Keith Ellison disputes the report of Rick Grenell that he is on a short list to serve as United States Attorney General in a prospective Harris-Walz administration. According to Ellison, the assertion is “a lie designed to trigger the Muslim haters.”
This is a lie designed to trigger the Muslim-haters. https://t.co/vWPy6IiBV7
— Keith Ellison (@keithellison) September 7, 2024
Ellison currently serves as Minnesota Attorney General. As I’ve been writing since 2006, when Ellison first ran for Congress, that should trigger Nation of Islam haters. See my Weekly Standard article “Louis Farrakhan’s first congressman” and my companion Power Line post “Keith Ellison for dummies.”
When I wrote about Ellison’s first memoir in the 2014 Star Tribune op-ed column “Ellison remembers to forget,” I noted that Ellison says he turned to Islam at age 19 as an undergraduate student at Wayne State University in Detroit, but that those who wonder how Ellison reconciles his Muslim faith with the social liberalism of the Democratic Party platform would not find much in the way of illumination in the book.
“If I were Jewish,” Ellison writes, “I would probably be a Reform Jew. If I were Christian, I would be one of those come-as-you-are nondenominational Christians. … Faith is not about expressing what I believe so that the world can see I’m faithful. I don’t believe in following a strict set of rules to prove my love for God or to prove my faith.” According to Ellison, “In Islam, your religion is what you make of it.” He doesn’t identify any sect that comports with his version of Islam.
Ellison purported to take issue with what I wrote, but he didn’t really bother to respond or identify what I got wrong. In his memoir, which I explored in greater detail in the Weekly Standard article “The Ellison elision,” Ellison actually describes the mystification of fellow Muslims with his social liberalism: “I get Muslims who come up to me and ask, ‘Brother Keith, how can you be in favor of gay marriage?’ ” Brother Keith explains: “I’m in favor of civil rights for all. I’m in favor of freedom.” As I wrote in the Weekly Standard article, Ellison seems to belong to the Ellison branch of Islam.
Ellison has never responded to my articles about him in the Weekly Standard and he didn’t respond directly to my Star Tribune column. Nevertheless, Ellison found my Star Tribune column of use in a fund-raising letter to supporters. This is how he rolls.
.@keithellison sends out a fundraising appeal titled: "No Such Thing As a Progressive Muslim?" pic.twitter.com/i2EVZZW7tW
— Rachel Stassen-Berger (@RachelSB) December 17, 2014
