News items for 2006-November

2006-NOV-07: MN: Muslim elected to Congress: Keith Ellison (D-MN), a black Muslim, became the first Muslim to be elected to Congress. He is a representative-elect from Minnesota. Alan Fine (R) ran a series of negative ads focusing on Ellison's past association with Louis Farrakhan, leader of the Nation of Islam. The apparent goal was to show that Ellison was anti-semitic. However, the public realized that his only involvement with Farrakhan was to help organize a march on Washington in 1995 with the intent of encouraging black males to improve their communities. Also, Ellison received the support of the National Jewish Democratic Council and a Minneapolis Jewish newspaper. ₁

He said:

"I do hope that it will signal to Muslims that we should engage in the American political system. It will signal to people who are not Muslims that Muslims have a lot to offer to the United States and the improvement of our country." ₂

"The conference appeals to all Muslims to stop practicing this habit, according to Islam's teachings which prohibit inflicting harm on any human being. ... The conference reminds all teaching and media institutions of their role to explain to the people the harmful effects of this habit in order to eliminate it. ... The conference calls on judicial institutions to issue laws that prohibit and criminalize this habit ... which appeared in several societies and was adopted by some Muslims although it is not sanctioned by the Qur'an or the Sunna."

According to The Age online news source:

"Egypt's two top Islamic clerics, Mohammed Sayed Tantawi, the Grand Sheik of Al-Azhar, the foremost theological institute in the Sunni Muslim world, and Grand Mufti Ali Gomaa, attended the conference, which drew scholars from as far afield as Russia. Tantawi's and Gomaa's edicts are considered binding. ₉