Ellison on Islam & Democracy

You have to have some sympathy for the US Information Agency staff. Especially now that they are under Condi Rice’s State Department, it’s been mighty hard, if one has a shred of decency left, to package the United States in a positive light for Arab audiences. Have you heard the one about the US “continuing” its active Middle East peacemaking?
The world doesn’t overwhelmingly resent or fear the US because of “misunderstanding” caused by poor efforts to gets America’s “message “out.” It has not been the record player that’s the problem – but the music being played.
It’s like asking the world to buy another “pig in a poke.” That is, the US has been caught too often with the “cat in the bag” (in Romanian, that’d be a fi prins cu mâṭa în sac) – or, if you will, caught “scamming” the truth.
Ok, enough bad metaphors! You get my drift.
Enter Keith Ellison…
the newly elected Congressman from Minnesota – who happens also to be a Muslim. USINFO’s web site this week features a “feel good” story about the new Congressman and his faith – no doubt as a positive for Muslim readers around the world.

Naturally – if not incredibly – USINFO doesn’t mention just why Congressman’s Ellison’s religious affiliation became such an issue in his run for Congress. We wouldn’t want the Muslim world to learn more about the “Virgil Goode position” on Immigration now, would we? (In case “ya’all” missed it, see my assessment here or here of Virgil’s un-Jefersonianian stance on Ellison and the “Q-Ran” oath controversy.)
USINFO also doesn’t mention, much less contemplate, why Congressman Ellison’s campaign web site curiously included a few AIPAC-like positions on Iran and Middle East matters – though he did slip in a brief word about preferring that diplomacy be tried before force. But I digress.
USINFO is about providing “good” (not Goode) images for foreign audiences. An earlier USINFO story on Ellison’s election emphasized his “bridge building” qualities that enabled him to be elected — almost in spite of, rather than because of, his Islamic faith.
Likewise, the current story quotes Ellison characterizing those who voted for him as saying that, “We don’t really care what your religion is. This is what we are into, if you can promote and execute and advocate these things, you can represent us.”
While Ellison’s district includes the largest American population of Somali (Muslim) immigrants, the story correctly notes that “the people who voted him into office are ‘overwhelmingly white and Christian,’ descendants of Norwegians, Swedish and German immigrants.” (Take notes, Virgil.)
Yet Ellison is now portrayed as less afraid to talk about his values – and how they might even be influenced by (gasp) his Islamic faith — though mind ya’all, they’re not, as “Church Lady” might opine, that “special.” To Ellison,

“The values that underlie Islam are not unique to Islam. They are shared by all faith traditions. Belief in charity, in giving to others in need and facing adversity, the belief in equality and justice — there is no religion, including Islam, that has a monopoly on these ideas,” he said.

And like those other faiths, Ellison affirms that Islam is quite compatible with democracy:

“These are universal ideas. In fact, they’re not just compatible with democracy; they drive us toward a society in which there is consultation, in which there is input and approval from the populace.” He asks, “How can you have a just society where one person or only a limited set of people make the laws for their benefit and yet other people who had no role in making the law have to abide by it? That’s fundamentally unjust….”

When mutual respect and justice are replaced by dictatorship, he said, “It just means that we are putting our desire for domination, power, money, hegemony above the Divine injunction that we should love ye one another, love your neighbor as yourself.”

Amen. Preach it, brother Ellison.
Better yet, let us quote from the Scriptures (ahem, the Koran) to note that men and women, and while we’re at it, all nations, are equal before God too:

“Oh humanity, we created you from a single pair, male and female, and fashioned you into tribes and nations, so that you would know each other and get to know each other and not hate and despise each other. Surely the most honored among you is the one who is most righteous and just.” –Surah 49:13:

“[I]t doesn’t say the most honored man among you, or the most honored whites or the most honored blacks among you, or Asians or even Muslims,” he {Ellison} explained. “It really is an inclusive idea, the intention of the Divine for us to treat each other well, to be curious and inquiring, not to … make distinctions among each other based on sex, race, gender, tribe and things like that. And it says explicitly, in my mind, that this injunction is not only to Muslims but to all people, all humanity.”

“This is fundamental to Islam and fundamental to democracy.”

I have a dream….
To the unmentioned “yes-but” retort about “jihad” to slay the unbelievers, Ellison affirms that the Quran says religion is a matter of choice and not compulsion: “It should be free, voluntary and open.”
Alas, too bad most of America’s key Middle East allies don’t practice this one — I wonder if Ellison knows…? But this is “light reading” from USINFO – whatya expect?
USINFO readers might also note that Ellison has a rather savy political ear. When asked who “inspired him” most in his public service, Ellison nicely pays homage to the late Senator Paul Wellstone.

“I used to think if you get elected to office that you couldn’t maintain your value system. You’d get into that meat grinder and get chewed up. You’d end up something else from what you went in. But he (Senator Wellstone) proved it’s not true. You can do the right thing.”

Make it be so for you too Congressman Ellison.