The Washington Post takes a look at how one very high profile Muslim-American, Congressman Keith Ellison, is handling the extremely challenging climate in the wake of the San Bernardino attacks and Trump’s recent anti-Muslim rhetoric.
The Post reports that the congressman “found a silver lining” in Trump’s call to ban Muslims from entering the country. Ellison says that there’s a “message of hope” in Trump’s “foolishness” because it’s “so damn desperate.” He continues, “There is no confidence in it. It shows weakness and fear.”
The congressman says he tries to keep his faith private, but opened up about his conversion to Islam at the age of nineteen, when he left an event that honored the passage of the 13th Amendment (which ended slavery).
“I felt this was the right thing for me to do, and I’ve been doing it ever since. I don’t know how to pinpoint the spiritual yearning, but I know it is there, and I can also tell you it was the social justice aspect that attracted me,” comments Mr. Ellison.
