Thursday, December 21, 2006
Goode warns of Muslim influx
Virgil Goode has made illegal immigration a primary issue of his congressional career.
Related
roanoke.com/politics
A Washington, D.C.-based Islamic advocacy group has called on Rocky Mount Congressman Virgil Goode to apologize for a letter in which he wrote that he did not want to see more Muslims coming to the United States.
In a letter written to constituents who were concerned about Minnesota Congressman-elect Keith Ellison, who wants to be photographed for a ceremonial swearing-in with a Quran and not a Bible, Goode wrote that he does "not subscribe to using the Koran in any way.
"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," Goode wrote.
Responding to questions e-mailed to his press secretary, Linwood Duncan, Goode wrote Wednesday that he is not apologizing for comments in the letter. Goode said he wrote it in response to several hundred complaints about Ellison from constituents, including one who asked Goode to introduce a bill requiring elected representatives to swear their oath of office on the Bible.
A copy of the letter was sent to the head of the Charlottesville Sierra Club, and it was published in the C-Ville Weekly.
"If you hold such bigoted and divisive views, the least you can do when they're exposed is apologize for the harm they do," said Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Washington-based Islamic civil rights and advocacy group. "He needs to educate himself about American history, about the Constitution and about the American Muslim community."
Elected congressional representatives are sworn in without a book during a mass ceremony. However, they are offered the opportunity to pose for individual photos with the speaker of the House. That's the ceremony for which Ellison wants to use the Quran.
A spokesman at Ellison's office offered no comment.
Goode, a popular congressman who's consistently won voter support since his initial election to public office in 1973, has made illegal immigration a primary target of his congressional career. He introduced a bill to build a fence along the border between the United States and Mexico.
He's also called for tighter border enforcement, a crackdown on employers who hire illegal immigrants and amending the Constitution to prevent the children of illegal immigrants from becoming U.S. citizens by birth.
Waldo Jaquith, a Charlottesville Democrat who runs a Web log that posted the letter Tuesday, said he'd initially agreed with Goode on many of his stances on illegal immigration. But this letter, he said, is "pure bigotry.
"I think what's different is that previously he was able to present sort of a pragmatic front on immigration," Jaquith said. "There are a lot of practical reasons to limit or even halt immigration. By introducing a religious element, he's demonstrating his position is based on intolerance and religious ignorance rather than these more practical matters."
After CAIR issued a press release calling for a Goode apology Wednesday, the story was picked up by a number of national media outlets. By 5 p.m., 100 different news outlets were carrying some version of the story, according to a search on Google News.
University of Virginia political scientist Larry Sabato said that although the story will resonate around Charlottesville and the northern portion of Goode's district, it probably will be overshadowed in national news by President Bush's Wednesday news conference on the war in Iraq.
"Remember, Virgil Goode is not a household name outside Virginia or the 5th District," Sabato said.
"It's possible this will be played, but I doubt it rises to the top of the national news," he said.
In addition to CAIR, U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell, D-New Jersey, and the American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia condemned Goode's comments.
On the Net: www.cair-net.org www.house.gov/goode
