[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 14]
[Senate]
[Pages 20554-20555]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                      WELCOMING IMAM YUSUF SALEEM

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, before we move to the bill, I want to take a 
minute and express the appreciation of the entire Senate, especially 
that of Majority Leader Daschle, for the groundbreaking prayer today. 
Imam Saleem appeared at our weekly prayer breakfast this morning at 8 
o'clock.
  Now for the first time in the history of this country, at least to my 
knowledge--I have been here awhile--we have had a Muslim offer our 
invocation. I not only was impressed with the content of the prayer but 
the manner in which it was delivered.
  We should all feel so good about today. Dr. Ogilvie, who is present 
today, is to be commended for inviting one of his colleagues to be the 
guest Chaplain and allowing him to take his place. No one can take his 
place, but certainly he adequately represented him; that is for sure.
  We are effusive in our praise for Dr. Ogilvie always but especially 
today for his insight into having Imam Saleem, the Resident Imam of 
Masjid Muhammad and also the National Educational Director for the 
Muslim American Society, with us. We are so grateful that he is here. 
We hope he returns and again blesses us with his prayer.
  We have over 6 million of his faith in America. We have thousands of 
Muslims in Nevada. I hope some of them had the pleasure of watching 
today. For those who didn't, I will broadcast it every chance I get to 
make sure they do know he was here today.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Vermont.
  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, I know there are several Senators who wish 
to speak. I will quickly yield the floor.
  While the Imam is still here, I join Senator Reid in welcoming him to 
the Senate Chamber. Of course, I thank Dr. Ogilvie for making him 
available as a visiting Chaplain. It provides an example of the nature 
of the United States where we do not subscribe to one religion but have 
the advantage of many religions; the fact that our country has been 
stronger and better for that, that we make the Nation available to all 
religions and respect all religions and an individual's right to 
practice the religion they choose.
  We were honored this morning by having the Imam here at the opening 
of our session. He demonstrated to our Nation that we are a diverse 
nation, diverse in our heritage. We are all either children or 
grandchildren or great grandchildren of immigrants, certainly in my 
family, my mother and my wife, first-generation Americans, speaking in 
a different language than English until they learned English. But we 
are also so different in all our religions. Look across the Senate 
floor. There are a number of different religions represented right 
here. We have Mormons, Protestants, Jews, and Catholics. It is a 
wonderful example of the diversity of this Nation. So I was pleased to 
hear Senator Reid's comments. I associate myself with them. I thank the 
Imam for opening our session.
  Mr. REID. Is the Senator from Vermont aware that this is the first 
time in the history of our country that a Muslim has offered the 
invocation for the Senate?
  Mr. LEAHY. I was not aware of that. I certainly hope it will not be 
the last. I hope this will happen often. I also know that the visiting 
Chaplain honors us, but I also hope he knows the Senate honors him. My 
wife's brother is a Catholic priest. One of his great moments in his 
priesthood was when he opened the Senate session. He reminded us of 
that often. This is something we should do often, and I applaud the 
Chaplain in using his prerogative to make this opportunity available to 
so many others.
  Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I join with my colleagues in welcoming 
the opening prayer this morning and say how much all of us appreciate 
this very important expression and how we value the message that was 
given to all of us

[[Page 20555]]

today. I thank our leadership for giving us the opportunity to listen 
to this voice of peace and restraint and wisdom. I am personally very 
grateful to the guest Chaplain for his presentation.

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