User:Jbjazz

Hi, and welcome to wikipedia if you're new. The claim that Keith Ellison is not the first Muslim in the Federal Congress is put forward by only one person the self-proclaimed historian David Barton see this disscusion on his source at http://blogs.salon.com/0003494/2007/01/14.html . All accreditted historians, agree as does the Official historian to the US House of Reps that Ellison is the first Muslim elected to the federal congress. John Randolph of Roanoke as a boy rooting for Muslims in stories about the Crusades is not the same as actually being a Muslim. In 1799 you couldn't get elected to Congress if you were a Roman Catholic which is a lot closer to Protestant than Islam. See this article by a history professor on the need for those who ratified the Constitution in 1788 to address the concerns of Protestant Reverands that the lack of a religious test to hold office would allow Catholics and Muslims to join the Govt. http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/editorial/16359671.htm Barton's claim that John Randolph of Roanoke just eleven years after this debate was elected as a Muslim seems typical of his shoddy scholarship.

--Wowaconia 04:29, 20 January 2007 (UTC)