On January 3, 2007, Keith Ellison, a Democrat from Minnesota, will become the first Muslim sworn into the United States Congress—with his hand upon the Koran.

If the Democratic victory gave heart to anti-American nations in the Middle East, then certainly a Muslim being installed in the U.S. government must have topped it off. “Ellison’s election dominated Middle Eastern headlines,” reported Slate magazine, “and has been hailed there as a positive indicator of American pluralism and tolerance” (November 10). The New York Times reported some typical comments from Arab readers on the website of Al Arabiya, a news channel based in Dubai: “God willing in the next election, half of Congress will be from the rational Muslims,” read one comment, while another said, “May God make this the beginning of victory for Muslims on the very ground of the despots” (November 9). Not surprisingly, Ellison is calling for an immediate withdrawal from Iraq.

That Ellison prays toward Mecca five times a day may not alarm Americans who extol the virtues of religious freedom. However, his past and present links to an organization that sympathizes with terrorists and a racist black supremacist group perhaps should.

Judicial Watch, a non-partisan educational foundation that promotes transparency, accountability and integrity in government, politics and the law, reported November 8:

Minnesota’s new representative in the House, Keith Ellison, was endorsed and partly financed by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (cair), a massive U.S.-based organization that avidly defends Osama bin Laden and other militant Islamic terrorists and considers U.S. action against terrorists anti-Islamic. In fact, the group demanded the removal of a Los Angeles billboard describing bin Laden as “the sworn enemy” because it was “offensive to Muslims.”Ellison, who converted to Islam as a 19-year-old college student, also has strong ties to the Nation of Islam, the black cult led by renowned anti-Christian and anti-Semite Louis Farrakhan. The group’s doctrine states that black people created white people in a genetic experiment 6,000 years ago and that “Judgment Day” means that the Gods will destroy the entire white race (devils) and establish a paradise nation ruled forever by blacks.

Perhaps it’s easy to dismiss such charges as slander; they were certainly downplayed by the mainstream press during Ellison’s election campaign. Is there anything to them?

When Ellison won the endorsement to run for Congress, it became apparent that his well-known connections to the Nation of Islam would hamper his campaign. While in law school, he had written columns defending the leader of the Nation of Islam “against charges of anti-Semitism and implied that a state should be created for black Americans” (Roll Call, November 13).

Minneapolis attorney Scott Johnson reports that, to counter the fallout from having such an unsavory past, Ellison chose to write an audacious letter to the Jewish Community Relations Council asserting, among other things, that his connection with the Nation of Islam was limited to an 18-month period and that he was unaware at the time of the anti-Semite nature of the group. The media took this letter and ran with the story, whitewashing Ellison’s involvement with the controversial group. However, as Johnson writes in his Power Line blog, “Instead of undertaking any investigation of these assertions, the Minneapolis Star Tribune has simply reported the assertions and repeated them as facts ever since. Yet each of these assertions is demonstrably false. Their falsehood is easily established by newspaper accounts documenting Ellison’s activities, speeches and beliefs over the relevant period of time” (September 30). Johnson went on to document that evidence.

As for his affiliation with cair, Ellison certainly makes it no secret. Perhaps it’s more relevant to examine what that organization is connected to. Though popularly billed as a harmless Muslim-rights group, more critical observers consider it a front for Islamic terror. Evidence points to cair providing sympathy and monetary support for terrorist organizations. The Middle East Quarterly reported in its Spring 2006 edition:

But there is another side to cair that has alarmed many people in positions to know. The Department of Homeland Security refuses to deal with it. Senator Charles Schumer (Democrat, New York) describes it as an organization “which we know has ties to terrorism” [FDCH Political Transcripts, Sept. 10, 2003]. Senator Dick Durbin (Democrat, Illinois) observes that cair is “unusual in its extreme rhetoric and its associations with groups that are suspect.“ Steven Pomerantz, the fbi’s former chief of counterterrorism, notes that “cair, its leaders, and its activities effectively give aid to international terrorist groups.“ The family of John P. O’Neill, Sr., the former fbi counterterrorism chief who perished at the World Trade Center, named cair in a lawsuit as having “been part of the criminal conspiracy of radical Islamic terrorism“ responsible for the September 11 atrocities. Counterterrorism expert Steven Emerson calls it “a radical fundamentalist front group for Hamas.“

This is also the organization that Keith Ellison gave a keynote speech for at a fundraiser on November 18. In the process, Ellison helped to raise over half a million dollars for cair.

What impact Ellison’s Muslim credentials will have on U.S. policy is uncertain, but his associations with cair, which is calling for congressional hearings on racial, religious and ethnic profiling at airports, could make homeland security in the U.S. even more challenging than it already is. Ellison seeks to criminalize Muslim profiling, and has political support for such a move. Investor’s Business Daily reports that the incoming House judiciary chairman, John Conyers, has already drafted a resolution—using cair rhetoric—that would give Muslims special civil-rights protections (November 22).

In this regard, Investor’s Business Daily points out an interesting “coincidence,” which may suggest a disturbing level of collaboration between these Democratic politicians and cair officials.

Two days after Ellison spoke at the cair conference, the issue of Muslim profiling received a lot of publicity following a supposed profiling case involving six of the Islamic religious leaders attending the Minnesota conference. The six imams were removed from a flight in Minneapolis after passengers and flight crew became concerned about suspicious behavior. According to witnesses, the men made anti-American statements, chanted “Allah,” asked for seatbelt extensions when it appeared they weren’t needed, and asked to change seats. In addition, three of them had one-way tickets and no checked luggage. After being searched and questioned, security authorities freed the men. “But were they victims or provocateurs?” Investor’s Business Daily asked, and went on to say:

All six claim to be Americans, so clearly they were aware of heightened security. Surely they knew that groups of Muslim men flying together while praying to Allah fit the modus operandi of the 9/11 hijackers and would make a pilot nervous. Throw in anti-U.S. remarks and odd demands about seat belts, and they might as well have yelled, “Bomb!” Yet they chose to make a spectacle. …While it’s not immediately clear whether the incident was a stunt to help give the new Democratic majority cover to criminalize airport profiling, it wouldn’t be the first time Muslim passengers have tried to prove “Islamophobia”—or test nerves and security.

The incident caused enough of an uproar for the Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties at the Department of Homeland Security to launch an investigation. Douglas Hagmann, director of the Northeast Intelligence Network, a private organization that investigates terrorist threats, “called the incident ‘ideological jihad’ and a ‘test run’ to undermine airport security through litigation” (Washington Times,November 22).

Having a Muslim in Congress may not of itself have a great impact on U.S. politics. However, such a politician working in alliance with elements within the country that have an agenda at odds with national self-interest, is just one more way America can be divided and weakened.