Americans Against Hate is calling for Rep. Keith Ellison to be removed from the Congressional Task Force on Anti-Semitism.

(Coral Springs, FL) Yesterday, February 19, 2008, the Legislative Director from U.S. Representative Ron Klein’s Washington, D.C. office, Mira Kogen, informed Americans Against Hate (AAH) Chairman Joe Kaufman that Rep. Klein (D-Florida) will not be removing Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minnesota) from the recently created Congressional Task Force on Anti-Semitism (CTFAS). Klein co-chairs the task force with U.S. Congressman Mike Pence (R-Indiana). CTFAS was created by Holocaust survivor, Rep. Tom Lantos, who passed away earlier this month.

Last week, an AAH delegation met with Rep. Klein to ask him to remove Rep. Ellison. AAH spent over a half hour showing Klein documentation proving direct contact between Ellison and radical Muslim organizations, which included the Muslim American Society (MAS) and the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). Both MAS and CAIR had recently been named by the U.S. government as being part of the Muslim Brotherhood, and CAIR had been linked by the FBI to Hamas.

According to Kogen, Rep. Klein approached Ellison to ask him about the information he (Klein) received from his meeting with AAH, and Ellison told him that he had “publicly denounced” and would continue to publicly denounce the anti-Semitism from the groups (MAS and CAIR). Kogen told Kaufman that Rep. Klein was satisfied with Rep. Ellison’s statements to him and that they were consistent with the principles of the anti-Semitism task force.

However, Americans Against Hate points out that, to its knowledge, never has Keith Ellison publicly denounced any of the organizations in question. He has never denounced the anti-Semitism from the groups nor any of the terrorist connections of the groups. To the contrary, Rep. Ellison has praised the groups and has spoken on a number of occasions at the groups’ conferences. Last May, Ellison was the keynote speaker at an event sponsored by the Minnesota chapter of MAS, at the same time the organization had on its website statements calling for the murder of Jews. The statements still remain.

AAH Chairman Joe Kaufman stated: “We are profoundly disappointed that Ron Klein has chosen not to remove Keith Ellison from the anti-Semitism task force. Ellison has never denounced MAS or CAIR, and if anybody has proof that he has, we would like to see it. He has only supported these organizations. As long as Keith Ellison sits of the anti-Semitism task force, the task force will have absolutely no meaning.”