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I'm often not proud of my home state--Minnesota. It's a great place to live seven months out of the year, but the other five, you hibernate or become a "snow bird" heading south for the winter. Nobody plans vacations trips to Minnesota in January because our wind chills can reach -40 degrees below zero. But the recent elections took the prize in Minnesota lunacy.

On November 7, Minnesota became the first state to send a Muslim to Congress. His name is Keith Ellison, a former Catholic who converted to Islam at age 19. While campaigning, he seldom mentioned his faith unless asked about it.

Muslims around the world are celebrating. Even Al-Jazeera gave Ellison’s victory front page space. Muslims rightly feel a new sense of acceptance in America after the horrors of 9/11 and the somewhat-justified fear of Muslims that many Americans have of them.

There are some huge concerns, nonetheless. On my radio program last weekend I played a clip of Ellison's acceptance speech. The crowd began shouting "Allah Akbar," meaning "God is greater," which is often spoken during acts of Islamic violence. I am not suggesting Ellison is violent and certainly not suggesting he is a jihadist; however, to hear these words in the usual defiant voice was disturbing.

However, Ellison had ties to Louis Farrakhan's "Nation of Islam." Why has this been played down? His Republican opponent, Alan Fine, was concerned about these past ties though Ellison tried to deny them. But when Ellison denounced Farrakhan, he even got some Jewish votes in this raging blue state of Minnesota.

Ellison will be sworn in on a Koran. So now the Bible is equivalent to the Koran in the halls of Congress? Doesn't this then mean he is pledging allegiance to Islamic Law (Sharia) rather than our Constitution? Where is the outrage here? He will also bring his prayer mat and pray to Mecca. Ellison is a Sunni Muslim.

His biggest ally is CAIR: The Council on American-Islamic Relations." Avi Lipkin is one of the world's top terror experts. On the DVD I made with Avi in August (available at the Web site under "Our Products") Lipkin states the purpose of CAIR is to make Islam look good and to cover up all negative angles. If you visit CAIR's Web site, it will appear that they stand with America, stand against radical Islam, and are good American citizens. I believe some ARE good American citizens and that some Muslims aren't speaking out due to fear.

A Web site coming out of Dubai stated, "God willing in the next election, half of Congress will be from the rational Muslims." Another wrote, "May God make this the beginning of victory for Muslims on the very ground of the despots."

I sincerely pray we can trust Mr. Ellison with some of America's top secrets and in our war on terror, more appropriately called our war with radical Islam. I pray he will put America first and Islam second, but that is not the nature of anyone who has a devout faith, Christians included.

He says he's here to "put love in the world." I hope he shows that Americans like me need not worry. And I pray that Muslim youth will look up to him as a leader who loves America and the American people. But I also have to pray this is NOT the beginning of a trend where Islam makes more and more inroads into America by means other than the sword.

I want to trust Keith Ellison, but there is something within me that tells me that is risky. We can pray for him, however—that he would have wisdom, sound judgment, and that he would see the errors in his Islamic faith. Who knows who might cross his path and lead him to faith in Jesus Christ.

You can hear my post-election review on my radio archives for November 11, 2006 at this link: http://www.olivetreeviews.org/radio/mp3/ You can also learn a lot more at my link "Islam and the Arabs" here http://www.olivetreeviews.org/topics/islam_arabs.shtml It is a bit ironic that the photo I have on that Web page is a picture of young American Muslim holding a sign stating, "Islam will dominate" with a photo of the White House in the background.

(Jan is founder/director of Olive Tree Ministries. To get her free print newsletter or e-alerts, visit her Web site, www.olivetreeviews.org. There are three years of radio programs posted there.)

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