Louis Farrakhan's First Congressman
Johnson, Scott W.
Louis Farrakhan's First Congressman Why is the press so incurious about the past of Keith Ellison? by Scott W. Johnson Minneapolis At this particular time in history, it is a matter of note that...
...It amounts to a striking pattern of lawbreaking since he undertook the practice of law in 1990...
...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...
...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...
...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...
...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...
...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...
...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...
...he Scott W. Johnson is a Minneapolis attorney and a contributor to the Power Line blog (powerlineblog.comj...
...Ellison commented to the Star Tribune regarding issues raised by Awad's attendance at the fundraiser: "The Republicans are in a tough position...
...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...
...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...
...Still toeing the Nation of Islam line, he recalled "Qubilah Shabazz, the daughter of Malcolm X, [who] was prosecuted in retribution against Minister Far-rakhan...
...he rejected their appeal, and, as anticipated, Ture gave a notoriously anti-Semitic speech...
...Ellison appeared before the MIAR on behalf of the Nation of Islam in defense of Jackson's alleged statement...
...Jewish law students met personally with Ellison and appealed to him not to sponsor the speech at the law school...
...Jackson denied making the statement or insisted that it had been taken out of context...
...Jackson was alleged to have said, "Jews are among the most racist white people I know...
...Ellison argued to the contrary...
...He described her as one of those who had been "fighting for freedom in the '60s and '70s" and called for her release...
...In the second, "Hakim" demands reparations for slavery and throws in a demand for an optional separate homeland for American blacks...
...was fined for willful violation of Minnesota's campaign finance reporting law...
...Perhaps the lowest moment in Min-neapolis's history was the September 1992 execution-style murder of police officer Jerry Haaf...
...We seem to have an overabundance of bad police...
...Iraq is a failed policy...
...Ellison was born Catholic in Detroit...
...Even in 1995, Ellison's work on behalf of the Nation of Islam extended well beyond his promotion of the Million Man March...
...she is serving time in California...
...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...
...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...
...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 Guantanamo chaplain James Yee) at an Ellison fundraiser in suburban Minneapolis on August 25...
...He also spoke favorably of cop killers Mumia Abu-Jamal and Assata Shakur...
...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...
...W]e're going to get rid of them," Willis said...
...But it was the link to the Nation of Islam that stood as the most serious impediment to Ellison's primary campaign...
...According to the Star Tribune and the full text of the statement published in the Minneapolis Spokesman-Recorder, Ellison said: We stand by the truth contained in the remarks attributed to [Ms...
...Haaf was shot in the back as he took a coffee break at a restaurant in south Minneapolis...
...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 a November 6, 1995, column for the Minneapolis periodical Insight News, Ellison wrote under the name "Keith X Ellison...
...Within a month of Haaf's murder, Ellison appeared with Willis supporting the United for Peace gang front...
...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...
...Ellison admits that he worked on behalf of the Nation of Islam in 1995...
...Jackson: She is correct about Minister Farrakhan...
...Ellison organized a march on the U.S...
...He spoke at a public hearing in connection with a controversy involving Joanne Jackson of the Minnesota Initiative Against Racism (MIAR...
...law enforcement authorities said they lacked sufficient evidence to convict him...
...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...
...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...
...They've got to go...
...Paul (under the name "Sara Jane Olson") for the attempted murder of Los Angeles police officers in 1975...
...Willis was never charged...
...Two witnesses at the trial of one of the men convicted of Haaf's murder implicated Willis in the planning...
...Nevertheless, a little research reveals each one of them to be demonstrably false...
...The Star Tribune has faithfully parroted these assertions as facts...
...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 involvement with the group, and that he himself had never expressed such views...
...That way, Ellison said, the union can increase its power base...
...If the police have some fear, I understand that fear," Willis said...
...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...
...Jackson], and by her right to express her views without sanction...
...They have to try to engage in smear politics...
...The event was a fundraiser for former Symbionese Liberation Army member Kathleen Soliah after her apprehension in St...
...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...
...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...
...Minister Farrakhan is a tireless public servant of Black people, who constantly teaches self-reliance and self-examination to the Black community...
...They haven't done much for homeland security...
...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...
...He is also not an anti-Semite...
...Thus, at age 43, Ellison stands positioned not only to win that office but also to hold it as long as he chooses...
...The murder was a gang hit performed by four members of the city's Vice Lords gang...
...Here is why we support Ms...
...The Earth is warming up, and they're not doing anything about it...
...Awad is notable, among other things, for his past expressions of support for Hamas...
...We still have a health care crisis...
...He addressed it in a letter to the local chapter of the Jewish Community Relations Council following his endorsement by the DFL in May...
...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...
...That year, he dutifully spouted the Farrakhan line when Qubilah Shabazz, the daughter of Malcolm X, was indicted for conspiring to murder Farrakhan...
...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...
...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 is not a racist...
...Ellison's Muslim faith has generated no controversy in the campaign...
...What else are they going to do...
...She subsequently pleaded guilty to charges in Los Angeles and to an additional murder charge in Sacramento...
...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...
...In October 1992, Ellison helped organize a demonstration against Minneapolis police that included United for Peace...
...Ellison publicly supported the Haaf murder defendants...
...His recent account of the nature and extent of his relationship with the Nation of Islam cannot be squared with the public record...
...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...
...According to a contemporaneous report in the St...
...He condemned a Star Tribune editorial cartoon that was critical of Farrakhan as a role model for blacks because of his anti-Semitism...
...The Star Tribune didn't get around to reporting on the fundraiser until several days after Ellison won the September 12 primary...
...Ellison's endorsement by the Democratic-Farmer-Labor party is tantamount to his election in what is one of the safest Democratic seats in the country...
...The four Vice Lords members who murdered Haaf met and planned the murder at Willis's house...
...Also, it is absolutely true that merchants in Black areas generally treat Black customers badly...
...During his congressional campaign, Ellison has nevertheless held himself out as a friend of the Jewish people and of Israel...
...Ellison weirdly referred to Soliah/ Olson as a "black gang member" (she is white) and thus a victim of government persecution...
...He states that he converted to Islam as an undergraduate at Wayne State University...
...Moreover, Ellison's unsavory associations were not limited to the Nation of Islam...
...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...
...Shakur has been on the lam in Cuba since 1984...
...Ellison's record also includes a multitude of embarrassments of the traditional kind...
...attorney's office in Minneapolis demanding that Shabazz be released and alleging that the FBI itself had conspired to kill Farrakhan...
...In February 1993, he spoke at a demonstration for one of them during his trial...
...Willis was the last speaker at the demonstration...
...last year she was placed on the FBI's domestic terrorists list with a one million dollar reward for her capture...
...Then, in February 1997, Ellison appeared as a local spokesman for the Nation of Islam with the last name "Muhammad...
...by Scott W. Johnson Minneapolis At this particular time in history, it is a matter of note that Congress is about to receive its first Muslim member...
...He fell afoul of the IRS after failing to pay $25,000 in income taxes...
Vol. 12 • October 2006 • No. 4
