 Keith Ellison"CAIR's Congressman" Ellison attended the University of Minnesota, along with future CAIR heads Nihad Awad and Ibrahim Hooper, just prior to Awad and Hooper taking leadership positions with the Minnesota-based Bosnian Relief Committee. (Joe Kaufman, FrontPage Magazine, 'A Night of Hamas Heroes,' March 8, 2004) While at the university, Ellison became involved with the Nation of Islam (NOI), the organization led by notorious anti-Semite Louis Farrakhan. He kept this involvement in NOI for a period of ten years, participating in rallies, including the Million Man March hate fest; defending hate speech; and using such aliases as Keith Hakim, Keith X Ellison and Keith Ellison-Muhammad. (Scott Johnson, Power Line, 'KEITH ELLISON FOR DUMMIES,' September 30, 2006) Amidst Ellison's run for Minnesota's 5th District Congressional seat, in 2006, he accepted tens of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions raised during CAIR-sponsored events, including secret CAIR fundraisers held out of state in Florida. As well, he accepted thousands of dollars in contributions from CAIR leaders themselves, including contributions from CAIR's Executive Director Nihad Awad (Nehad Hammad) and CAIR's Chairman Parvez Ahmed. (Federal Election Commission, 'Individuals Who Gave To: ELLISON, KEITH MAURICE,' November 2006 Congressional election) In November of 2006, Ellison spoke at a conference for the North American Imams Federation (NAIF), a.k.a. Flying Imam Conference. In the program for the event, Ellison's photo is pictured alongside 'unindicted co-conspirator' of the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center, Siraj Wahhaj, and Al-Qaeda web designer and Hamas supporter, Mazen Mokhtar. (North American Imams Federation, The Fourth Annual Body Meeting, November 18-20, 2006, 'Towards Improving Imams' Professionalism and Community Outreach') While this conference was taking place, Ellison addressed a CAIR banquet in Arlington, Virginia via video. (CAIR press release, 'First Muslim Congressman Addresses CAIR Banquet,' November 20, 2006) In December of 2006, Ellison was the keynote speaker at the Muslim American Society (MAS) and Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA) annual convention, 'Muslim Americans for Revival and Reform.' (Niraj Warikoo, Detroit Free Press, '1st Muslim congressman thrills crowd in Dearborn, December 25, 2006) Also speaking at the event were Mazen Mokhtar (see above) and Raeed Tayeh, a former representative of the Islamic Association for Palestine (IAP), who was fired from his job as a speechwriter for then-United States Representative Cynthia McKinney for referring to the United States Congress as 'Israeli-occupied territory.' (Evan Gahr, Jewish World Review, 'Cynthia McKinney's Final Solution?' November 30, 2001) In May of 2007, Ellison was the keynote speaker at the 4th Annual Convention of MAS-Minnesota. (website of MAS-Minnesota, ‘4th Annual MAS Minnesota Convention,’ May 24, 2007) While he spoke, MAS-Minnesota’s website contained an inordinate amount of material discussing the murdering of Jews, the denigration of Christians, and the waging of war against non-Muslims. (Joe Kaufman, FrontPage Magazine, “Keith Ellison’s Dangerous Liaisons,” June 1, 2007) In June of 2007, Ellison was a featured speaker at the First Annual Banquet of CAIR-Minnesota. (website of CAIR National office , ‘CAIR-Minnesota to Hold First Annual Banquet, June 11, 2007)This, after CAIR had just been named an “unindicted co-conspirator” in a Hamas financing case put forward by the United States government. (United States of America vs. Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, In the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas, May 29, 2007) |