The Insurgent

Keith Ellison made news for being the first Muslim ever elected to Congress, but his hard-edged liberalism is just as noteworthy.

By Conrad Wilson
Web Exclusive: 12.08.06

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In August, USA Today released a poll of Americans in which 39 percent of respondents reported feeling some negative bias towards Muslims. Twenty-two percent of respondents said they would not want Muslims as neighbors, and about 33 percent agreed that U.S. Muslims are “sympathetic to al-Qaeda.” These aren't negligible numbers -- and they help to underscore the significance of what happened last month in Minnesota's 5th congressional district.

Voters in that Minneapolis area district made history by electing to Congress Democrat Keith Ellison -- the first African-American to represent the state and the first Muslim ever elected to Congress. But there’s much more to Ellison than those attention-getting firsts. (Indeed, Ellison usually downplays his religion, discussing it only when asked.) A fierce liberal, vocally opposed to the war in Iraq and unafraid to speak his mind about President Bush, Ellison is one of the members of the incoming freshman class interested in shaking up the limits of respectable debate in Washington on a range of issues.