Does Rep. Keith Ellison Have Ties to Radical Islam?

On the same day of the gun and bombing attack on the Ataturk International Airport in Istanbul, Turkey that killed at least 41 and wounded 239 people, the Senate Subcommittee Judiciary Committee on Oversight, Agency Action, Federal Rights and Federal Courts held a panel discussion on Radical Islam.  The discussion was presided over by Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX): a frequent critic of the Obama administration’s refusal to use the term “Radical Islam” with regard to terror and threats the United States.

Cruz said that the reason for the debate was to “assess the degree to which the administration is willfully turning a blind eye to radical Islamic terrorism, and the consequences for the safety and security of the American people.”

As Alpha News previously reported, during the hearing National Security Consultant, Chris Gaubatz (Understanding The Threat), testified that Congressmen Keith Ellison (D-MN) and Andre Carson (D-IN) had both been speakers at the 2008 Islamic Society of North America’s annual conference.  ISNA is an organization affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood – a group that has been designated by several Middle Eastern countries as a “Terrorist Organization.” What Gaubatz did not mention was that President Obama addressed the 2015 ISNA convention attendees himself via video, congratulating the organization for holding its 50th convention in his hometown of Chicago that year, among other things.

The fact that Obama is supportive of ISNA may be one of the reasons that bills (H.R. 3892 and S.3220) designating the Muslim Brotherhood and its affiliate organizations, ISNA included, as a “Terrorist Organization” have stalled in Congress:

Muslim Brotherhood Terrorist Designation Act of 2015

Expresses the sense of Congress that: (1) the Muslim Brotherhood has met the criteria for designation as a foreign terrorist organization, and (2) the Department of State should so designate it.

Requires the State Department to report to Congress within 60 days whether the Muslim Brotherhood meets the criteria for foreign terrorist designation and, if not, which criteria have not been met.

The legislation also contains evidence linking the Brotherhood and Hamas to the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) and the North American Islamic Trust (NAIT).  The ISNA leadership claims the organization has no connections to the Muslim Brotherhood; however, in a February 2013 article about ISNA, Ryan Mauro (TheClarionProject.org) reported:

Declassified FBI memos reveal that ISNA was identified as a Brotherhood front as early as 1987. One memo cites a source that has traveled worldwide on behalf of ISNA and other Brotherhood entities who is “convinced that this organization has a secret agenda which includes the spread of the Islamic Revolution to all non-Islamic governments in the world which does include the United States.”

The source reports that “the entire organization is structured, controlled and funded by followers and supporters of the Islamic Revolution as advocated by the founders” of the Brotherhood in Egypt. The FBI says the source provided a private ISNA document in August 1988 that “clearly states that ISNA has a political goal to exert influence on political decision making and legislation in North America that is contrary to their certification in their not-for-profit tax returns as filed both with the State of Indiana and with IRS.” [9]

A 1988 U.S. Muslim Brotherhood document states that ISNA is part of the “apparatus of the Brotherhood.”[10]  A 1991 U.S. Muslim Brotherhood document, which says “its work in America is a kind of grand jihad in eliminating and destroying Western civilization from within,” lists ISNA as the first of “our organizations and the organizations of our friends.” It also lists the ISNA Fiqh Committee and ISNA Political Awareness Committee, as well as other groups that have interlocking leadership with ISNA. In discussing its initiative to spread Islam in America, it says “We have the Daw’a [outreach] section in ISNA.”

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In “The Muslim Brotherhood Has Invaded Minnesota’s Public High Schools” CrowsNestPolitics.com stated: “In February 2016 The House Judiciary Committee, by a vote of 17-10, approved legislation to designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization, stating “a mountain of evidence in support of this designation”.  The bill, H.R. 3829, known as The Muslim Brotherhood Terrorist Designation Act, was sponsored by Republican Representative Mario Diaz-Balart of Florida and was co-sponsored by 30 other members of congress, including Minnesota Representative Collin Peterson (DFL-MN7), which gave the bill bipartisan support.”  Since that time, however, the bill has stalled with little evidence that it will be moving forward in either the House or the Senate.

Currently, Representative Collin Peterson (D-MN7) is the only Minnesota lawmaker listed as supporting the bill.  As AJ Kern, who is challenging Representative Tom Emmer  (R-MN6) in the August 9th, 2016 Minnesota Primary election, recently questioned in a campaign Facebook post:

This is a question all Minnesotans (with the exception of Peterson’s constituents) should be asking – why aren’t their Representatives supporting this bill?  Keith Ellison has already demonstrated why he won’t be voting for the bill, but what about the rest of Minnesota’s Congressional delegation?

 

Updated 4:01pm June 30, 2016

Andrea Mayer-Bruestle

Andrea Mayer-Bruestle is a former writer for Alpha News.