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Louis Farrakhan's First Congressman-Why was the press so incurious about the past of Keith Ellison?
Weekly Standard ^ | Oct 09, 2006 | Scott W. Johnson

Posted on 11/29/2016 4:08:28 AM PST by SJackson

AT THIS PARTICULAR TIME in history, it is a matter of note that Congress is about to re ceive its first Muslim member. Keith Ellison, currently a Minnesota state representative, is poised to succeed 14-term incumbent Democrat Martin Sabo in the Fifth District, which includes the city of Minneapolis. Ellison's endorsement by the Demo cratic-Farmer-Labor party is tantamount to his election in what is one of the safest Democratic seats in the country. Thus, at age 43, Ellison stands positioned not only to win that office but also to hold it as long as he chooses.

Ellison's Muslim faith has generated no controversy in the campaign. On the contrary, it has served to insulate aspects of his public record from close scrutiny in a city whose dominant news organ, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, is a paragon of political correctness. With the exception of columnist Katherine Kersten, the Star Tribune has scrupulously avoided examining Ellison's long train of troubling associations, foremost among them his ties to the Nation of Islam.

Ellison's record also includes a multitude of embarrassments of the traditional kind. He fell afoul of the IRS after failing to pay $25,000 in income taxes; he ignored fines that he had incurred for parking tickets and moving violations so numerous that his driver's license was suspended more times than he can remember; he was fined for willful violation of Minnesota's campaign finance reporting law. It amounts to a striking pattern of lawbreaking since he undertook the practice of law in 1990.

But it was the link to the Nation of Islam that stood as the most serious impediment to Ellison's primary campaign. He addressed it in a letter to the local chapter of the Jewish Community Relations Council following his endorsement by the DFL in May. In the letter, Ellison asserted that his involvement with the Nation of Islam had been limited to an 18-month period around the time of the Million Man March in 1995, that he had been unfamiliar with the Nation of Islam's anti-Semitic views during his in volvement with the group, and that he himself had never expressed such views. The Star Tribune has faithfully parroted these assertions as facts.

As a result, the three assertions have become the cornerstone of Ellison's campaign, securing him the support of prominent Minneapolis Jews and the endorsement of the Minneapolis-based American Jewish World newsweekly. Nevertheless, a little research reveals each one of them to be demonstrably false. Ellison's activities on behalf of the Nation of Islam continued well beyond any 18-month period, he was familiar with the Nation of Islam's anti-Semitic views, and he himself mouthed those views.

Ellison was born Catholic in Detroit. He states that he converted to Islam as an undergraduate at Wayne State University. As a third-year student at the University of Minnesota Law School in 1989-90, he wrote two columns for the Minnesota Daily under the name "Keith Hakim." In the first, Ellison refers to "Minister Louis Farrakhan," defends Nation of Islam spokesman Khalid Abdul Muhammad, and speaks in the voice of a Nation of Islam advocate. In the second, "Hakim" demands reparations for slavery and throws in a demand for an optional separate homeland for American blacks. In February 1990, Ellison participated in sponsoring Kwame Ture (Stokely Carmichael) to speak at the law school on the subject "Zionism: Imperialism, White Supremacy or Both?" Jewish law students met personally with Ellison and appealed to him not to sponsor the speech at the law school; he rejected their appeal, and, as anticipated, Ture gave a notoriously anti-Semitic speech.

Ellison admits that he worked on behalf of the Nation of Islam in 1995. At a rally for the Million Man March held at the University of Minnesota, Ellison appeared onstage with Khalid Abdul Muhammad, who ran true to form: According to a contemporaneous Star Tribune article, "If words were swords, the chests of Jews, gays and whites would be pierced."

Even in 1995, Ellison's work on behalf of the Nation of Islam extended well beyond his promotion of the Million Man March. That year, he dutifully spouted the Farrakhan line when Qubilah Shabazz, the daughter of Malcolm X, was indicted for conspiring to murder Farrakhan. Ellison organized a march on the U.S. attorney's office in Minneapolis demanding that Shabazz be released and alleging that the FBI itself had conspired to kill Farrakhan. In a November 6, 1995, column for the Minneapolis periodical Insight News, Ellison wrote under the name "Keith X Ellison." He condemned a Star Tribune editorial cartoon that was critical of Farrakhan as a role model for blacks because of his anti-Semitism. Ellison argued to the contrary.

Then, in February 1997, Ellison appeared as a local spokesman for the Nation of Islam with the last name "Muhammad." He spoke at a public hearing in connection with a controversy involving Joanne Jackson of the Minnesota Initiative Against Racism (MIAR). Jackson was alleged to have said, "Jews are among the most racist white people I know." Jackson denied making the statement or insisted that it had been taken out of context. Ellison appeared before the MIAR on behalf of the Nation of Islam in defense of Jackson's alleged statement. According to the Star Tribune and the full text of the statement published in the Minneapolis Spokesman-Recorder, Elli son said:

We stand by the truth contained in the remarks attributed to [Ms. Jackson], and by her right to express her views without sanction. Here is why we support Ms. Jackson: She is correct about Minister Farrakhan. He is not a racist. He is also not an anti-Semite. Minister Farrakhan is a tireless public servant of Black people, who constantly teaches self-reliance and self-examination to the Black community. . . . Also, it is absolutely true that merchants in Black areas generally treat Black customers badly.

The last sentence alluded to another of Jackson's alleged statements, providing a personal basis for characterizing Jews as "the most racist white people" she knew. Ellison's May 28 letter acknowledges only that others supported Jackson's alleged statement in that controversy while falsely denying that he himself did so.

Ellison first emerged as a candidate for public office in 1998, when he ran for the DFL nomination for state representative as "Keith Ellison-Muhammad." In a contemporaneous article on his candidacy in the Insight News, Ellison is reported still defending Louis Farrakhan:

Anticipating possible criticism for his NOI affiliation, Ellison-Muhammad says he is aware that not everyone appreciates what the Nation does and feels there is a propaganda war being launched against its leader, Minister Louis Farrakhan.

Ellison says now that he broke with the Nation of Islam when "it became clear to me that their message of empowerment intertwined with more negative messages." However, Ellison himself was the purveyor of the Nation of Islam's noxious party line in his every public utterance touching on related issues over the course of a decade. Moreover, Ellison's unsavory associations were not limited to the Nation of Islam.

Perhaps the lowest moment in Minneapolis's history was the September 1992 execution-style murder of police officer Jerry Haaf. Haaf was shot in the back as he took a coffee break at a restaurant in south Minneapolis. The murder was a gang hit performed by four members of the city's Vice Lords gang. The leader of the Vice Lords was Sharif Willis, a convicted murderer who had been released from prison and who sought respectability as a responsible gang leader from gullible municipal authorities while operating a gang front called United for Peace.

The four Vice Lords members who murdered Haaf met and planned the murder at Willis's house. Two witnesses at the trial of one of the men convicted of Haaf's murder implicated Willis in the planning. Willis was never charged; law enforcement authorities said they lacked sufficient evidence to convict him.

Within a month of Haaf's murder, Ellison appeared with Willis supporting the United for Peace gang front. In October 1992, Ellison helped organize a demonstration against Minneapolis police that included United for Peace. "The main point of our rally is to support United for Peace [in its fight against] the campaign of slander the police federation has been waging," said Ellison.

Willis was the last speaker at the demonstration. According to a contemporaneous report in the St. Paul Pioneer Press, Willis told the crowd that Minneapolis police were experiencing the same fear from young black men that blacks had felt from police for many years. "If the police have some fear, I understand that fear," Willis said. "We seem to have an overabundance of bad police. . . . [W]e're going to get rid of them," Willis said. "They've got to go." The Pioneer Press account concludes with Ellison's contribution to the demonstration: "Ellison told the crowd that the police union is systematically frightening whites in order to get more police officers hired. That way, Ellison said, the union can increase its power base."

Ellison publicly supported the Haaf murder defendants. In February 1993, he spoke at a demonstration for one of them during his trial. Ellison led the crowd assembled at the courthouse in a chant that was ominous in the context of Haaf's cold-blooded murder: "We don't get no justice, you don't get no peace." Ellison's working relationship with Sharif Willis came to an end in February 1995, when Willis was convicted in federal court on several counts of drug and gun-related crimes and sent back to prison for 20 years.

The various themes of Ellison's public commitments and associations all came together in a February 2000 speech he gave at a fundraising event sponsored by the Minnesota chapter of the far-left National Lawyers Guild, on whose steering committee he had served. The event was a fundraiser for former Symbionese Liberation Army member Kathleen Soliah after her apprehension in St. Paul (under the name "Sara Jane Olson") for the attempted murder of Los Angeles police officers in 1975.

Ellison weirdly referred to Soliah/ Olson as a "black gang member" (she is white) and thus a victim of government persecution. He described her as one of those who had been "fighting for freedom in the '60s and '70s" and called for her release. (She subsequently pleaded guilty to charges in Los Angeles and to an additional murder charge in Sacramento; she is serving time in California.) Still toeing the Nation of Islam line, he recalled "Qubilah Shabazz, the daughter of Malcolm X, [who] was prosecuted in retribution against Minister Farrakhan." He also spoke favorably of cop killers Mumia Abu-Jamal and Assata Shakur. (Shakur has been on the lam in Cuba since 1984; last year she was placed on the FBI's domestic terrorists list with a one million dollar reward for her capture.)

Having spoken out over many years as an advocate of the Nation of Islam under guises including Keith Hakim, Keith X Ellison, and Keith Ellison-Muhammad, Ellison might reasonably prompt Fifth District voters to wonder where he really stands. His recent account of the nature and extent of his relationship with the Nation of Islam cannot be squared with the public record. During his congressional campaign, Ellison has nevertheless held himself out as a friend of the Jewish people and of Israel. As if to shore up his identity as a Muslim activist, the executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, Nihad Awad, flew to Minneapolis to appear as a featured guest (along with Ellison himself and Guantánamo chaplain James Yee) at an Ellison fundraiser in suburban Minneapolis on August 25. Awad is notable, among other things, for his past expressions of support for Hamas.

The Star Tribune didn't get around to reporting on the fundraiser until several days after Ellison won the September 12 primary. Ellison commented to the Star Tribune regarding issues raised by Awad's attendance at the fundraiser: "The Republicans are in a tough position. Iraq is a failed policy. They haven't done much for homeland security. We still have a health care crisis. The Earth is warming up, and they're not doing anything about it. What else are they going to do? They have to try to engage in smear politics."

Unfortunately, it won't be necessary for Ellison to come up with a more compelling response than that before he makes news in November as America's first Muslim congressman.


TOPICS: News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: farrakan; keithellisonbio
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1 posted on 11/29/2016 4:08:28 AM PST by SJackson
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To: SJackson

He is part of the anti-WASP coalition with which the Bolsheviks hope to “fundamentally transform” the US; he is safe from any criticism. Anyone who disagrees is “raciss”.


2 posted on 11/29/2016 4:22:57 AM PST by kearnyirish2 (Affirmative action is economic warfare against white males (and therefore white families).)
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To: dennisw; Cachelot; Nix 2; veronica; Catspaw; knighthawk; Alouette; Optimist; weikel; Lent; GregB; ..
Middle East and terrorism, occasional political and Jewish issues Ping List. High Volume

If you'd like to be on or off, please FR mail me.

..................

3 posted on 11/29/2016 4:31:47 AM PST by SJackson (The Pilgrims—Doing the jobs Native Americans wouldn’t do !)
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To: SJackson
Why was the press so incurious about the past of Keith Ellison?

Because the press has a tendency to judge people on the color of their skin, not the content of their character.

4 posted on 11/29/2016 4:32:25 AM PST by WayneS (An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last. - Winston Churchill)
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To: WayneS

We should encourage and support his wish to be head of the DNC. It will keep the Dems a minority party for as long as he is their leader.


5 posted on 11/29/2016 4:38:08 AM PST by Russ
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To: SJackson

...Ellison’s record also includes... a striking pattern of lawbreaking since he undertook the practice of law in 1990...

The author forgets that the only law a Moslem has to obey is Satanic Sharia “Law.”


6 posted on 11/29/2016 4:43:21 AM PST by Sasparilla (I Am Not Tired Of Winning)
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To: SJackson

Because the fifth column needed islamist diversity in it’s attempt to conquer America and the lamestream is all too happy to provide cover.


7 posted on 11/29/2016 4:51:28 AM PST by knarf
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To: Russ

We should support him as their nominee for president in 2020. He is the embodiment of the democratic party. Imagine a 57 state sweep of the electoral college.


8 posted on 11/29/2016 5:00:44 AM PST by Former Proud Canadian (Gold and Silver are real money. Everything else is a derivative)
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To: Former Proud Canadian

He’s actually worse than Sabo...


9 posted on 11/29/2016 5:03:30 AM PST by Eric in the Ozarks (Baseball players, gangsters and musicians are remembered. But journalists are forgotten.)
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To: knarf

Didn’t even have to post my thoughts - very kind of you to do it for me!


10 posted on 11/29/2016 5:03:55 AM PST by Roman_War_Criminal
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To: SJackson

I knew all about Ellison the primitive muzzie well before he was installed, but as usual the lying, deceitful, old media supplied no useful information. If you have any doubts about the hidden truth of this movement of savage primitives, see the vulture of Islam that sits in our white house. The internet is a better source of truth, thank you Lord.


11 posted on 11/29/2016 5:16:05 AM PST by Neoliberalnot (Marxism works well only with the uneducated and the unarmed)
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To: Former Proud Canadian
We should support him as their nominee for president in 2020

I thought the same thing about Obama in '08.

12 posted on 11/29/2016 5:24:13 AM PST by j. earl carter
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To: j. earl carter
If people want to vote for a communist black muslim, what are you going to do? It's happened before, hasn't it?
13 posted on 11/29/2016 5:29:45 AM PST by Former Proud Canadian (Gold and Silver are real money. Everything else is a derivative)
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To: Eric in the Ozarks

This clown Ellison would be a perfect choice for DNC CHAIRMAN. The Democrat Party will be a thing of the past if they keep going down a dead end road. Iam smiling for a change.


14 posted on 11/29/2016 6:03:47 AM PST by MGunny
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To: Russ

democrats becoming more islamic by the hour.


15 posted on 11/29/2016 6:26:32 AM PST by onedoug
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To: All

Quotes from Louis Farrakhan | World news.. “White people are potential humans - they haven’t evolved yet.” [ Philadelphia Inquirer, March 2000 ]
https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2001/jul/31/race.world1


16 posted on 11/29/2016 6:29:05 AM PST by FreedomUS
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To: All

On whites: “The white man is our mortal enemy and we cannot accept him. I will fight to see that vicious beast go down into the lake of fire ...
https://books.google.com/books?id=oVFrShFBTSEC&pg=PT71
‘The white man is our mortal enemy’ - Telegraph
Aug 1, 2001
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1335994/The-white-man-is-our-mortal-enemy.html


17 posted on 11/29/2016 6:41:34 AM PST by FreedomUS
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To: SJackson

You see, we have been duped. We, the masses, have known about the yellow press, poor reporting, etc. but we never imagined straight news reporting would ever be obliterated as it has been in the last 20 years.

We are being done in by the Globalists who OWN the damned media. Of course they want this Farrakahn wanna-be in Congress and make it easy for him to get there. That is the agenda...spoil the USA from within. The Imam’s have already said that is the plan since the USA won’t be easy like Europe.

And we sit here and let this guy get into Congress. I think we are getting Stupid Wine, Beer and Bread morning noon and night.


18 posted on 11/29/2016 6:48:23 AM PST by Bodega (we are developing less and less common sense...world wide)
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To: All

On whites: “The white man is our mortal enemy and we cannot accept him. I will fight to see that vicious beast go down into the lake of fire ...
https://books.google.com/books?id=oVFrShFBTSEC&pg=PT71
‘The white man is our mortal enemy’ - Telegraph
Aug 1, 2001
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1335994/The-white-man-is-our-mortal-enemy.html


19 posted on 11/29/2016 7:19:22 AM PST by FreedomUS
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To: All
Re Vice Lords (murder of the cop):

A. Clark, 1999, F.E.D.S. Magazine: Finally Every Dimension of the Streets

"I would listen to speeches by Louis Farrakhan, and so many of the Vice Lords' teachings were along the same lines; I was able to identify with them. I became a Vice Lord at such a young age..."
Google search link

20 posted on 11/29/2016 7:21:04 AM PST by FreedomUS
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