Matthew Albright

The News Journal

Comments that state Sen. Dave Lawson, R-Marydel, made about Islam on the floor of the chamber Wednesday led to a rare rebuke from the chamber's chief member and sparked a brief but fierce discussion about religious freedom.

"We just heard from the Quran, which calls for our very demise," Lawson said after a Muslim duo gave the invocation, including a passage from their holy text. "I fought for this country, not to be damned by someone that comes in here and prays to their God for our demise. I think that's despicable."

Lawson served in the Air Force and did a tour in Vietnam. He addressed his colleagues on the floor of the Senate.

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Tarek Ewis, imam of the Masjid Isa Ibn-e-Maryam mosque in Newark, and Naveed Baqir, executive director of the Delaware Council on Global and Muslim Affairs, were invited to give the Senate invocation.

Lawson and Sen. Colin Bonini, R-Dover South, stepped out of the chamber for the prayer. They re-entered when the speakers had finished, and Lawson gave a brief speech, saying he "took great exception" to the reading from the Quran.

After Lawson's comments, the Senate proceeded as normal, debating and passing several bills. But before the chamber adjourned later in the evening, President Pro Tempore David McBride, D-New Castle, halted, saying he felt "there is complicity in remaining silent."

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"I have never been of the mind to censure the words of other members, but I also believe deeply that words have consequences," McBride said, reading aloud from a statement. "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."

McBride went on to say that Muslims serve in the military and as police and are doctors, professors and teachers.

"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," McBride said. "And for our guests today to be branded as anti-American when our First Amendment of our country’s Constitution explicitly guarantees the freedom of religion is both ironic and deeply sad to me."

McBride said he was "hopeful we can move past this sad chapter in the body's history."

Afterward, Lawson said he thought McBride was "ignorant to what's going on."

He said the Quran includes passages about killing "infidels" and pointed to some majority-Muslim countries that restrict women's rights and persecute Christians, among other evils.

"Their belief flies in the face of our Constitution," Lawson said afterward. "This is not our Bible, we should not be allowing them to pray from that book in our house, just as I do not believe I would be allowed to pray from my Bible in their house."

Baqir called Lawson's comments "textbook Islamaphobia."

"It stems from a deep-rooted misconception about Muslims," he said. "My belief does not call for me to kill anyone. The Quran says we are not supposed to hate people; we are supposed to hate sins."

Baqir provided The News Journal with the passage from the Quran that was part of the invocation. It says: "O you who believe! Stand out firmly for justice, as witnesses to God, even though it be against yourselves, or your parents, or your kin, be he rich or poor, God is a better protector to both than you. So do not follow the lusts of your hearts, lest you may avoid justice, and if you distort your witness or refuse to give it, verily, God is ever well-acquainted with what you do."

Baqir said there are about 10,000 Muslims and 12 mosques in Delaware. He said members of the General Assembly visit frequently and said he would be happy to have Lawson visit, too.

"I like to look at it as a positive, in a way," Baqir said. "Nobody would have paid much attention today had it not been for Senator Lawson."

Baqir said he hoped to have a sit down with Lawson to explain more about the Muslim faith.

Sen. Bonini said afterward that he does not think Lawson is Islamaphobic.

"Anybody who knows Dave knows that there is not an ounce of hate in him," he said. "There is not an an ounce of hate in me either."

Still, Bonini said, "Religious freedom is not a one-way street; it is a busy intersection."

"You have a right to pray, as do I," Bonini said after McBride's response. "And I have a right to be offended by what you believe, just as you have a right to be offended by what I believe."

Bonini said neither his nor Lawson's walkout nor their comments were intended to "be specifically disrespectful to the people who are here."

Contact Matthew Albright at malbright@delawareonline.com, (302) 324-2428 or on Twitter @TNJ_malbright.