Has Keith Ellison disavowed this group?

[Archae]

I sure hope so.

In Which I Agree With the Worldnutdaily

It doesn’t happen often, but this article appears to be on the money. I couldn’t care less whether the first Muslim Congressman, Keith Ellison, swears in on the Bible, the Quran, or on a copy of Penthouse Forum for that matter. But I do care about theocracy, whether in Christian form or Muslim form, and it appears that Ellison has close ties to an openly theocratic Muslim group. Less than 2 weeks after being elected, Ellison spoke at a conference of the North American Imams Federation (NAIF).

The conference was sponsored by American Open University, a Muslim distance learning college that apparently is responsible for training most of the NAIF members. AOU was founded by Jaafar Sheikh Idris, who preaches a very theocratic version of Islam. Most disturbingly, he explicitly advocates theocracy for the United States, arguing that no Muslim could possibly support a secular society that separates church from state. Many of the lecturers at AOP are members of the NAIF.

The WND article quotes Idris on a number of issues. I went and looked at his webpage and those quotes are not out of context or distorted. This guy is a real theocrat with very, very dangerous views. An example:

“No Muslim could become president in a secular regime, for in order to pledge loyalty to the constitution, a Muslim would have to abandon part of his belief and embrace the belief of secularism – which is practically another religion. For Muslims, the word ‘religion’ does not only refer to a collection of beliefs and rituals, it refers to a way of life which includes all values, behaviors and details of living,” Idris says. “Separation of religion and state is not an option for Muslims because it requires us to abandon [Allah’s] decree for that of a man.”

http://scienceblogs.com/dispatches/2006/12/07/in-which-i-agree-with-the-worl/

[Else You Are Mad]

2. That would mean...

Every Catholic would have to disavow the Pope because they have similar beliefs - - the Pope is a theocratic leader of a nation -- and, would not be able to speak at any Catholic groups.

[Coventina]

3. Except that this is the leader of the group Ellison belongs to saying that.

So, that would be the Pope telling Catholics everywhere that they cannot be leaders in secular governments, and that their Catholicism is inseparable from their public policy.

To my knowledge, no Pope has said that for at least the last 40 years or so.

[Else You Are Mad]

4. The Pope may not have...

But there are plenty of Cardinals and Bishops that believe that.

[Coventina]

5. I'm sure there are. But unless they are leading a specific group to which the political figure

belongs, their opinions are much greatly reduced in weight, especially in Catholicism, where the Pope is traditionally considered to be infallible.

Islam is much less structured than the Catholic faith, and so there are many different leaders with different interpretations of the faith. If Ellison is indeed a member of a group whose leader professed that belief, I agree there is cause for concern.

[former9thward]

6. False equivalency.

Catholics and Christians generally do not believe in the church running the government. That belief is a mainstream belief of Islam which is enforced wherever Muslims are a majority of a nation.