December 21, 2006

http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/12/20/lawmaker.koran/index.html

WASHINGTON (CNN) — A Virginia congressman will not apologize for writing that without immigration overhaul “there will be many more Muslims elected to office demanding the use of the Quran,” his spokesman said.

Republican Rep. Virgil Goode’s letter to constituents also warns that without immigration overhaul “we will have many more Muslims in the United States.”

Spokesman Linwood Duncan said Goode’s letter was written in response to complaints his office received about Minnesota Rep.-elect Keith Ellison’s request to be sworn in using the Quran.

Ellison is the first Muslim to be elected to Congress.

Goode’s office released the letter to CNN Wednesday.

In it, Goode wrote, “When I raise my hand to take the oath on Swearing In Day, I will have the Bible in my other hand. I do not subscribe to using the Quran in any way.

“The Muslim representative from Minnesota was elected by the voters of that district and if American citizens don’t wake up and adopt the Virgil Goode position on immigration there will likely be many more Muslims elected to office and demanding the use of the Quran.

“We need to stop illegal immigration totally and reduce legal immigration and end the diversity visas policy pushed hard by President Clinton and allowing many persons from the Middle East to come to this country.

“I fear that in the next century we will have many more Muslims in the United States if we do not adopt the strict immigration policies that I believe are necessary to preserve the values and beliefs traditional to the United States of America and to prevent our resources from being swamped.”

He added, “The Ten Commandments and ‘In God We Trust’ are on the wall in my office. A Muslim student came by the office and asked why I did not have anything on my wall about the Quran.

“My response was clear, ‘As long as I have the honor of representing the citizens of the 5th District of Virginia in the United States House of Representatives, the Quran is not going to be on the wall of my office.’ ”

The Council on American-Islamic Relations asked Goode to apologize.

“Rep. Goode’s Islamophobic remarks send a message of intolerance that is unworthy of anyone elected to public office,” the council’s Corey Saylor said in a statement. “There can be no reasonable defense for such bigotry.”

Duncan told CNN that Goode stands by his comments.

Berlin, den 15.12.2006

Statement to the press

Organization of the resistance fighters condemns Holocaust - denying

The international federation of the resistance fighters (FIR) - association of the anti-fascists, the umbrella organisation of federations of former resistance fighters, partisans, members of the anti-Hitler coalition, pursued of the Nazi-regime and anti-fascist of today’s generations from over twenty countries of Europe and Israel protests emphatic against the historical-revisionist conference to the topic Holocaust, which - supported by the Iranian government - were accomplished in Teheran at the beginning of this week.

It was - as one could expect it after the announcements - not differently a scientific conference, but a meeting, on which openly the mass-extermination of Jews in form of industrially organized destruction politics was denied. The invited “experts” were without exception well-known historical revisionists and partially open anti-Semite. So it could not surprise also that the offer of the survivors of Auschwitz was deflected to prove to sceptics the reality of the destruction politics by witnesses of the crimes.

The political leaders of Iran show with this conference that they promote historical revisionism and at the same time that they connect this with a denunciation of the state Israel. Such a meeting is to poison the political climate in the Middle East and to strengthen the conflicts between Israel and its neighbours.

As anti-fascist organization, which is committed to the historical truth and the fight against any form of racism and anti-Semitism, we condemn such propaganda. Contently we can state however that this historical-revisionist meeting in the world public experienced a clear contradiction. We know ourselves thereby united with all those democratic and peaceable forces, which use themselves actively against anti-Semitism and historical revisionism and for the reducing of conflicts in the Middle East.

We would like to ask You to publish this press release.
Best regards

Dr. Ulrich Schneider Michel Vanderborght
General secretary of FIR President of FIR

Sekretariat: Internationale Föderation der Widerstandskämpfer (FIR), Franz-Mehring-Platz 1, D- 10243 Berlin
Fon (30) 29 78 41 74, Fax (30) 29 78 41 79, e-mail: bundesbuero@vvn-bda.de, Internet www.fir.at
Die Internationale Föderation der Widerstandskämpfer (FIR) wurde vom Generalsekretär der Vereinten Nationen zum “Botschafter des Friedens” ernannt. Sie besitzt NGO-Status bei der UNESCO, Paris, der ständigen Kommission der UNO, Genf, und dem Europarat, Strasbourg.