Hanging tough in Oklahoma

by Diana West

Something downright incendiary is happening in Oklahoma. First one, then 17, and now 24 state lawmakers have declined a copy of the Koran offered to all 149 members of the legislature by an official Muslim advisory group to Oklahoma’s governor. State Representative Rex Duncan, Republican, explained his rejection of the Koran this way: “Most Oklahomans do not endorse the idea of killing innocent women and children in the name of ideology.”

That’s one way. Or I could start it this way:

Something downright incendiary is happening in Oklahoma. Gov. Brad Henry’s Muslim advisory council is offering personalized Korans to lawmakers to mark the state’s centennial, with each copy to be embossed with the Oklahoma state seal and the recipient lawmaker’s name. The all-Muslim group — plain-vanilla-named the American Ethnic Advisory Council — asked lawmakers to notify it if they didn’t want a Koran, which the group described as “the record of the exact words revealed by God through the Angel Gabriel to the Prophet Muhammad.” So far, 24 have declined.

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