When Keith Ellison—a Muslim recently elected to the U.S. Congress—said he would use the Koran, not the Bible, at his swearing-in next month, he was criticized by commentator and talk-show host Dennis Prager, a Jewish scholar and the author of a book on anti-Semitism. On November 28, Prager wrote that if Ellison were to follow through, it would send a damaging signal to American unity. For that observation, Prager was viciously attacked by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR).
On December 1, the ADL called Prager’s comments “intolerant, misinformed and downright un-American.” On December 4, CAIR said it has petitioned the Holocaust Memorial Council (which oversees the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum) to remove Prager from its board.
Today, Catholic League president Bill Donohue, and Don Feder, president of Jews Against Anti-Christian Defamation, issued a joint statement supporting Prager:
“We, too, will contact the Holocaust Memorial Council. What we will say is that Dennis Prager is an outstanding American who was wisely chosen to serve on the museum’s advisory council. We will further note that he is the subject of a patently unfair and defamatory attack by the ADL and CAIR. Our nation’s motto, ‘E Pluribus Unum,’ is not ‘Out of One, Many,’ rather it reads ‘Out of Many, One.’
“The Bible is the constitutive source of the Judeo-Christian ethos upon which the U.S. was founded. The Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution are products of Judeo-Christian civilization. As Prager said, Jews take their oath on the Bible, even though they do not believe in the New Testament. It’s a matter of respect: it’s a symbolic statement that pays due homage to our common heritage. Ergo, the same rule applies to everyone.
“We proudly stand by Dennis Prager. What he said was accurate and what has been said against him is scurrilous.”
