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 (AP) - Rep.-elect Keith Ellison, the first Muslim
elected to Congress, will use a Quran once owned by Thomas
Jefferson during his ceremonial swearing-in Thursday.

      The chief of the Library of Congress' rare book and special
collections division, Mark Dimunation, will walk the Quran across
the street to the Capitol and then walk it back after the ceremony.

      Ellison, D-Minn., contacted the library about the book last
month, Dimunation said.

      Some critics have argued that only a Bible should be used for
the swearing-in. Last month, Virginia Rep. Virgil Goode, R-Va.,
warned that unless immigration is tightened, "many more Muslims"
will be elected and follow Ellison's lead. Ellison was born in
Detroit and converted to Islam in college.

      Ellison spokesman Rick Jauert said the new congressman "wants
this to be a special day, and using Thomas Jefferson's Quran makes
it even more special."

      "Jefferson's Quran dates religious tolerance to the founders of
our country," he added.

      An English translation of the Arabic, it was published in 1764
in London, a later printing of one originally published in 1734.

      "This is considered the text that shaped Europe's understanding
of the Quran," Dimunation said.

      It was acquired in 1815 as part of a 6,400-volume collection
that Jefferson sold for $24,000, to replace the congressional
library that had been burned by British troops the year before, in
the War of 1812.

      "It was a real bargain," Dimunation said.

      Jefferson, the third president of the United States, collected
books in all topics and languages, said Dimunation. The Quran
survived an 1851 fire in the Capitol building. Dimunation described
it as a two-volume work, bound in leather with marble boards.

      "As a rare book librarian," he said, "there is something
special about the idea that Thomas Jefferson's books are being
walked across the street to the Capitol building, to bring in yet
another session of governmental structure that he helped create."

Gallery

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Fred Frommer

Author

A spokesman for Ellison said the new congressman "wants this to be a special day, and using Thomas Jefferson's Quran makes
it even more special." The book is housed at the Library of Congress.


DFL congressional candidate Keith Ellison

Ellison to be sworn in using Quran once owned by Thomas Jefferson

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