Tea Party: Don't Vote for This Muslim

The head of a national Tea Party group says voters should oppose Rep. Keith Ellison—because he’s a Muslim. In a letter sent out last weekend, Tea Party Nation leader Judson Phillips enumerated his grievances with the Minnesota rep thusly, according to the New York Daily News: “He is the only Muslim member of Congress. He supports the Council on American-Islamic Relations [and] Hamas and has helped Congress send millions of tax [dollars] to terrorists in Gaza.”

Ellison’s also faced Islamophobic attacks from his opponent, Lynne Torgerson, who on her website accuses Ellison of “helping to raise money to be sent to terrorists,” based on his work with the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Muslim civil liberties group. Ellison is the first Muslim ever to be elected to Congress, but he is not in fact the only one; Andre Carson of Indiana is also Muslim. (More Keith Ellison stories.)