Oklahoma's political statement

While Oklahoma Gov. Brad Henry's American Ethnic Advisory Council may be trying to advance cultural awareness in honor of the state's centennial, the singular promotion of the Muslim faith by distributing personalized and state-seal-embossed Korans is an unusual choice for celebrating American values.

It is alarming that Mr. Henry is not more concerned with promoting a writing that is arguably more sacred to the Oklahoma legislators — the Bill of Rights.

The First Amendment provides that the government should not "respect an establishment of religion." The 1971 Supreme Court ruling in Lemon v. Kurtzman held that government action must have a legitimate secular purpose, must not have the primary effect of either advancing or inhibiting religion and must not result in an excessive government entanglement with religion.

Other Supreme Court decisions have held that religious symbols are allowed on government property so long as the benefit to religion is incidental and the symbol is used to promote a secular agenda, such as displaying both a menorah and a creche to celebrate the secular winter holiday season.

The actions of the advisory council, with the approval and support of Oklahoma's governor, show a blatant disregard for the separation of church and state, and are a slap in the face of the Supreme Court with regard to its decisions.

As Diana West's compelling Op-Ed, ("The Islamicizing of Oklahoma," Friday) indicates, the people of the Middle and Near East belong to many different faiths.

To be fair and incidentally in compliance with the Constitution, the advisory council would have done better by offering copies of the Bible and New Testament in addition to the Koran, to promote the secular notion of ethnic awareness of all the relevant faiths and not the endorsement of a particular religion.

The legislators' option to decline the book places them in the awkward position of making a political statement they may not want to make and exposing them to unwanted scrutiny.

The media's focus on the Oklahoma legislators' rejection of a personalized Koran is grossly missing the point. It is not about rejecting Islam. It is about protecting the First Amendment.

Instead of demonizing those who choose not to accept a blatant example of government endorsement of religion, we should all celebrate our elected representatives' choice to uphold the Constitution.

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