Jehron Muhammad: The role of America's first Muslim Congressman
America's first Muslim congressman, Rep. Keith Ellison, recently told a reporter that ISIS is no more Islamic than the "Ku Klux Klan is Christian." He said, like ISIS, the Klan has a history of using religious "rhetoric" to justify its history of brutal behavior, including terrorizing and lynching African Americans.
During a recent visit to Swarthmore, Ellison, from Minnesota's 5th Congressional District, said that being a Muslim congressman requires one to be "about a higher moral value." But also, "We have to inject truth, honesty [and] a certain sense of faithfully addressing adversity and not backing down every time somebody challenges us."
Because he's Muslim, Ellison says he brings a certain perspective. There is only one other African American congressman, Andre Carson of Indiana.
Ellison said he's been the target of "anti-Muslim hate. Some of my colleagues don't know anything about Islam." So he feels it's his "responsibility to tell them … and be patient enough to explain it from my perspective."
When Ellison was first elected to Congress in 2006, he said he came under a vicious and unprovoked "attack" from a colleague. This was Rep. Virgil H. Goode Jr., a Republican from Virginia.
In a letter to voters, Goode wrote, according to the New York Times, the election of a Muslim legislator serves as a threat to the upholding of the nation's traditional values.
"I fear that in the next century we will have many more Muslims in the United States if we do not adopt the strict immigration policies that I believe are necessary to preserve the values and beliefs traditional to the United States of America and to prevent our resources from being swamped," Goode said.
Why Goode chose to go the immigration-policies route to limit the growth of the religion, when Islam is probably the fastest-growing religion among African Americans, is anyone's guess.
Ellison doesn't wear his religion like some kind of badge of honor, even though he's proud to be "one of the brothers in the faith." His visibility stems from how he was elected. "I'm always going to be associated with Islam because of the historical way I was elected. Any time you're the first of anything it's going to [always] stay with you."
This label doesn't seem to bother the good congressman. In fact, it has afforded him the opportunity to expand his constituency and travel to Muslim countries and monitor the plight of its indigenous populations and the governments that oversee them, some of which are oppressive. It also gives him a chance to monitor the behavior of the Muslim communities that have established themselves in the U.S.
While discussing the gaps between immigrant and African-American Muslims, Ellison agreed that a communication gap exists. "There is a general problem in the whole [U.S.] Muslim community about getting to know each other," he said. "I've certainly heard African American Muslim communities say, 'We were the pioneers [of Islam] in the U.S. and we feel like we're not always a part of the conversation.' "
Ellison suggests there be a "national night every month." This would include different communities getting to know one another, not only by visiting different programs or social events, but by "coming out of our comfort zones." The objective wouldn't necessarily be to change a particular perception, but to discover commonality, or ways the various communities could begin to work together as one ummah, or group.
And it doesn't always have to be about ethnicity and cultural issues, Ellison said. "It could be about gender. The brothers can sit down and shut up and hand the sisters the microphone. So they can discover what it's like to be a Muslim woman."