About Time: The First Muslim Elected to Congress

While other stories have gotten the attention, Minnesota voters made history of their own on Tuesday with the victory of Keith Ellison in his bid for an open seat in the House of Representatives.

Ellison is not only the first Muslim (he converted in college) ever elected to Congress, he is also the first non-white to ever win a seat from Minnesota, the proud home of the late Senator Paul Wellstone. The Wellstone connection matters here because Ellison says he very much respected and admired the Minnesota maverick and shares many of Paul's progressive, liberal interests and goals.

For those of us who have sorely missed Wellstone, taken from us far too soon in a tragic plane crash, as well as those of us who would like to see more diversity and progressiveness on Capitol Hill, Ellison's win raises hopes from a House of too often Reprehensibles. Ellison is pro gay rights, pro a woman's right to choose, for the immediate withdrawal of American troops from Iraq, and progressive in approach to both health care and education.

From Ellison as quoted in The International Herald Tribune:

["]I think the most important thing about this race is we tried to pull people together on things we all share, things that are important to everyone. We all need peace, and this Iraq policy is dangerous to our country," said Ellison, who has called for immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops.

Ellison said his campaign united labor, minority communities, peace activists. "We were able to bring in Muslims, Christians, Jews, Buddhists," he said. "We brought in everybody."

Congrats, Congressman Ellison. I'm looking forward to hearing more about and from you. With more than 1.4 billion Muslims in the world, and with the conflicts the U.S. keeps getting embroiled in regarding its policies in the Muslim world, there has never been a better time to finally see a strong, intelligent, progressive Muslim voice on Capitol Hill.