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http:// --> Ashland, Oregon HOME Valley & State Sports Nation & World Opinion/Editorial Classifieds Business Columnists Obituaries Weather Archive Hot Topics Forum Photo Gallery Past Readers Polls Revels Etcetera Backpage O-Zone Special Sections Real Estate Guide Menu Guide Shakespeare Subscribe Contact Us Rate Card Place an Ad Online Games Movie Preview October 20, 2006 Muslim candidate for congress is a uniting force By Noam N. Levey Los Angeles Times MINNEAPOLIS — The months after Sept. 11, 2001, were not easy ones for Muslims in Minnesota. The state was thrust into the national spotlight as the home of Zacarias Moussaoui, the only person prosecuted in the U.S. for the attacks. Federal authorities closed down a Muslim-owned money transfer agency with alleged ties to al-Qaida. And Minneapolis police shot to death a mentally ill Muslim man from Somalia. "The community was shell-shocked," said Hussein Samatar, a businessman who moved to Minnesota from Mogadishu in 1994. Yet five years later, Minnesota is poised to elect the first Muslim member of Congress. Keith Ellison, a black attorney from Detroit who converted to Islam as a college student, is not a member of the burgeoning Somali community that has sprung up in Minneapolis. But his journey to the brink of political history in a state where ice fishing remains a cultural touchstone reflects how immigration is transforming politics even on the nation's northern edge. Ellison, 43, captured the Democratic primary in Minnesota's fifth House district last month in part by bringing new Muslim voters into a coalition that drew on Minneapolis' black, Jewish and gay and lesbian communities. He celebrated his primary victory at a East African restaurant in Minneapolis' new Somali neighborhood. As he heads toward an expected victory in the heavily Democratic district, Ellison has continued to aggressively court Muslim support not just in Minnesota, but nationwide. He recently flew to Florida for a fundraiser hosted by one of that state's Muslim leaders. "This is huge victory for both Muslim Americans and America," said Agha Saeed, chairman of the American Muslim Taskforce, a Northern California-based coalition of groups working to elect more Muslims to public office. "This . . . has eradicated two stereotypes: one against Muslims, that they cannot work and succeed in a democratic setup, and the other against the United States, that it is not a tolerant society." A generation ago, Minnesota would have been an improbable place for Ellison's success. Though the state has nurtured a progressive strain in its politics for generations, its diversity was usually defined in terms of Swedes, Norwegians and Finns. Today, immigrants still comprise a relatively small percentage of the state's population. According to the latest Census estimates, 16 percent of Minneapolis residents are foreign born, compared to 40 percent in Los Angeles. But a steady stream of refugees — first Hmong from Southeast Asia and, in the 1990s, Muslims from East Africa — have transformed Minneapolis, as well as other parts of the state. By some estimates, the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area is home to more than 50,000 people of African origin, placing it among the top four centers of such immigrants in the U.S. In neighborhoods where taverns have names like "The Viking," Somali women in colorful robes and head scarves hurry along sidewalks. And in North Minneapolis, a new minaret above the Masjid an-Nur Mosque will soon share the skyline with the city's aging grain elevators. "This is a very different place than it was 30 years ago," said Steven Schier, a political scientist at Carleton College in Northfield, Minn. Ellison's candidacy is a product of that change. His Muslim faith attracted little attention when he won a seat in the state House of Representatives four years ago. But when Democratic U.S. Rep. Martin Sabo — the son of Norwegian immigrants — said in March he would retire after 28 years in Congress, Ellison launched an insurgent campaign aimed squarely at mobilizing Muslim immigrants. "We need the voice of all people," Ellison said recently. "You never know where the good ideas are going to come from." His overtures generated interest in a Muslim community that had played little part in the state's politics. "We in general are not very excited about the political process, in part because of the countries we came from," said Ali Jaafar, a Lebanese-born physicist who came to the U.S. as a student in the late 1960s and moved to Minnesota in the 1990s. Jaafar, who hosted a fundraiser for Ellison with other Muslim leaders, said he was impressed that the candidate "talked about civil liberties ... about poverty and health insurance. These are issues that are important to us." Ellison, who blends earnestness with an unapologetic passion for a liberal platform, also spoke out often against the war in Iraq, a message that resonated with Muslim voters. He is calling for an immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops. In seeking to galvanize Muslim support, Ellison was a frequent visitor to the Karmel Square shopping mall, where hundreds of Somali vendors selling richly colored fabrics, sweet tea and other products from their home and have created the economic heart of the city's African immigrant community. Ellison also "came out to all the mosques for Friday prayer; talked to every Somali he could find," said Samatar, the businessman from Mogadishu. Ellison defeated six other Democrats in the primary, but his Muslim identity generated controversy. An article he wrote while a law student under the name Keith E. Hakim and his work helping organize the 1995 Million Man March — an event conceived by Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan — sparked charges that he shared Farrakhan's anti-Semitic views. After the primary, Alan Fine, the Republican candidate in the House race, wasted little time assailing Ellison on this front. Fine called a news conference to say he was "personally offended, as a Jew" by Ellison's candidacy. Ellison has denied that he was a Nation of Islam member before becoming a mainstream Muslim. And the attacks on him do not appear to have seriously weakened his support; backers include several Jewish leaders. "You know, everybody is something," Ellison said as he campaigned in a working-class neighborhood recently and was asked about his faith by a voter. "You're black, you're white, you're Catholic, Muslim, Jewish, Buddhist. . . . Let's talk about what we all share," he added. 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