Exclusive: Congressman Ellison Carries the Islamists’ Water
M. Zuhdi Jasser


Author: M. Zuhdi Jasser

Date Published: 2007-07-19


 

Why is Congressman Keith Ellison (D-MN), the first Muslim in the U.S. Congress, disgracefully spreading extremist propaganda and aligning himself with controversial Islamist groups?  FSM Contributing Editor Zuhdi Jasser demonstrates why Ellison must be censured by the U.S. Congress. 

 

Congressman Ellison Carries the Islamists’ Water

 

 

By M. Zuhdi Jasser

 

Most American Muslim activists this past month were trying to grapple with the reality of the “Doctor Plot” out of the United Kingdom. While most Americans are finally waking up to the fact that radical Islamism and its fascism knows no boundaries to economic or educational status, Congressman Keith Ellison has not found the time to seriously address radical Islamism and the ideology with which we are in conflict.

 

Now with just over six months in office, the good Congressman has yet to find time to discuss counterterrorism substantively from his congressional office. But, interestingly, he has been able to find time recently to speak to Atheists for Human Rights at a library in Edina, Minnesota.

 

During his speech, when commenting about 9-11 and the Bush Administration, he stated according to the Minneapolis Star Tribune,

 

“It's almost like the Reichstag fire, kind of reminds me of that… after the Reichstag was burned, they blamed the Communists for it, and it put the leader [Hitler] of that country in a position where he could basically have authority to do whatever he wanted…."I'm not saying [Sept. 11] was a [U.S.] plan, or anything like that, because, you know, that's how they put you in the nut-ball box — dismiss you."

 

Ellison is the first Muslim in the U.S. Congress. With the help of a less than investigative mainstream media he was able to sidestep his more than troublesome past with the Nation of Islam (NOI). He has since denied being a part of NOI other than assisting for 18 months with the million man march. He now describes himself as a sunni Muslim.

 

Regardless, the facts are out there and since occupying his U.S. Congressional office, he certainly has not been one to hide his Muslim faith. In fact he wears it on his sleeve, whenever it suits him and other Islamist causes around the United States.

 

Within days of his victory in Minnesota’s 5th District, he gave a speech at the North American Imams Federation in November 2006 as Congressman-elect Ellison. This is the same federation behind the ridiculous Islamist lawsuit against U.S. Airways and the reporting John Doe passengers. During his campaign he welcomed a fundraiser from Islamists on his behalf on August 25th, 2006 featuring James Yee and Nihad Awad of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). Ellison then traveled to Florida for a fundraiser sponsored also by known CAIR leadership including Parvez Ahmed (CAIR Board Chairman) and Ahmed Bedier (CAIR-FLA executive director).

 

Then on December 24, 2006, he spoke at the convention of two leading Islamist organizations in Dearborn, Michigan- the Muslim American Society and the Islamic Circle of North America. He told these Islamist groups,

 

“Muslims you’re up to bat right now...” he said. “How do you know that you were not brought right here to this place to learn how to make this world better? How do you know that Allah, sallalahu aleyhi wasallam,” (meaning peace be upon him) “did not bring you here so that you could understand how to teach people what tolerance was, what justice was? How do you know that you’re not here to teach this country?”

 

And, just in the past few weeks he has made himself readily available to political Islam in Washington. A few days ago, he spoke to Muslim youth attending a National Muslim American Youth Summit organized by the Muslim Public Affairs Council. Michelle Boorstein reporting for the Washington Post noted representative comments from an attendee, Mohammed Sabur, who also hails from Minnesota and stated, "I'm trying constantly to figure out: How can I be a civically involved Muslim, interact with other Muslims as well as the government while not seeming like a sellout, like my allegiance is in one camp or another?" Boorstein then goes on to report the following:

 

Young Muslim Americans have a limited number of role models in top-level politics. There are none in top positions in the agencies represented at the conference. The summit met with U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), the first Muslim elected to Congress, and the Congressional Muslim Staffers Association, which started about two years ago and estimates there are 25 Muslims working on Capitol Hill. The event comes, not by accident, as attention is turning toward Muslim American youths. A Pew Research Center report released in May found a quarter of American Muslims ages 18 to 29 believe suicide bombings against civilians can sometimes be justified to defend Islam, while only 9 percent older than 30 believe that.

 

Are we then to assume that the limited role models, like Congressman Ellison, who do exist are teaching an ideology which will prevent the radicalization of youth? With vitriolic speeches like the one he gave to the Atheists for Human Rights on July 8, 2007, what’s to ensure that Congresssman Ellison didn’t spew the same hateful propaganda against the Bush administration to the Muslim youth who emulated him in Washington D.C. on July 13, 2007 just 5 days later?

 

Until so-called Muslim leaders like Congressman Ellison begin to understand the linkage between political Islam and the radicalization of youth toward terrorism and radical Islamism, we will make no headway in this global war. Our most important tools in deprogramming estranged youth are prominent Muslim leaders ready to counter political Islam and Wahhabism. Cong. Ellison has shown neither the desire nor the inclination to do such a thing. I have yet to see Congressman Ellison on record acknowledging that this is not a crime problem, but rather a global conflict of ideologies between militant Islamism and western pluralism (Americanism).  Muslims like himself who do not shy away from their Muslim identity are being called upon in this time in history to ideologically combat political Islam and relegate the ‘Islamic state’ to the dustbin of history.

 

But rather, Cong. Ellison is too busy pandering to Atheists groups who would have virtually no rights to become legislators or write laws under a state based on governmental sharia. He squanders his position to pander to Muslim youth, Islamists, and others who believe the Al Jazeera line. He should actually be leading the national Muslim activist community to separate religion and politics in Islam and turn off the political spigot which feeds radical Islam.

 

Most moral individuals would agree that under Hitler’s Germany, German citizens who fought directly against Adolf Hitler and his Third Reich for their crimes against humanity were heroes, not traitors. It should not be too far removed for Congressman Ellison to comprehend that a young impressionable Muslim mind with violent tendencies may hear the words which Ellison spoke on July 8 and hear his disgraceful and irresponsible comparison of the Bush administration and our military to Hitler’s Germany and feel morally empowered to act upon that. As a Congressman, his words are no longer footnotes for Muslim youth, or just reiterations of Al Jazeera’s background noise. But, rather his words are empowering to Muslim youth in search of role models as the Washington Post intimated only 5 days later. 

 

With domestic plots of radical Islamists thwarted in Fort Dix and more recently at JFK airport, and then just this month in London and Glasgow, where are Congressman Ellison’s priorities? As an individual who has clearly not shied away from the Islamist collectivization of his politics and the Muslim community (ummah), he thus cannot conveniently separate his stance on Islamism from his politics. He has, in only six months, carried his Muslim identity into CAIR, the Imam Federation of North America, the Muslim American Society, the Islamic Circle of North America, and now MPAC. These are all Islamist manifestations of what are in reality Muslim political parties in the United States.

 

Whether from ignorance or hateful political hyperbole, Congressman Ellison deserves censure of his colleagues. Some Muslims are working assiduously to depoliticize sermons which contribute to radicalization. Additionally, so too should Muslim politicians de-link their public Islamic identity from their politics. This is especially important when they have the dangerous predilection toward the unsubstantiated dissemination of extreme propaganda like Mr. Ellison exhibited. This is not to devalue their personal faith in inspiring their values.

 

Since last week, many have repudiated his comments. Katherine Kersten, columnist at the Minneapolis Start Tribune, condemned his speech as reckless commentary. Yet, the Star Tribune editorial board gave him an out and tried to make the Congressman’s point for him. Regardless, the Star Tribune also misses the point.

 

The primary political concern on the minds of the vast majority of Americans in 2007 is security from terrorism. What has America’s first Muslim congressman brought to the legislative table against radical Islamism and its root cause---political Islam and its deep associations with the extremism of Wahhabism?

 

London and Glasgow and the frightening ring of Muslim doctors were just discovered a few weeks ago. But, Congressman Ellison still decided to spew this type of nonsense to atheists.  His own congressional website has virtually nothing about counterterrorism, anti-Islamism, or the recent plots, let alone his unique opportunity to be a leader in Muslim anti-Islamism. Despite his agenda mirrored by the Islamist organizations to which he panders, anti-Islamist Muslims will continue working even harder to defeat the ideology of hatred which feeds these constantly regenerating terror cells.

 

Mr. Ellison, this is not a crime problem. Radical Islamism is an ideological problem being fed globally by Islamists, jihadists, and Wahhabists who continue to exploit our faith for a transnational global political agenda. Your public remarks were irresponsible and deserve the censure of your colleagues in the U.S. Congress. 

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FamilySecurityMatters.org Contributing Editor M. Zuhdi Jasser is the founder and Chairman of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy based in Phoenix Arizona. He is a former U.S. Navy Lieutenant Commander, a physician in private practice, and a community activist.

He can be reached at Zuhdi@aifdemocracy.org

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