How about a photo-trip down sharia-memory lane? Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN) on the hustings for then-Senate-candidate Al Franken in October 2008 with Somali sharia court enthusiast Abdullahi Ugas Farah.

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The political atmosphere is toxic. I am not talking about the "heat" of the rhetoric the media love to wring their hands over, particularly when conservatives are making winning arguments. I mean the political atmosphere is toxic to the truth. Facts. Statements of fact. Just as once upon a half-century-plus ago, you couldn't talk about the communist conspiracy in America without a ton of media and elite bricks coming down on your head, today you can't talk about Islam, its tenets, its historical record, stated goals and agent-organizations without a similar avalanche of criticism.

Once, communists and fellow travelers had control -- in some cases literal, in others by dint of influence -- of the talking space; now, the Muslim message dominates. Or, should I say, the Muslim Brotherhood message dominates. You may think the MB is that Islamic group predominantly behind the organization of the anti-Mubarak protests, but the organization is here, in the USA, too. Indeed, the leading Islamic organizations in the US are demonstrably proven to be linked to or even fronts for the Brotherhood even as they are also the very groups that the US government enages, strenuously, in that strength-sapping exercise of "Muslim outreach." ISNA, CAIR, MSA, MAS, MPAC. NAIT .... The list of groups goes on, reflecting the massive web of Muslim Brotherhood concerns targeting our national debate, targeting our talking space -- already drastically constricted due to what we short-hand as "political correctness" but which is in fact a tool of good, old-fashioned Marxist subversion. This richly interwoven web also targets individuals who stand up against the spread of Islamic law and cultural influence.

Among those so targeted by these various influences is Rep. Allen West (R-FL), who, as readers know, is a big favorite of mine. Yesterday, Congressman West issued a statement, I suppose, to make it all  go away, or at least subside a little. It's hard to operate with that ton of bricks on your head. According to the Sun Sentinel, several religious leaders in West's district had written in this week with their “ `deep concern' ” over [West's] recent comments about a Muslim colleague in Congress and about `your tendency to offer intemperate comments about Islam.'"

That Muslim colleague would be Keith Ellison -- he who, among other things, hit the Minnesota-Somali hustings (D-MI) in 2008 for Al Franken with one Abdullahi Ugas Farah, a Somali leader who I discovered, when I googled his name, was  in 2003 one of two speakers presiding over the opening of a new sharia court in Mogadishu. Naturally (?!), he was a big draw in Minneapo-somali-is. (Note Abdullahi's sylish tangerine-colored beard of jihad in the pic above.)

The Sun Sentinel reports:

In response, West said on Wednesday his comments on Ellison “are not about his Islamic faith but about his continued support of CAIR (the Council on American Islamic Relations.”

“It is the extremist, radical element that has hijacked Islam that presents a dangerous threat to both our country and our allies throughout the world,” West said in a return letter. “This radical jihadist movement has no place in the United States of America or anywhere on earth.”

“The problem is, these fanatics are often supported by certain groups and organizations that masquerade as more peaceful moderates,” West wrote. “Organizations such as CAIR have long histories of supporting violent anti-American and anti-Israel terrorist organizations such as Hamas, Hezbollah and the Muslim Brotherhood.”

West told the letter-writers he shares their goal to exercise and safeguard religious tolerance.

The extremist, radical element -- jihad -- has not "hijacked" innocent passenger Islam; such radicalism steers the plane -- or, more to the point, charts the flight path. Would that the Congressman's reply have noted instead that his comments were directed at the Islamic faith in jihad, in the Islamic intolerance, indeed, negation of other faiths, and that the respective holy men ought to consider  engaging in some serious study of sharia, jihad and dhimmitude and joining this most vital debate -- not suppressing it.