Скачать или смотреть Senator McBride's Response to Senator Lawson's attack on Muslim Prayer in Delaware State Senate

Senator McBride's Response to Senator Lawson's attack on Muslim Prayer in Delaware State Senate

Madam President: I rise to speak on something that happened in this chamber earlier today, because as I reflect on the chain of events, I feel there is complicity in remaining silent. I want to reread the prayer:

O God - We acknowledge that our country is facing serious challenges, and that our world is in crisis. Give this assembly the courage that is necessary to lead our state towards a more just and peaceful state. Allow the members of this assembly to stand firm for Justice as witnesses to you, even if it is against themselves or of their kin or anyone else without any discrimination. Please allow them to control their hearts so that they can bring about and uphold social justice in the laws that they make and so that they are always truthful witnesses. We acknowledge that you are the better protector of them, their kin, the rich and the poor, and that you are well acquainted with everything they do – Amen.

Madam President: Each of us who are elected to this esteemed body are elected to represent ALL Delawareans and as such we have a responsibility as we stand on this floor to let our words and actions reflect that sacred trust.

I have never been of the mind to censure the words of other members, but I also believe deeply that words have consequences. To criticize the sacred prayer of another religion from the floor of the Senate strikes me as antithetical to everything we ought to stand for as lawmakers.

Muslim-Americans fulfill critical roles in our community. They serve in our military, in our intelligence agencies and in our police departments. They are doctors, professors, teachers. In fact, they work inside this very building – the public’s building. Muslim-Americans are Delawareans.

I am personally offended that our guests from the Muslim community and anyone else here in the chamber today would feel anything less than welcomed with opened arms. And for our guests today to be branded as anti-American ones when our First Amendment of our country’s Constitution explicitly guarantees the Freedom of Religion is both ironic and deeply sad to me.

I am hopeful we can move past this sad chapter in the body’s history. We may not always agree on policy or even politics, but treating others with respect, kindness, and an open mind and open heart should not be up for negotiation in this Chamber."