New Muslim congressman avoids loyalty questions

New Muslim congressman
avoids loyalty questions
Ellison had been greeted by shouts
of 'Allahu Akbar!' from campaigners

When the first Muslim congressman in U.S. history, Keith Ellison (Hakim-Mohammed) of Minnesota, won the 2006 election and was making the regular thank-you-to-my-supporters speech, he allowed his fans to shout, "Allahu Akbar!," the same phrase allegedly used by the 9/11 suicide pilots.

Since November he's addressed various different Islamic groups and organizations, and he's used the Quran to be sworn into office. He's also been linked to Islamic organizations with questionable agendas.

What he hasn't done is respond to requests from WND to confirm that he will, in fact, base his decisions on the laws of the United States on the U.S. Constitution, not the Quran.

It was during his campaign that he raised the issue of his Islamic beliefs himself, and confirmed then that they would play a large role in his decision-making process:

"I am inspired by the Quran's message of encompassing divine love, and a deep faith guides my life every day," he wrote in his promotional materials.

He later told a group meeting in Detroit that, "I'm not here to be a preacher, but in terms of political agenda items, my faith informs these things."

He was given unprecedented permission during this week's swearing-in ceremonies to place his hand on a piece of the nation's archival history – the Quran once owned by Thomas Jefferson – for his photo-opportunity with family and friends.

The two-volume edition, published in London in 1764, was brought to him in a special case sent by messenger from officials at the Library of Congress.

Ellison said he chose to use the Quran because it showed Jefferson believed wisdom could be gleaned from many sources, although as superstar performer and WND columnist Pat Boone explained Jefferson quoted often from the Bible in his writings, not the Quran.

(Another explanation for Jefferson's possession of a Quran could have been a desire to know his enemies. It was during Jefferson's presidency that the U.S. took on the Muslim slave-traders and pirates on the Barbary Coast of Africa in war.)

Rick Jauert, a spokesman for the congressman, was reached at his campaign headquarters in Minnesota two weeks ago, and confirmed that the congressman does not believe there will be a conflict between his religious beliefs and his duty under the U.S. Constitution.

But when asked which would take priority if there is a conflict, or to describe how the congressman will resolve the differing philosophies provided by the U.S. Constitution and the Quran, which calls for beheading "infidels," he said he could not answer immediately.

Since then, WND has been unable to obtain answers from the congressman or his staff.

One blogger was a little concerned over the situation:

"During the victory celebration for the nation's first Muslim congressman (not that there's anything wrong with that... in principle), Congressman Keith Ellison's supporters scream 'Allahu Akbar!', the same phrase that the 9/11 hijackers screamed, the same phrase suicide bombers scream, the same phrase head choppers scream before slicing off the heads of hapless and bound victims. May God protect this country," the blogger wrote.

In a campaign document talking about his faith, Ellison said, "As a young man I was outraged and frustrated by the racism and injustice I saw in my community and the world around me. Those experiences propelled me to become a social activist, using my words and actions to draw attention to the very serious problems of inequality, racial injustice and poverty in our society.

"As I matured, I had to confront my anger and face it down. I eventually realized that it is easy to be a critic pointing out problems and failings, but it is a far more difficult thing to be part of creating the solution. As my father used to say, 'Any jackass can kick a barn down; it takes a carpenter to build it back up.' Eventually I understood what my father had been telling me, and I committed to being one of the carpenters."

But he confirmed he still holds that "outrage" at the direction of the United States.

Ellison said he decided to seek congressional office because, "I am for peace now, for universal health care, and for a sustainable future."

"I will fight for the immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq and for an international reconstruction effort; for universal single payer healthcare so that Americans can get the medical care that they need whether they have a job that offers insurance or not; for green energy, conservation, environmental justice, and a sustainable future for our country and the world," he wrote.

He recognizes Israel, and said "a lasting peace in the Middle East should be one of the United States' most focused goals."

"Right now Hamas represents the greatest obstacle to this path, and until Hamas denounces terrorism, recognizes the absolute right of Israel to exist peacefully and honors past agreements, it cannot be considered legitimate partners in this process," he wrote.

Jauert explained that Ellison's conflicts between his faith and the law would be no more than those Catholics who support abortion, and then face objections from church leaders who believe they should not be allowed to take part in church rites.

"Not every follower of Islam supports Sharia law," Jauert told WND.

In his speech in Detroit, Ellison said it appears people "see their religion as an identity thing, much in the same way Crips or Bloods might say, 'I'm this, this is the set I'm rolling with.' They've never actually tried to explore how religion should connect us, they're into how religion divides us … they haven't really explored … how my faith connects me to you."

But as WND reported earlier, he's been linked to a radical Islamic school of thought that requires loyalty to the Quran over the U.S. Constitution.

A black convert to orthodox Sunni Islam, Ellison spoke to the North American Imams Federation, or NAIF, at the group's Nov. 19 conference in Minneapolis.

His talk flowed into a breakout session listed on the agenda simply as "American Open University," according to the conference program. It turns out the university is a "distance-learning" center based in Alexandria, Va., and known to local law enforcement as "Wahhabi Online."

Later that day, Ellison met with NAIF's president, Omar Ahmad Shahin, who lectures at the same American Open University. (He also met at the time with New York imam Siraj Wahhaj, an unindicted co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.) The radical Islamic school trains many of NAIF's more than 150 members, who control mosques across America.

American Open University supports Sharia, or Islamic law. And its founder and chairman, Jaafar Sheikh Idris, has denounced the U.S system of democracy as "the antithesis of Islam" and argued no man has the right to make laws outside Allah's laws expressed in the Quran.

"There is a basic difference between Islam and this form of democracy," he says. "The basic difference is that in Islam it is [Allah's] law as expressed in the Quran and the Sunna that is the supreme law within the limits of which people have the right to legislate.

"No one can be a Muslim who makes or freely accepts or believes that anyone has the right to make or accept legislation that is contrary to that divine law," Idris adds. "Examples of such violations include the legalization of alcoholic drinks, gambling, homosexuality, usury or interest, and even adoption."

Ellison's campaign also was backed by the Washington-based lobby group Council on American-Islamic Relations, a partner organization to American Open University-affiliated NAIF. CAIR held fundraisers for Ellison, a civil-rights lawyer and one-time acolyte of Louis Farrakhan who admits to making anti-Semitic remarks in the past (under various alias including Keith Hakim, Keith Ellison-Muhammad and Keith X Ellison).

CAIR's founder has argued the Quran should replace the Constitution as the highest authority in the land. The group's director of communications, moreover, has expressed his desire to see the U.S. become an Islamic state.