UPdated: A Centennial Copy of the Quran…Why?!

Update 10/28/07: Please see Diana West, The Islamicising of Oklahoma, in the Washington Post 10/26/07

I could start today’s column this way: Something downright incendiary is happening in Oklahoma. First one, then 17 and now 24 state lawmakers have declined a copy of the Koran offered to all 149 members of the legislature by an official Muslim advisory group to Oklahoma’s governor. State Rep. Rex Duncan, Republican, explained his rejection of the Koran this way: “Most Oklahomans do not endorse the idea of killing innocent women and children in the name of ideology.”

That’s one way. Or I could start it this way:

Something downright incendiary is happening in Oklahoma. Gov. Brad Henry’s Muslim advisory council is offering personalized Korans to lawmakers to mark the state’s centennial, with each copy to be embossed with the Oklahoma state seal and the recipient lawmaker’s name. The all-Muslim group ‘plain-vanilla-named the American Ethnic Advisory Council’ asked lawmakers to notify it if they didn’t want a Koran, which the group described as “the record of the exact words revealed by God through the Angel Gabriel to the Prophet Muhammad.” So far, 24 have declined.

Of course, it’s the rejection of the Korans that’s making headlines, not their state-sealed if privately funded distribution….(Click here to read more of Diana’s editoral.)

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One of the first things Gov. Brad Henry (D-OK) did after he took office was to create a Governor’s Ethnic Advisory Council. Yes, that’s exactly what it sounds like – a “diversity” enforcement unit in the state.

At the same time, Oklahoma was gearing up for it’s centennial celebration, in 2007. To commemorate the occassion, lawmakers in this Bible-belt state received what they always wanted – a centennial copy of the Quran.

Yep…free!

Okie Campaigns reports that at least one lawmaker, Rex Duncan, of (R) Sand Springs, OK, had the audacity to object, and call the governor’s ministry of love, I mean ethnic advisory council, to ask who paid for those “gifts.”

Duncan wrote his fellow legislators Monday that he is refusing a copy of the Quran because, ‘”Most Oklahomans do not endorse the idea of killing innocent women and children in the name of ideology.”

The Tulsa World reports,

Marjaneh Seirafi-Pour, a Muslim, chairwoman of the governor’s council, said…”Members of the Oklahoma Muslim community paid for copies of the Quran….We are not trying to force anything on anyone. This is a peaceful, thoughtful project to introduce ourselves to leaders.” She estimated that there are 30,000 to 50,000 Muslims in Oklahoma [about 1% of the state's population].

I wonder if the Gideons will be allowed to pass out Bibles as part of the celebration?