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Muslim Congressman: I’m Not a ‘Crazy’

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Rep. Keith Ellison, the first Muslim member of the U.S. Congress, has just returned from his second trip to Israel – where he said he doesn’t understand Muslim "crazies” who see the Koran as a license to murder.

"The murderers and the extremists are into something I don't know about," the first-term Minnesota Democrat told the Jerusalem Post.

"I don't know how they read what they read and come out with what they do. They wouldn't consider me a Muslim because I'm American, because I believe in the unity of people and that we are all on the planet to work together.

"The people who did 9/11 are hostile to everyone, and in fact if you are not the type of Muslim they want you to be, they would be happy to kill you too. I am not a Muslim in their eyes because I am for tolerance and inclusion, and they don't want an Islam that is inclusive."

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  Ellison is also not "crazy” when it comes to local politics – his district has a large Jewish population and the Jewish newspaper in Minneapolis endorsed his candidacy, so trips to Israel sit well with the electorate.

"The people in my district don't know me as a Muslim congressman, they know me as Keith,” the former state legislator told the Post.

"I don't see myself as a religious leader or a religious scholar. I don't represent a religion. I don't represent the Muslims. I represent the Muslims and Jews and Hindus and Christians and those who don't follow anything in my district. "When you get to the bottom line, the main reason I'm here [in Israel] is to be able to talk to the people of the 5th Congressional District about something a lot of people care about - what happens here in Israel" and in the Palestinian Authority.

Ellison was part of an 18-member Congressional delegation, brought to Israel by the American Israel Education Foundation, that met with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salaam Fayad.

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