An Ellison/Farrakhan reunion

Minnesota Fifth District Rep. Keith Ellison is now the Vice Chairman of the Democratic National Committee. He’s not some inconsequential backbencher from flyover land. He embodies the alliance of radical Islam and the Democratic Party. He signifies.

We’ve been covering him since he secured the DFL nomination to succeed 14-term incumbent Martin Sabo in the spring of 2006. For public purposes since then Ellison has denounced and disassociated himself from Louis Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam. To do so, Ellison has repeatedly suppressed and lied about his long involvement with the Nation of Islam.

Over the years Ellison operated under names including Keith E. Hakim, Keith X Ellison, and Keith Ellison-Muhammad — the last as a self-identified member of the cult. For some reason, Ellison’s hometown newspaper hasn’t done much to expose Ellison’s imposture. As sources ranging from, well, Power Line and the Weekly Standard to Mother Jones have delivered the goods on Ellison’s association with the Nation of Islam, the Star Tribune has been content to remain mostly on the sidelines.

Now comes Jeryl Bier in today’s Wall Street Journal. He recalls some of Ellison’s public denunciations of Farrakhan. I have much more along this line in “Louis Farrakhan’s first congressman” (2006) and “The Ellison elision” (2014). I even got some onto the opinion page of the Star Tribune in the column “Ellison remembers to forget” (also 2014). I took a personal look back, most recently, in “The trouble with Keith Ellison” (2016).

In his Wall Street Journal column today Bier reports (behind the Journal’s paywall) that in September 2013, however, Ellison and Farrakhan had a reunion of sorts:

The occasion was a visit by Iran’s newly elected President Hassan Rouhani to the United Nations. Mr. Rouhani invited Muslim leaders from around the U.S. to dinner after addressing the U.N. General Assembly. Contemporaneous news reports placed Mr. Farrakhan at the dinner. Unreported by mainstream outlets was the presence of Mr. Ellison, along with Reps. Gregory Meeks of New York and Andre Carson of Indiana. (All three are Democrats; Messrs. Ellison and Carson are Muslim.)

The Nation of Islam website documents the event, noting that Mr. Rouhani “hosted the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, Muslim leaders from different Islamic communities and members of the U.S. Congress at a private meeting . . . at the One UN Hotel in Manhattan Sept. 24, 2013 across the street from the UN headquarters.” The Final Call, a Nation of Islam publication, added that “ Keith Ellison of Minnesota . . . participated in the dialogue” after dinner and includes photos of Messrs. Farrakhan and Ellison at the tables. The Michigan-based Islamic House of Wisdom also reported on the meeting, with additional photos.

According to Mr. Farrakhan, the 2013 meeting was not the last time he and Mr. Ellison were together. After Mr. Ellison renewed his denunciation of Mr. Farrakhan in 2016, Mr. Farrakhan stated in an interview that Reps. Ellison and Carson had visited him in his Washington hotel suite the preceding summer.

When Mr. Ellison sought the DNC position, he received support from many Jewish leaders and prominent politicians. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer dismissed concerns rather glibly: “I’m not worried about the Israel stuff.”

For some reason, no one wants to talk about it: “The press secretaries for Messrs. Ellison, Carson and Schumer did not answer emails seeking comment. Mr. Meeks’s press secretary said his boss had no response.”

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