Excerpt:
At a recent press conference, President Obama responded to a question about growing suspicion of Islam, saying, "We don't differentiate between us and them. It's just us." Unfortunately, this is not the reality that many Muslims here and around the world are experiencing. Nonetheless, Obama's remarks point to an empirical fact: Millions of Muslims call the United States their home. Minnesota Rep. Keith Ellison is one of them.
Ellison, elected in 2006, was the first Muslim to hold congressional office (Andre Carson, a congress member from Indiana, made it two in 2008). He's also a politician with significant progressive credentials who speaks with unusual forthrightness about the need for racial equity in policy making. ColorLines spoke this week with Ellison about the recent demonization of Muslims in America, the resulting uptick in violence and the politics of anger that have become definitive of this year's midterm elections.