Nothing is more routine on the floor of the Texas Senate than the morning prayer. Unless the prayer is delivered during Passover, four days before Easter, by a Muslim cleric whose background is questioned by conservative radio talk show hosts, one of whom happens to be a senator.
The senator, Dan Patrick, who has from his first day in office challenged tradition, may have become the first senator ever to leave the floor in protest of the prayer. The invocation itself was a first for the the Senate, delivered by Imam Yusuf Kavakci, with the Dallas Central Mosque.
Before he could stand before the Senate, Kavakci faced accusations by conservative groups such as the Texas Eagle Forum, suggesting that he was a member of a radical Muslim religious sect, a charge he has denied.
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