on in his district.
Consider Ellison’s predecessor...
Jefferson had a Koran because we were at war with the Barbary Pirates and he wanted to know the enemy.
The US Marines have immortalized this incident in The Marines’ Hymn (To the Shores of Tripoli) and in the term “Leathernecks”, named after a heavy leather collar that made beheading a bit more difficult.
Taking the oath upon this particular book is tantamount to “Giving Aid and Comfort to the Enemy”, in my humble opinion.
Keith Ellison: “first Muslim to be elected to the United States Congress”
Let’s hope his real claim to fame in the history books is that he is also the LAST MUSLIM to be elected to any national office,
Muslim Congressman Ellison represents the North American hub for recruiting home grown terrorists and ISIS fighters.
thanks for posting. I did not know all that background info.
If you have listened to Ellison speak, you wonder how bright are the people who put him in office. But then, I could say the same for Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, and a host of other I’ll-buy-my-way-into-office-with-freebies-to-deadbeats politicians...and that includes a lot of Republicans, too.
I don’t think Ellison is smart enough to have researched the history of the Sale translation before deciding to use it at his swearing in.
He was more interested in scoring political points with dumocrats by using “the Koran of a Founding Father” than in finding out what the book actually contained.
A few threads when he was sworn in. Not sure why the author wrote this now, but it’s interesting.
Yes, essentially why the author translated it.
Obviously. People at the archives had to know, but probably wouldn't tell him. If he'd read it, just the forward, he'd have known. But if I recall it's pretty long.
Indeed.
He read it to learn their nature, I don’t know if there was a direct line to action, but clearly he decided paying tribute as Europe did wasn’t the solution. Rash for such a small nation.
The Bible says not to swear on anything. “Let your yes be yes and your no be no”. Yet we swear on it all the time.
Anyone know it Mohammed had anything to say about swearing on the Koran?
So Ellison was sworn in on an apostate’s edited version of the quran. Phony right from the beginning. So who’s the apostate here?
This makes Ellison out to be a first class jerk.
Stupid muslim.
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