Editor's Letter

CD

Looking Beyond The Oath

D

etroit native Keith Ellison will place a hand on the
Koran at his ceremonial oath-taking this week as he
takes a seat in the U.S. House. He's the nation's high-
est-elected Muslim and the first Muslim in Congress, but I'm
not quaking over his choice of holy book.
The official swearing-in for House members is done en
masse without a hint of religion.
Pictures are taken of each member
reciting the oath, typically with a
hand on the Bible as a memento and
for publicity. Religious choice is at
America's core. Even federal officials
sworn in using a Bible don't necessar-
ily use the same version.
Ellison is Sunni Muslim. I'm more
concerned about his past allegiance
to the Nation of Islam and whether
his votes and voice as a congressman
dispel the anti-Israel and anti-Jewish
sentiment of that ministry's leader, Rev. Louis Farrakhan.
Ellison helped raise money for the 1995 Million Man March
on the National Mall, whose mission might have been noble
had it not been tied to Farrakhan. Further, Ellison once
reportedly appeared at a fundraiser with Khalid Muhammad,
a Farrakhan deputy schooled in invective
against Israel and Jews, according to the Jewish
Telegraphic Agency (JTA).
Ellison, 43, is a University of Detroit Jesuit High
School graduate. He holds a bachelor's degree
in economics from Wayne State University in
Detroit. When he was 19, he converted to Islam
after being raised a Roman Catholic.
Ellison was elected to the U.S. House in
November as a Democratic Party-backed candi-
date in Minnesota. Martin Sabo had represented
Rep. Elliso
that Minneapolis district since 1978; he retired
with a pro-Israel voting record.

On The Stump
Contrast Ellison's background with his victory message at
wwwkeithellison.org: "We showed that we are stronger when
we build bridges between communities rather than trying to
divide and conquer." Ellison talks about an America "where
everybody counts, where everybody matters:'
In a May 28 letter to the Jewish Community Relations
Council (JCRC) of Minnesota and the Dakotas, Ellison pinned
his 18 months of involvement with the Nation of Islam on
failing to "adequately scrutinize the positions and state-
ments of the Nation of Islam, Louis Farrakhan and Khalid
Muhammad." He said he should have concluded earlier than
Farrakhan is anti-Semitic and that any form of hate is wrong.
That he would try to dismiss his affiliation with a "nation"
of virulent hatred as youthful indiscretion is suspect. You
don't affiliate with such a group by chance.
Ellison said he saw the 1995 march in Washington as "an
effort to promote African American self-sufficiency, personal
responsibility and community economic development." But
I don't accept that this 1990 University of Minnesota Law
School graduate was blind to the Nation of Islam's larger
purpose of degrading non-Muslims and branding Israel's
defensive forays into the Palestinian territories as oppressive
colonization.

The JTA cites a troubling piece that Ellison, under the
name Keith E. Hakim, wrote in law school for the campus
Minnesota Daily. He wrote about "ghetto merchants and
pawnbrokers" and the "black tax" they charged black cus-
tomers. It wouldn't be a stretch to assume he meant Jewish
inner-city businessmen. In another column, he argued that
Farrakhan wasn't anti-Semitic.

Coming To Grips
What Dan Rosen, a Minneapolis lawyer and JCRC board
member, told JTA, echoes: "You can't, as an adult and as a
lawyer, have a lengthy association with an organization with
the rhetoric of the Nation of Islam and deny that during that
time you understood that the organization was anti-Semitic
— without either insulting the intelligence of the Jews or
owning up to a distinct lack of intelligence on your own part."
Ellison must rationalize that harsh assessment if he has any
hopes of satisfying voters, especially Jews, in Minnesota's 5th
Congressional District. People change their political beliefs,
but their background reveals plenty about the roots of their
character.
A letter of explanation — a tepid apology at best —
shouldn't be the only litmus test for Ellison. So it's good that
Jewish political leaders in Minnesota give him a thumbs-up
on civil, human and housing rights issues since
he was elected to the State House in 2002.
Ellison says that peace "is necessary for both
the Israeli and Palestinian people." He supports a
two-state solution. He says Hamas "represents the
greatest obstacle to this path." Until it "denounces
terrorism, recognizes the absolute right of Israel
to exist peacefully and honors past agreements,"
he says, "it cannot be considered legitimate part-
ners in this process."
I applaud his belief that Israel and the West
must help Palestinian civilians caught in the web
of terror spun by corrupt leaders. Says Ellison: "It
is important not to play into the hands of terrorist organiza-
tions by allowing them to credibly argue that the U.S. and
Israel are denying food and medicine to [Palestinian] women
and children."
Still, Ellison's candidacy drew fundraising and endorse-
ment support from Executive Director Nihad Awad of the
Council on American-Islamic Relations. U.S. Sen. Charles
Schumer, D-NY, alleges that CAIR, through its leadership, has
ties to Hamas. Visiting Metro Detroit this fall, Tawfik Hamid,
a repentant jihadist turned medical doctor, Islam scholar and
author, told me that CAIR is an example of a Muslim group
professing to be "moderate" yet still dehumanizing Jews
— calling Jews "pigs and monkeys" — out of fear that its
credibility would be hurt and its funding would dry up.
What Keith Ellison does and says in Congress will have
more of an impact on America than whom he associated with
10 years ago — or whether he had a hand on the Koran for a
publicity shot for newspapers back home. LI

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Should Keith Ellison use the Koran at his
ceremonial oath-taking?

Does his Nation of Islam backdrop raise
red flags for you today?

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January 4 • 2007

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