Someone claiming to be his mother phoned in on Michael Medved's radio show recently.
She claimed the family was devout Catholic, and that Ellison comes home for Christmas and celebrates it with his family, in addition to his Muslim holidays.
She sounded very sweet and intelligent.
I would be distraught if either of my children converted to Isalm.
I would feel that I had failed the most significant aspect of my parenthood, that of passing on the Great Gift of God, the conviction that Jesus is our Lord and Savior.
I'd be extremely upset, too, because it would mean there was no point of contact. I have a Catholic friend whose son became a Buddhist a while ago - I'm not that upset about it, because she was really non-practicing and I think he's searching for what she didn't give him and will eventually work his way through Buddhism and come back, probably better for it. Even if he doesn't, however, he's not going to go out and start killing people or insisting that everybody else in the world become Buddhist or die.
Islam is entirely different. It's both a political and a religious system, and there is no point of contact between it and any other religion or civil system.
I think you're right - I believe his mother is a Catholic. In any case, it doesnt matter what she is: he's a Muslim, and the problem with Islam is that it regards itself as both a religious and a political system. In my opinion, it's incompatible with American democracy.