“I’m a Muslim. I’m proud to be a Muslim. But I’m not running as a Muslim candidate,” Ellison recently said
My religion is a distraction, says Muslim poised to enter Congress
Telegraph Co.UK
Gathering his teenage players around him, the high school basketball coach urged them to take notice. “This is a moment in history,” he said. “This is the first Muslim, and the first African-American from Minnesota, to represent you in Congress.”
Keith Ellison looked uncomfortable. He is indeed poised to become the first follower of Islam to enter the United States House of Representatives, but he feels that the focus on his religion has become a distraction from what he wants to achieve as a politician.
“I’m not really enamoured with the whole ‘first’ stuff,” he told The Sunday Telegraph. “I’m not making an appeal on the basis of faith. I do hope, though, that people who have felt that they were on the margins, not included in the American body politic, can now feel they can play a greater part.”
Mr Ellison’s religion, however, has become central to the mid-term congressional race in Minneapolis where, having won the Democratic Party nomination in the primary election this month, he is the overwhelming favourite for the November 7 vote.
In the backlash against their faith after the September 11 attacks, the number of Muslims seeking elected office across America’s 50 states plummeted, despite the fact that the
Muslim population now stands at an estimated four million.
Some on the Republican Right have sought to make Mr Ellison, a lawyer specialising in representing impoverished blacks, a national election issue. Newt Gingrich, the former speaker of the House of Representatives, has branded him a “radical Left defender of cop killers” who exposes the Democratic Party as “unacceptably radical at home and weak abroad”.
Unabashedly liberal, Mr Ellison rejects President George W Bush’s argument that there is a “clash of civilisations” between Islam and the West, insisting that Muslims have the same aspirations as everyone else. “It’s dangerous to promote that concept,” he said. “Muslims in America mostly want to get an education, start a business, get married, build a mosque, live life.”
But he wants Mr Bush to be impeached for going to war based on a “fabricated case” and advocates the immediate withdrawal of American troops from the “quagmire” of Iraq.
Born a Roman Catholic, Mr Ellison, 43, was a 19-year-old economics student when he converted – and became associated with the Nation of Islam, the radical group that promotes black rights and whose leader, Louis Farrakhan, has made racist statements.
Mr Ellison, who previously used the names Keith Hakim, aka Keith X Ellison and Keith Ellison Muhammad, insists that he was never a member of the group.
But Alan Fine, his Republican opponent, who is Jewish, denounced Mr Ellison as a liar. “Anyone who joins a hate group during his adulthood, we should question the character of that individual,” he said, to boos, at a candidate forum. “The Ku Klux Klan, the Nazi party and the Nation of Islam are not things that are positive.”
When Right-wing bloggers exposed the extent of his links with the Nation of Islam, Mr Ellison wrote to the local Jewish Community Relations Council apologising for failing to “adequately scrutinise the positions” of Mr Farrakhan and others. “They were, and are, anti-Semitic and I should have come to that conclusion earlier than I did.”
He has condemned Hamas and Hezbollah as terrorist groups and described “Israel’s security needs” as “an absolute rock bottom necessity”. Many prominent Jewish Democrats have warmly endorsed him.
Mr Ellison has been a state representative in the -Minnesota legislature for four years, with a constituency where most voters are from ethnic minorities, including many Somali -refugees. But the much larger -congressional district that he hopes will elect him is only 13 per cent black, with an even smaller proportion- of Muslims, so he must also win votes from the majority, white -population.
Imam Markram El-Amin, head of the Masjid An-Nur mosque, where Mr Ellison worships, said: “The time is right. Keith is proud to be a Muslim but he doesn’t want to hold the banner so high that people see him only in that light.”
Mr El-Amin, who has travelled to the Vatican for a papal audience as well as to Saudi Arabia for the Haj pilgrimage, said that his parents had been members of the Nation of Islam. “I wouldn’t class it as a hate group but I can understand how, for the outsider looking in, it would appear that way.
“It was more about building up the black man than tearing down whites and others. Now it’s time to embrace a universal, more open Islam.”
“We have a great opportunity and an obligation to play our part as Muslims in America, to show the good face of Islam.”
”We believe that America is the greatest nation on earth and the freedoms that we have are greater than many Muslims have in Islamic countries.”
And then there is this………
Ellison has accepted funds and support from several leading CAIR (Council on American-Islamic Relations) personalities, including Nihad Awad, the executive director. Awad donated $2000, and CAIR’s Director of Government Affairs, Corey Saylor, also chipped in to Ellison’s campaign. Previously, Awad had apparently delivered several checks to Ellison’s campaign totaling around $10,000. Not a bad day for Ellison’s campaign, but it makes one wonder what CAIR is getting in return for the cash.
Wild Thing’s comment……
You mean what you are saying is …..” Don’t think about my death cult I belong to that wants to kill you just vote for me.”
I am totally 100% against ANY Muslim being in leadership in any way in our government. Muslims if you don’t llike it tuff!
Ellison has written under the name of Keith Hakim for the University of Minnesota student newspaper when he was in law school there in 1989 and 1990.
The first article defended Farrakhan against accusations of anti-Semitism. The second called affirmative action a “sneaky” form of compensation for slavery, suggesting instead that white Americans pay reparations to blacks.
Ellison has after being confronted about it, acknowledged that he had worked with the Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam for about 18 months to organize the Minnesota contingent to Farrakhan’s 1995 Million Man March in Washington.
Well let’s look at this:
Islam’s “Plan” To Take Over the USA
As reported by Dr.Anis Shorrosh, author of “Islam Revealed”
1. Terminate America ‘s freedom of speech by replacing it with
statewide and nationwide hate-crime bills
2. Wage a war of words using black leaders like Louis Farrakhan,
Rev. Jesse Jackson and other visible religious personalities who
promote Islam as the religion of African-Americans while insisting
Christianity is for whites only. What they fail to tell African-Americans
is that it was Arab Muslims who captured them and sold them as slaves.
In fact, the Arabic word for black and slave is the same, ”Abed.”
3. Engage the American public in dialogues, discussions, debates in colleges,
universities, public libraries, radio, TV, churches and mosques on the
virtues of Islam. Proclaim how it is historically another religion like Judaism
and Christianity with the same monotheistic faith.
4. Nominate Muslim sympathizers to political office to bring about favorable
legislation toward Islam and support potential sympathizers by block voting.
5. Take control of as much of Hollywood , the press, TV, radio and the
Internet as possible by buying the related corporations or a controlling stock.
6. Yield to the fear of the imminent shut-off of the lifeblood of
America – black gold. America ’s economy depends on oil and 41 percent
of it comes from the Middle East .
7. Yell ”foul, out-of-context, personal interpretation, hate crime, Zionist,
un- American, inaccurate interpretation of the Quran” anytime Islam is
criticized or the Quran is analyzed in the public arena.
8. Encourage Muslims to penetrate the White House, specifically with Islamists
who can articulate a marvelous and peaceful picture of Islam. Acquire
government positions and get membership in local school boards.
Train Muslims as medical doctors to dominate the medical field, research
and pharmaceutical companies. (Ever notice how numerous Muslim doctors
in America are, when their countries need them more desperately than
America ?) Take over the computer industry. Establish Middle Eastern
restaurants throughout the U.S. to connect planners of Islamization
in a discreet way.
9. Accelerate Islamic demographic growth via
-Massive immigration (100,000 annually since 1961).
-Use no birth control whatsoever – every baby of Muslim parents is
automatically a Muslim and cannot choose another religion later.
-Muslim men must marry American women and Islamize them (10,000 annually).
Then divorce them and remarry every five years – since one can’t legally
marry four at one time. This is a legal solution in America
-Convert angry, alienated black inmates and turn them into militants
(so far 2,000 released inmates have joined al-Qaida worldwide). Only a few
”sleeper cells” have been captured in Afghanistan and on American soil.
10. Reading , writing, arithmetic and research through the American educational
system, mosques and student centers (now 1,500) should be sprinkled with
dislike of Jews, evangelical Christians and democracy. There are currently
300 exclusively Muslim schools in the U.S. which teach loyalty to the Quran,
not the U.S. Constitution. In January of 2002, Saudi Arabia ’s Embassy in
Washington mailed 4,500 packets of the Quran and videos promoting Islam to
America ‘s high schools – free of charge. Saudi Arabia would not allow the
U.S. to reciprocate.
11. Provide very sizeable monetary Muslim grants to colleges and universities in
America to establish ”Centers for Islamic studies” with Muslim directors to
promote Islam in higher-education institutions.
12. Let the entire world know through propaganda, speeches, seminars, local and
national media that terrorists have hijacked Islam, when in truth, Islam
hijacked the terrorists
13. Appeal to the historically compassionate and sensitive Americans for
sympathy and tolerance towards Muslims in America who are portrayed
as mainly immigrants from oppressed countries.
14. Nullify America ‘s sense of security by manipulating the intelligence
community with misinformation. Periodically terrorize Americans with
reports of impending attacks on bridges, tunnels, water supplies, airports,
apartment buildings and malls.
15. Form riots and demonstrations in the prison system demanding Islamic
Sharia as the way of life, not America ‘s justice system.
16. Open numerous charities throughout the U.S. , but use the funds to
support Islamic terrorism with American dollars.
17. Raise interest in Islam on America ‘s campuses by insisting freshman
take at least one course on Islam
18. Unify the numerous Muslim lobbies in Washington , mosques, Islamic
student centers, educational organizations, magazines and papers by
Internet and an annual convention to coordinate plans, propagate the
faith and engender news in the media.
19. Send intimidating messages and messengers to the outspoken individuals
who are critical of Islam and seek to eliminate them by hook or crook.
20. Applaud Muslims as loyal citizens of the U.S. by spotlighting their voting
record as the highest percentage of all minority and ethic groups in America.
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