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UNITED STATES - A muslim congressman-elect's plan to use the Koran in his private swearing-in ceremony has outraged some conservatives, who say it threatens America's traditions.
Among them, Republican Congressman Virgil Goode said if voters failed to support his proposals for stricter immigration rules "there will likely be many more Muslims elected to office and demanding the use of the Koran ... eroding the country's traditional values".
Keith Ellison, a Democrat, had said he would take his private oath of office on the Koran, after the collective January 4 ceremony in Washington.
An African-American who traces his family in the US to 1742, Ellison said: "I think we need to not focus on what religious text any Congress member might want to use. Let's focus on the text that binds us together. That's the Constitution."
- AFP
