A Democratic candidate for the U.S. Congress told Jews in Minnesota that he was wrong to dismiss concerns that the Rev. Louis Farrakhan is anti-Semitic.
State Rep. Keith Ellison acknowledged in a May 28 letter to the local Jewish Community Relations Council that he failed to scrutinize the positions of the Nation of Islam and its leader, Farrakhan, during his association with the group for about 18 months in the mid-1990s. Ellison, who is considered a favorite to win the congressional seat in November, would become the first Muslim ever elected to Congress.
He said he “wrongly dismissed concerns that they were anti-Semitic. I should have come to that conclusion earlier than I did.” Farrakhan has said that Judaism is a gutter religion, among other remarks. |