The sky is falling on the Texas Legislature.

On Wednesday, the Texas Senate came into session with an Islamic prayer. Imam Yusuf Kavacki offered blessings from the Koran on the Senate floor. Sen. Dan Patrick, R-Houston, became so irate that he walked out.

Sen. Kay Shapiro, R-Plano, the state's senior Jewish Senator, had granted the prayer request from the Freedom and Justice Foundation.

In a press release, Sen. Shapiro stated that "Our country prides itself on freedoms, the most relevant today is freedom of religion. In our blessed country, everyone is free to pray according to their religion, and allowing a Muslim to express his freedom demonstrates what we all have in common in the United States."

The Christian majority is now crying discrimination. On the floor, Sen. Patrick stated, "we are a state of nation with freedom of religion under which we are entitled to pray and that is remarkable. But in many parts of the world, Jews and Christians would not be given that same right."

He added, "We are a nation that allows a Muslim to come in with a Koran but does not allow a Christian to take a Bible to school ... We are a Judeo-Christian nation, primarily a Christian nation."

Basically, the senator left the floor because he is proud to be a Christian. He reasoned that since Christian prayers would not be heard in other countries, he should not have to listen to a Muslim prayer in the United States.

Never mind that two wrongs don't make a right. Never mind that doing as he did makes us exactly like those nations he vilifies. Never mind that the Senate opens with a Christian prayer just about every single day, during which senators of other religions have sat patiently and respectfully.

Granted, the majority of people in the U.S. are Christian, but ours is a nation founded upon majority rule and minority voice. Everyone has an equal right to be heard and to practice as they wish. Americans have a basic respect for every voice and every religion.

Sen. Patrick is wrong in stating that Christians are persecuted. The Constitution, both nationally and in Texas, is there to prevent a single religion from overshadowing, dominating and silencing. A Christian child can bring a Bible into school, and a Muslim child can also bring a Koran. Limiting prayer in school is not about attacking the Christian majority, it is about protecting those who are different and in the minority.

The United States was founded on right to differ. How can prayer be lead when we are not all the same, do not pray to the same god and do not pray for the same things? Protestant majorities currently arguing for prayer in schools would be furious if a Catholic prayer was imposed. Things look different from a minority standpoint.

Sen. Patrick has no right to infer that a Christian American is more American than a Jewish- American, a Muslim-American, a Buddhist-American or even an atheist American. That is like assuming blonde Americans are more American than redheaded Americans, simply because more of them exist.

I would have thought that having a minority-religion-led prayer in the Senate would open people's minds. I would have imagined that it would remind us all that we have all been a minority at one point or another. Immigrating Irish ancestors were ridiculed; so were Italians. Upon founding this country, Christians of particular denominations sought religious freedom from other Christian denominations.

I find that people like Sen. Patrick still refuse to see the big picture. Religion in America is about being open-minded and tolerant, because majorities can change. Majorities can become minorities, and the only way to ensure freedom is to extend it to others.

Tso is a government and philosophy senior.

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