Covering Ellison's Hajj
We wrote here about Congressman Keith Ellison's trip to Mecca for this year's Hajj, and noted that neither local nor national media had covered what seemed like a significant story--the first time an American Congressman has participated in the Muslim pilgrimage. Today the Minneapolis Star Tribune covered the story briefly.
As you might expect, it was a puff piece designed to run interference for the Democratic Congressman. The points made by the Strib were, in order:
* Ellison has an "unofficial role as America's goodwill ambassador to the Middle East."
* Ellison scheduled the trip a long time ago, before he knew there would be a lame duck Congressional session in which the auto bailout would be voted on, and he would have canceled the trip if his vote had been needed.
* Ellison paid for the trip himself.
* Ellison's Hajj "can only help" "our relations with the Muslim world," and domestically, "it sends a really positive message of religious diversity and inclusion in our society."
The source for those last quotes, which conclude the Strib's article? Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the terror-supporting Council on American-Islamic Relations, an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation criminal prosecution.
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