Posted on 11/07/2006 9:20:23 PM PST by Chicos_Bail_Bonds
MINNEAPOLIS, Nov 7 (Reuters) - Voters elected a black Democrat as the first Muslim in Congress on Tuesday after a race in which he advocated quick U.S. withdrawal from Iraq and made little mention of his faith.
Keith Ellison, a 43-year-old lawyer and state representative, defeated two rivals, television networks said, to succeed retiring Democrat Martin Sabo in a seat that has been held by Democrats since 1963.
Ellison, who converted to Islam as a 19-year-old college student in his native Detroit, won with the help of Muslims among a coalition of liberal, anti-war voters.
He advocates an immediate U.S. withdrawal from Iraq along with strongly liberal views. While Ellison did not often speak of his faith during the campaign, awareness of his candidacy drew interest from Muslims well beyond the district centered in Minneapolis.
A significant community of Somali immigrants in Minneapolis cast their first votes for him in the crowded September primary. Ellison also was the surprise choice of party regulars.
While Muslim-Americans make up less than 3 percent of the U.S. population and have largely been a non-factor in terms of political power, get-out-the-vote efforts in several Muslim communities could indicate they may become an emerging force.
Roughly 2 million Muslims are registered U.S. voters, and their ranks increased by tens of thousands in the weeks prior to Tuesday's mid-term elections, Muslim groups have said.
Since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks by Islamic militants, Muslim-Americans have become sensitized to what many feel is an erosion of their civil rights. U.S. foreign policy that targets Muslim countries also has generated a sense of urgency, experts said.
"(Americans) treat us differently after Sept. 11. My own father was attacked," said Ellison supporter Khadra Darsame, a 1995 immigrant from Somalia.
(Excerpt) Read more at alertnet.org ...
There is only ONE God, but many have the wrong idea about Him because they don't know Him. Didn't you get the memo?
Democraps found a new 'Victim Group' and they are happy to add 2 million (and counting) to their BASE.
What next? Sharia law?
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Hope we avoid France like crap
The Democrats are defiling the Congress with Communists (Comrade Sanders) and Islamofascists (Sheik Ellison, peace be upon him).
Unbelievable.
They've always sympathized with these malecontents, and even had plenty of closet socialists in their ranks, but to be this open about it is an entirely new level of decadence in this country.
He began all. He'll end all.
I hope He remembers....
Meanwhile, there's life and living ahead.
Yep, the foot in the door.
How stupid can voters be?
First we get a real Commie in the Senate, now this.
Unnngh!
Keith Ellison?
Or is it Keith Hakim?
Or is it Keith X. Ellison?
Or is it Keith Ellison-Muhammad???
(Had to drop that muhadded part to win, did ya?)
Thank you Minnesota! I thought i could rest awhile before the
2008 election but our work has just begun.
muhadded=muhammad
This is such a great disaster. May the number of his days be short.
......
As a congressman this guy will have access to highly confidential documents and information. Don't you know that he is already being contacted by Al-Qaeda?
All they have to do now is to blackmail him and his family members and he has no other choice but give in to their demands. Those who voted for him are brainless and have placed their and their kids' future in jeopardy.
The Europeans are learning fast what Muslims will do to their nations (in France, they've progressed from burning parked cars to burning busses with people on them), but they're still too stupid to stem the tide. Netherlands, France, and Spain are quickly being overrun and several other nations are close behind.
We should never have allowed it to start. But right on up to George bush, all our leaders continue with the PC crap about the "Religion of Peace". It's really the religion of intolerance, hatred, death, and Satan.
Make up a list of Islamic nations and stop immigration from those countries. Never mind, Nancy Pelosi would have a cow.
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