Islamic group wants Ellison critic removed from Holocaust council

(AP) An Islamic civil rights group said Monday that a columnist who criticized Rep.-elect Keith Ellison's decision to use the Quran during his ceremonial swearing-in should be removed from the United States Holocaust Memorial Council.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations said the comments by Dennis Prager, a columnist and conservative talk radio host, displayed an intolerance toward Islam that make him an inappropriate person to serve on the council.

Ellison, D-Minn., is the first Muslim elected to Congress.

In his column last week, Prager wrote: "Insofar as a member of Congress taking an oath to serve America and uphold its values is concerned, America is interested in only one book, the Bible. If you are incapable of taking an oath on that book, don't serve in Congress."

The Holocaust Memorial Council oversees the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington.

"No one who holds such bigoted, intolerant and divisive views should be in a policymaking position at a taxpayer-funded institution that seeks to educate Americans about the destructive impact hatred has had, and continues to have, on every society," CAIR's executive director, Nihad Awad, wrote in a letter to the council's chairman, Fred Zeidman.

Prager, Ellison and the Holocaust council did not immediately return phone messages Monday.

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