AlterNet: Keith Ellison: First Muslim in Congress Makes His Mark

[marmar]

Keith Ellison: First Muslim in Congress Makes His Mark

By Ali Eteraz, AlterNet. Posted December 7, 2007.

Thanks to post-9/11 hysteria, American Muslims are one of the most ostracized minority groups in the U.S.



Eleven months have passed since America's first Muslim congressman -- Keith Ellison, from Minnesota's fifth district -- was elected to office. In that time he has exposed bigotry in the media and Congress, and served as a bridge for American relations with the Muslim world.

Throughout his meteoric rise from an anonymous state legislator, Ellison has had unanimous support among American Muslims. Ellison is now using that goodwill to bring a minority group that has been demonized, politically apathetic and often extremely socially conservative into the American political mainstream (and without being pushy, towards the progressive wing of the Democratic Party).

Ever since Ellison's election, much of the focus has been on the venom that greeted him. He received death threats from what he calls "some crazy right-wingers," and last November, Glenn Beck, who regularly has the lowest ratings of the various CNN commentators, brought Ellison onto his show only to ask him, "Sir, prove to me that you are not working with our enemies." Soon after, Virgil Goode, a Republican congressman from Virginia, tried to turn Ellison's election into a fear-mongering campaign, telling his constituents that, unless "the Virgil Goode position on immigration" was adopted, there would be many more Muslim lawmakers.

On the heels of these two smears came an open case of Islamophobia. Supported by radio host Dennis Prager and WorldNetDaily, members of the far-right, and some conservative bloggers argued that Ellison should not be allowed to take his congressional oath for office on the Quran.

Ellison dealt with these attacks with grace and sensibility. He told Beck that he didn't need to prove his patriotic stripes to anyone. The rebuke caught Beck off guard who clarified, absurdly, that he hadn't really wanted Ellison to prove anything. Ellison told Virgil Goode that he was an African-American who could trace his familial roots to pre-revolutionary America. As far as swearing on the Quran, Ellison clarified that no representative actually swears on any religious book -- the oath is sworn upon the Constitution, and the Bible has traditionally been used only for a photo-op afterward. Then, just to remind his critics about the legacy of religious pluralism in the United States, the Quran he used in his pictures was a 1767 edition that belonged to Thomas Jefferson. Finally, after his confirmation, in a move caught on C-SPAN, Ellison offered his hand to congressman Goode. ......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/rights/69575/