Ellison, the Muslim Congressman, who haunts conservatives
Minneapolis. “With God, we’ll have a good time!” Seating on the stage of a union hall in a snowy suburb of Minneapolis, Keith Ellison and his wife Kim are listening to a gospel choir from a local Baptist church. The singers are dancing: “Come on, let’s have a good time!” Ellison claps his hands with the crowd of about 200 people who came tonight to send him off to Washington. One might not be surprised to see an African-American Congressman-elect dance to gospel. Except that the democratic politician who was elected in November 2006 to represent Minnesota’s 5th district, is the first Muslim Congressman in US history. Last month, conservatives criticized Ellison after he announced he would take oath with the Quran. Virgil Goode (R-Va) considered this lawyer born in Detroit 43 years ago and whose American roots go back to 1742 in Louisiana, as a threat for American values. On January 2, an editorial in USA Today defended the new Representative and described him as a example of religious tolerance. “I did not expect to become a symbol », Ellison says. « I campaigned because I wanted to talk about peace, about Iraq, about the problems of the middle class and about universal healthcare. To find myself in the middle of a controversy was a surprise but I am used to it. And moreover, the vast majority of people demonstrated a tremendous religious tolerance» Third son in a family of four boys, Ellison was born and raised catholic. He converted to Islam when he was in college. As a lawyer, he spent most of his career counseling indigent defendants. In 2002, he was elected to the Minnesota State House of Representatives. This father of four children has spent his time promoting his liberal ideas and policies for poor people. The Congressman-elect is also the first African-American to represent Minnesota. His supporters see him as a kind of messiah for a diverse America and expect a lot from him. “Before the Quran controversy, he was a local hero, Toki Wright, a local hip hop artist, says. He is now a national hero. They attacked him but he is still standing”. In the crowd, Audrey Boyle, a white woman, said she hoped Ellison would fight for a withdrawal of US troops from Iraq, something he pledged to do during his campaign. At the end of the celebration, a rabbi, an imam and a reverend joined Ellsion onstage to pray. Short after that, a young man greets the Congressman and poses with him for a picture. Wahid Issa, 19, is a Muslim. He arrived three days earlier from Bethlehem in the West Bank in order to study architecture in Minneapolis. Wahid wanted to meet the man he had read about in Palestinian newspapers. “Mr Ellison can contribute to build bridges between the Arab world and the US”, Wahid says. Before doing that, Ellison has pledged to reach out to Virgil Goode, the man who criticized him. CommentsYou must be logged in to post a comment. |
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