By Arsalan Iftikhar
Date Posted: October 2007
Congressman Keith Ellison never sought to make history. Although he never sought the limelight, being the first American Muslim elected to the United States Congress shall inherently place him in the annals of American political history. Representing the 5th congressional district of Minnesota (arguably one of the most liberal congressional districts in the nation), Keith has brought a new dimension to the hallowed halls of Congress and we recently sat down for dinner to talk about the historical significance of his election.
Along with my dear friend Rick Jauert (who also happens to be Keith’s communications director), we met up at a Capitol Hill restaurant to break bread, munch on yummy kabobs and wax poetic about the state of our nation and the future of our world.
Born on August 4, 1963, Keith Ellison grew up in Detroit, Michigan. He met his wife in driver’s education class in high school, attended Wayne State University (where he also wrote for the school newspaper) and because of legendary civil rights hero, Thurgood Marshall, decided at a tender age to attend law school. Although born into a devout Catholic family, it was a spiritual yearning during college which brought him to Islam.
“I usually shy away from discussing it,” said Keith Ellison as we ate our appetizer of fried cheese. “I come from a Catholic family and remember reading Malcolm X and felt a need to reconnect with the Divine; but just couldn’t find what I was looking for in the Church…”
Keith continued: “I read Malcom X and thought, ‘Well, I’m going to the mosque’…So, my friend and I went to a Friday prayer service…I remember seeing the diverse group of South Asians, Africans and Arabs as welcoming and politically interested people…I basically took shahadah [declaration of faith] right there and that was basically it.”
When Keith moved to Minnesota in 1987 to begin law school, he noticed the lack of minority law students and became president of his local Black Law Students Association (BLSA). “In my incoming class, there were three black students…We made a big deal about it and by the time I graduated, we had 15, which was a 500% increase,” chuckled Keith.
After graduation, Keith began his work as a lawyer and it was only after his exposure to the political maverick (and late) Senator Paul Wellstone (D-MN) that he began to think about elected public service.
“Up until this point, I was skeptical of electoral politics,” says Congressman Ellison, “But I started to admire his positions on war and peace.”
Like other political stalwarts, Keith lost his first race for the state legislature in 1998. In 2002, he won in his second attempt and was a Minnesota state representative for four years. More focused on helping his local community, it would not be until a March afternoon four years later that he would even consider taking his political aspirations to the national level.
On March 17, 2006, Keith was called by a friend asking him if he was “ready to run for Congress”. Laughing it off, Keith said, “Dude, I have clients coming in a few minutes.” His friend showed his seriousness by saying that U.S. Congressman Martin Sabo was announcing his retirement. Thus, the story of Congressman Keith Ellison begins.
After getting his wife’s blessing, Keith immersed himself into his campaign. Being the first person to announce in a field of 12 Democratic candidates, Keith started talking about the Iraq war and at the time, “People did not care about my religion.”
Keith would ultimately win his party’s nomination and on November 7, 2006, Keith Ellison was the first Muslim ever elected to the United States Congress. Although some right-wing politicians would later attack his swearing the oath of office on the Quran (and other silly controversies), Keith has gracefully ignored the hate-mongers and continues to take the moral high ground as one of our nation’s elected leaders.
On identity politics, Keith states that, “I fundamentally don’t like identity politics…Don’t you want people to talk to you based on a set of ideas? I think even if you’re from a 90% black community,” continued Keith. “It’s disrespectful to the voters to ask people to vote for you just because of your color…I mean, what are you going to do for them?”
As we finished our baklava, Keith played my presidential word association game:
On George W Bush: “Needs to go…”
On Mahmoud Ahmadenijad: “Idiot…” [Editors note: I agree…]
On Hillary Clinton: “I just don’t know….She’s a question mark”
On Barack Obama: “Don’t forget why people fell in love with you…Don’t run to the Right…Be bold, be strong…Worst thing that happens is that you lose…So what? Keep it real…”
In Keith’s political crystal ball, Senator Barack Obama (whom he supports) will win the 2008 presidential election and he also highlights the need for all Americans to get involved in electoral politics.
When I laughed and said you could not pay me a million dollars to run for office, Keith responded by saying that, “You should…In your space right now, you’re the storyteller…Our Paul Revere…”
Keith concluded by adding some playful and brotherly advice: “Well, Mr. Arsalan…As the Muslim Stephanopoulos [former Clinton political advisor and current ABC News television host], you’re a storyteller…Now someday, you might end up having to be a story ‘giver’ which means that you’re going to be a politician…But you know what, where life takes you, you have to go…” As a story giver himself, these are sage words that Keith Ellison has obviously taken to heart.
As we laughed and finished our kabob dinner, I realized that even though Congressman Keith Ellison never sought to make history, America became better off when history sought to make him.
Arsalan Iftikhar is an international human rights lawyer and Contributing Editor for Islamica magazine in Washington DC.
