Minnesota sends first Muslim to Congress - media
Ellison, who converted to Islam as a 19-year-old college student in his native Detroit, won with the help of Muslims among a coalition of liberal, anti-war voters.
He advocates an immediate U.S. withdrawal from Iraq along with strongly liberal views. While Ellison did not often speak of his faith during the campaign, awareness of his candidacy drew interest from Muslims well beyond the district centered in Minneapolis.
A significant community of Somali immigrants in Minneapolis cast their first votes for him in the crowded September primary.
[...]Opponents focused on Ellison's sloppy handling of his taxes and a slew of unpaid parking tickets, along with his one-time affiliation with the Nation of Islam, whose leader, Louis Farrakhan, has been criticized for making anti-Semitic remarks. Ellison subsequently said he worked with the group largely to promote the 1995 Million Man March.''
And according to this piece
He disagrees with the route the House has taken on illegal immigration -- turning ''hardworking immigrants into felons'' -- and added that he supports a path to citizenship.
''I think it's time for the United States to see a moderate Muslim voice, to see a face of Islam that is just like everybody else's face,'' Ellison said. ''Perhaps it would be good for somebody who is Muslim to be in Congress, so that Muslims would feel like they are part of the body politic and that other Americans would know that we’re here to make a contribution to this country.''
And in this piece at FrontPageMag, Robert Spencer explores Ellison's ties to CAIR, particularly his close ties to Nihad Awad, the founder of CAIR. His close association with Hamas is also noted.
Here is a link to a video interview with Ellison by a sympathetic leftist blogger.
From the video, we learn that Ellison is running on a 'peace' platform. And as a Democrat, he spouts the usual platitudes about fighting poverty, providing health care to the downtrodden masses, and so on. I am not sure how Islam can mesh philosophically with leftist politics. Oddly, Ellison takes a somewhat gay-friendly stance in opposing Minnesota's Marriage Amendment. How can this be squared with Islamic belief? Somehow I have a feeling that these incongruities won't trouble Ellison's supporters; the lefties seem content to make common cause with a religion which is virulently anti-homosexual and anti-woman. And Ellison seems willing to meet the Democrats and their gay voting bloc halfway by seeming to side with them on the marriage amendment. They will strike their bargain, no doubt, but my concern is the likelihood that Ellison's election will be the foot in the door for Islam in nationwide offices.
So soon after watching the 'Obsession' special, I find the idea of Moslems in high office in this country to be especially troubling. I don't see how a Moslem can swear an oath of office, and swear to uphold the laws of the land, and still be a member of a religion which sees infidels, and particularly Americans, as the hated enemy. I do not think Ellison can serve two masters. I think his election is a bad harbinger, and I think, as long as Ellison can maintain an image as just another black politican, he further lulls people into buying the idea of 'good Moslems', and America will let her guard down even more. I think the idea of running an American-born Black Muslim is also a shrewd ploy: anyone who criticizes him will face the double whammy of being called 'racist' and Islamophobic. And the fact that he is American-born makes him appear more benign to most Americans.
And another point that comes to mind is that Ellison's election also portends what will happen as the result of the changing demographics of this country: the Somalis apparently put him over in this election, and as their numbers grow surely we will see more Moslems elected to office, and we will see the growing power of the 'Somali community', as the liberals would phrase it.
Those majority-group American politicians who think they can simply harness the immigrant vote or ethnic vote, and corral it, are fooling themselves. When these various immigrant groups are able to vote, and as there are increasing numbers of native-born members of these ethnic groups, they will vote for their own: Moslems will vote for Moslems, Hispanics for Hispanics, and so on, down the line. The country, as it is becoming more multiethnic and multiracial, will break down along ethnic/racial/religious lines. Given our deluded emphasis on 'diversity' and ethnic politics, we will divide further into factions. And if all the ethnic and religious minorities are not only allowed, but encouraged to follow their own particularistic interests, the rest of us old-stock Americans will be at a considerable disadvantage, because we, and only we, are browbeaten into thinking we cannot vote along ethnic lines; we alone must be 'colorblind', impartial, tolerant, and objective. Only we are expected to take the larger view, and consider the interests of the country as a whole. No one is looking out for our interests, except for a mere handful of our elected officials; the rest are not ashamed to go whoring after the ethnic vote, or to sell out their country and their people for the money they get from global corporate interests.
At some point, we will have to wake from our slumber and realize that we Americans have to abandon our high-minded, self-sacrificing ways and protect our own interests, and those of our country.
