Senator-elect Abdul El-Sayed, the first Muslim elected to the upper chamber, intends to be sworn in on the Quran, he said in a podcast interview.
Appearing on NPR’s podcast Newsmakers, El-Sayed said, “I will likely swear on a Quran — which Quran we’re not sure.” He explained that Thomas Jefferson owned a Quran, the same used by Keith Ellison when he was sworn in to Congress. Ellison was the first Muslim elected to Congress in 2006, where he served as a representative of Minnesota until 2019. He is now Minnesota’s attorney general.
“There’s also the first — the University of Michigan holds the first Quran in the state of Michigan,” El-Sayed added, explaining his options for the ceremony. “It’s very, very old. And that might be the choice. So I don’t know, but I’ll swear in on the Quran.”
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The senator-elect also defended his full name, Abdulrahman Mohamed El-Sayed, as an American name. “The opposition decided to make my name such an issue and my faith such an issue,” he said during the podcast episode. “And so, you know, Abdulrahman Mohamed El-Sayed is as American as Mike Rogers. It’s as American as Donald Trump. It’s as American as whatever JD stands for. It is an American name.”
“Whatever my name is, however I pray, it’s not the book that you swear on. It’s the book you swear allegiance to,” El-Sayed further stated, discussing the Constitution. “This document is the reason that, no matter how I pray, that I could run for office and that the folks in my state could elect me. What an amazing thing.”
This article originally appeared on American Faith and is reposted with permission.
