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By Michael B. Brodkorb | June 8, 2006
"[Keith] Ellison came to public attention in 1990, when, using the name Keith E. Hakim, he defended Farrakhan in a Minnesota Daily article while a law student at the University of Minnesota. In another 1990 Daily column, Ellison claimed that splitting America into two nations, with five Southern states set aside for blacks, would be preferable to 'liberal social programs.'" Source: Source: Star Tribune, June 8, 2006
Ellison has yet to apologize for writing a column defending Louis Farrakhan and calling for the creation of a black states.
"In 1998, the Star Tribune described Ellison as 'well-known in the black community as … a supporter of Louis Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam.' Ellison says he can't recall seeing the article or seeking a correction. No correction was published.
Last week, Ellison moved to do damage control, as his background came under increasing scrutiny. He only had ties to the Nation of Islam for about 18 months in the mid-1990s, he told the Star Tribune. In a letter to the Jewish Community Relations Council, Ellison repudiated Farrakhan's and Khalid Muhammad's views, and rejected racism, anti-Semitism and other forms of discrimination. 'This has always been my position,' he wrote." Source: Source: Star Tribune, June 8, 2006
How long was Ellison in the Nation of Islam? If Ellison really "repudiated Farrakhan's and Khalid Muhammad's views", why did he not contact the newspapers and demand retractions when he was reported to be in the Nation of Islam?
"[Keith] Ellison said that when he had ties to the Nation of Islam for about 18 months in the mid-1990s…" Source: Star Tribune, June 3, 2006
But Ellison was writing columns defending Farrakhan as far back as November of 1989. Ellison was also listed as a member of the Nation of Islam and a supporter of Farrakhan up until 1998.
"And before Muhammad spoke, Keith Ellison, a Minneapolis attorney and a member of the Nation of Islam, exhorted them to reach into their pockets to help defray costs of the march." Source: Star Tribune, September 14, 1995
"[Keith] Ellison, a newcomer to DFL politics, is well-known in the black community as the former head of the Legal Rights Center and a supporter of Louis Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam." Source: Star Tribune, April 5, 1998
"Ellison has been active in the community, but not within the established DFL party. A member of the Nation of Islam, Ellison was the coordinator of the Minnesota participants in the Million Man March and the subsequent community group that formed." Source: Pioneer Press, June 21, 1998
Ellison's claim of being in the Nation of Islam for "about 18 months" doesn't match up with the public record.
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June 8th, 2006 at 11:43 AM
Why did you print so much of it? You easily could have broken this into an 11 part series examining the combined works of Mike Erlandson, Mike Brodkorb and Katherine Kersten.
June 8th, 2006 at 11:46 AM
[...] It seems someone took my “condolences can be sent to Ellison HQ” in regards to the death of al-Zarqawi so seriously that the Klobuchar campaing intends to issue a press release defending the embattled Ellison from assaults by “Kennedy surrogates”. [...]
June 8th, 2006 at 9:29 PM
You list the source of the first couple quotes as the Star-Tribune, and therefore likely interpreted as reported news. While partially true, it would have been more accurate and up front to list the author–Katherine Kersten– a right wing columist for the paper, and hardly an unbiased source.
June 8th, 2006 at 9:30 PM
You list the source of the first couple quotes as the Star-Tribune, and therefore likely interpreted as reported news. It would have been more accurate and up front to list the author–Katherine Kersten– a right wing columist for the paper, and hardly an unbiased source.
June 8th, 2006 at 9:31 PM
Come on Eric. It doesn’t change the facts at all.
June 8th, 2006 at 9:32 PM
I don’t know how that posted twice–I tried to make a slight change and it posted again….sorry.
June 9th, 2006 at 12:49 AM
I have long considered myself a Democrat, but I realized the moment that Keith Ellison won the DFL endorsement that I could not support him. After his endorsement, Rochelle Olson reported in the Star Tribune on May 15, 2006,
that Ellison was a member of a mosque in North Minneapolis, the Masjid An-Nur. On the surface, this does not seem to be problematic.
However, less than a year prior, Matt McKinney mentioned this mosque in the Star Tribune, on August 1, 2005, once found at
but now archived at
Here McKinney wrote, “The mosque finds its mission in the teachings of Imam W.D. Mohammed, the leader of the Muslim American Society and son of the late Elijah Muhammad of the Nation of Islam. The Muslim American Society split from the Nation of Islam over its black separatist teachings to embrace a more mainstream form of the Islamic faith. The leaders of the two groups reconciled in 2000.”
Based on this, it is clear that the Masjid An-Nur supports the Nation of Islam. I fail to understand how anyoneof any party affiliation can, in good conscience, support a candidate who affiliates himself with a house of worship that fosters the intolerant teachings of the Nation of Islam. Keith Ellison is the wrong person to represent Minnesota’s Fifth Congressional District.
June 12th, 2006 at 6:05 AM
[...] Doug Grow interviews Keith Ellison for his Sunday Strib column and manages to never once mention the substance of Mr. Ellison’s hate-filled resume. [...]