In 2008 Ellison accepted $13,350 from the Muslim American Society (MAS) to go on a pilgrimage to Mecca. The Muslim American Society is a Muslim Brotherhood organization: “In recent years, the U.S. Brotherhood operated under the name Muslim American Society, according to documents and interviews. One of the nation’s major Islamic groups, it was incorporated in Illinois in 1993 after a contentious debate among Brotherhood members.” That's from the Chicago Tribune in 2004, in an article that is now carried on the Muslim Brotherhood’s English-language website, Ikhwanweb. The Muslim American Society, according to Steven Emerson, director of the Investigative Project on Terrorism, “is the de facto arm of the Muslim Brotherhood in the U.S. The agenda of the MAS is to … impose Islamic law in the U.S., to undermine U.S. counterterrorism policy.”
And now he is in Somalia, apparently to help facilitate transfers of money from Somali Muslims in Minnesota to their friends and relatives back in Somalia -- transfers that have often been used to finance jihad.
"Minnesota congressman arrives in Mogadishu," by Abdi Guled for the Associated Press, February 19 (thanks to Maxwell):
MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) — A U.S. congressman visited Somalia's capital on Tuesday, the first visit in years by a member of Congress to what until recently was considered one of the world's most dangerous cities.Keith Ellison, a Democrat from Minnesota, said his visit to Mogadishu fulfills a request from his constituents with ties to Somalia. Minnesota has one of the largest populations of Somali-Americans in the U.S.
Ellison, the first Muslim elected to Congress, noted that the U.S. government recently recognized the Somali government for the first time since the country fell into anarchy in 1991. President Barack Obama's administration formally recognized the Somali government on Jan. 17.
"I told my constituency I would come here and work for the United States and Somalia relationship, and I am doing that in today's visit," Ellison told a news conference in Mogadishu.
Ellison was greeted by Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud. The president said that Ellison's visit was a big day for Somalia.
Mogadishu has experienced about 18 months of relative peace, after the August 2011 ouster of the Islamic extremists of al-Shabab from the capital by African Union forces.
Ellison said his meetings with Somali officials would focus on financial remittances most often sent by Somalis in the U.S. back to family members in Somalia. Such remittances have become harder to make over fears that people sending money could be accused of aiding a terrorist organization such as al-Shabab.
So will Ellison be trying to make them easier? Will he do so with any regard for the financing of jihad terror?
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