Diaz wrote that Ellison faces a review by the Ethics Committee for his “decision to keep the trip’s costs under wraps — even though it was paid for by a local Islamic nonprofit and typically would be reported as a gift to a public official.”

Yesterday, the Minnesota GOP cited the paper’s report in a letter to the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct, concluding:

Rep. Ellison’s actions and stonewalling are clearly wrong and he should apologize to the people of Minnesota. Taxpayer money intended for students must never be used for a politician’s personal travel. To avoid the appearance of inappropriate use of taxpayer funds, we also believe he should reimburse the state for any and all expenses incurred during this travel immediately.

In his letter to the editor Thursday, Ellison said the Strib story’s “opinions and spurious connections… do not stand up in light of the actual facts. The Star Tribune’s account must be corrected.” He says he submitted the invitation from the Muslim nonprofit to the House Ethics Committee, where it was approved.

“The Star Tribune knows that I followed the spirit and the letter of the House rules, as communicated to me by House ethics lawyers, at every step of the process,” he wrote, adding that the ethics review is a standard procedure in the House, sparked by the newspaper’s inquiry.

Ellison, Congress’ first Muslim member, said that despite his public stature he deserves a private life.

“Privacy is not undiscovered dishonesty,” he wrote. “Some things are private. For example, family and religion. My trip, which was not at taxpayer expense, and paid for by a nonprofit organization that does not lobby, was handled according to the House rules, which balance disclosure and privacy.”

Since the fall of Saddam Hussein, homophobia and the terrorisation of LGBT people has got much worse. The western invasion of Iraq in 2003 ended the tyrannical Baathist dictatorship. But it also destroyed a secular state, created chaos and lawlessness and allowed the flourishing of religious fundamentalism. The result has been an Islamist-inspired homophobic terror campaign against LGBT Iraqis.

LGBT Iraqis are fleeing to neighboring countries where volunteers set up United Nations asylum status. Already, dozens of gay Iraqis have relocated to the United States, Sweden, the Netherlands and Germany.

This video, “The Sexual Cleansing of Iraq,” documents the connections between the homophobia-related murders and the democratic government of Iraq.

“The political picture is bright, not perfect, but we are ready to expand the dialogue and work to resolving the miscomprehensions that exist in our society and between the U.S. and the Islamic world,” said Ellison in a lecture on Saturday.

Ellison talked about President Obama’s commitment to working with the Islamic world. “President Obama’s granting his first international interview to Al-Arabiya was a significant move which showed his commitment to his pledge.  He was talking straight to Muslims all over the world,” he said.

He continued, “The U.S. and the Muslim world have many things in common and this signifies a good future for collaboration and dialogue.”

ACLU-MN investigated the allegations and in court documents filed in U.S. District Court said the Muslim organizations from which TIZA is leasing its space are illegally benefiting from the leasing arrangement.

According to the complaint, Asad Zaman serves as executive director, trustee and principal of TIZA and is also vice president of the Muslim American Society of Minnesota, the religious organization that leases space to the school.

“He is thus subject to conflicts of interest resulting from his roles on behalf of both lessors and lessees with respect to the charter school,” the complaint asserts. “He has been quoted as stating that ‘Islam makes no distinction between public and private life.’”

The complaint lays out a number of other instances of entanglements between religious organizations and the school, improper prayer services, improper exposure of students to religious iconography and the posting of religious materials in public areas.

In addition, the complaint cites cases where Islamic religious traditions are alleged to be encoded in school policy. According to the complaint, the school handbook requires “girls in grades six through eight to wear a skirt or jumper with pants underneath or a ‘full-length dress (jilbaab)’” and states that female teachers must “be covered from neck to wrist and ankle.” Those rules do not apply to boys or male teachers.

The suit seeks a stop to state endorsement of TIZA and a refund of state monies received by the school. It also faults the Minnesota Department of Education for lack of oversight, especially in light of media reports about possible infractions.

“The lack of government oversight is a matter of grave concern, because the Minnesota Department of Education gives over $30 million annually in rent subsidies to charter schools and due to the agency’s lack of supervision, we have no way of knowing how much taxpayers are subsidizing religious organizations,” Chuck Samuelson, executive director of ACLU-MN in a statement Wednesday. “However well-run and academically challenging a religious school may be, it is unconstitutional for public funds to be used for religious education.”

Congress' first Muslim member, Rep. Keith Ellison was sworn into office on Thomas Jefferson's copy of the Quran.

Fox News published a report Thursday slamming Democratic Rep. Keith Ellison by featuring a discredited “terrorism expert.” Ellison’s hajj pilgrimage to Mecca last month, an important part of his Muslim faith, was paid for by the Muslim America Society of Minnesota, an organization that has earned the respect of the Minnesota Council of Churches, the St. Paul Police Department and former Vice President Walter Mondale, but also has been a target by mainly right-wing blogs and think tanks.

Steven Emerson called the Minnesota nonprofit “the Muslim equivalent of the neo-Nazi party.” Of Ellison he said, “It’s very troubling that he is trying to project an image of moderation, but he is tied to these radical groups.” Fox News did not disclose Emerson’s ample volume of false reports, anti-Muslim diatribes, frivolous lawsuits and discredited statements.

Emerson has a long history of getting into hot water over his anti-Muslim rhetoric. In the 1998 nuclear standoff between India and Pakistan, Emerson fed reporters with an informant who said Pakistan was set to strike India with a nuclear weapon. The media eventually found the informant to be unreliable — but not until international media had used Emerson’s source and intensified an international crisis.

In 1990, he was accused of plagiarism in his writings about Pan Am 103.

According to Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, “Emerson’s most notorious gaffe was his claim that the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing showed ‘a Middle Eastern trait’ because it ‘was done with the intent to inflict as many casualties as possible.’” That attack was perpetrated by homegrown terrorist Timothy McVeigh.

He sued a Florida paper after it published reports that he was supplying reporters with documents he said were from the FBI. The Florida Weekly Planet reported that the documents were frauds and Emerson sued. When he couldn’t substantiate his claims, he withdrew the lawsuit.

Emerson once claimed that an extremist Muslim group put out a hit on him and that the FBI offered to put him in a witness protection program. The FBI denied that claim.

While the Muslim American Society of Minnesota has been a focus for criticism in recent years, surely Fox can find someone with a shred of credibility to comment.

On Sunday Colin Powell spoke strongly against his party’s slandering of Islam. This kind of thing is happening at McCain’s campaign events too. Here’s video from the American News Project of a McCain rally in Woodbridge, Virginia, where McCain supporters denouncing Barack Obama as a Muslim are confronted by a man who introduces himself as the chairman of McCain’s Maryland campaign–and a Muslim. “I ran for United States Congress and I was endorsed by John McCain,” he tells a man holding an anti-Obama sticker that features the crescent and star and the hammer and sickle.  Muslim McCain supporters are there too. “Shame on you guys,” shouts one, “because we’re Muslim and we’re McCain voters and you guys are taking votes away.”

“I’m afraid if he wins, the black will take over.”

“He’s not a Christian. This is a Christian nation!”

“He must support terrorists.”

“I’m concerned Obama and his wife could be anti-white.”

“I don’t like the fact that he thinks white people are trash because we’re not.”

Earlier: A May 2008 Al Jazeera report from eastern Kentucky featured similar responses

“All I’m asking is for Keith Ellison to bring a bible along.”

more inside

Ellison is setting yet another precedent in January when he takes the oath of office on the Koran, Islam’s holiest book, an event that evoked conservatives to accuse him of deviating his allegiance from the Constitution to Allah.

On Tuesday, conservative radio talk show host and columnist Dennis Prager wrote: “America is interested in only one book, the Bible.” Directly addressing Ellison, he added “If you are incapable of taking an oath on that book, don’t serve in Congress.”

Ellison said that he’s not changing his mind about the sacred text he’s swearing on.

“The Constitution guarantees for everyone to take the oath of office on whichever book they prefer,” he said in a telephone interview. “And that’s what the freedom of religion is all about.”

According to Roll Call, the Capitol Hills’ newspaper, swearing on a particular sacred text is a symbolic, optional affair for House members who would like a photo-op with the Speaker of the House at the end of the mass swearing-in ceremony, which has no specific religious denomination.

In his scathing article, Prager barely stopped short of calling Ellison a racist, but he said that allowing Ellison to swear on the Koran is akin to allowing a “racist” to choose “the Nazis’ Bible for his oath.”

And though he suggests that the Bible is the exclusive book, in which Americans should swear on, plenty of elected officials locally and nationally have taken their oath on the Torah.

Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a Florida Democrat, who’s Jewish, refused to use a Christian Bible in her swearing-in ceremony in 2005. Eventually, she borrowed a Hebrew Bible from a colleague. Others officials, including four U.S presidents have skipped swearing on the Bible all together.

The foray into Ellison’s oath on the Koran, led by Prager and a cadre of conservative bloggers, is seen rapacious by Muslims and tendentious by most experts.

“It’s a clear double standard in our society,” said David Landry, professor of theology at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul. “There’s a lot of anti-Muslim bigotry in it.”

Rev. Meg Riley, director of Advocacy and Witness Programs at Unitarian Universalist Association, said that “Ellison is swearing on the Koran to uphold the Constitution of this country.”

“He’s not swearing on the Constitution to uphold the Koran.”

And by doing that, she said, he’s just using his desired sacred text to affirm his allegiance.

For Muslims, Prager’s column not only rekindles old wounds sustained during the campaign, but reflects a faith that is increasingly becoming a public prey.

“It’s ridiculous and utterly offensive,” said Mahdi Bray, executive director of Muslim American Society’s Freedom Foundation, based in Washington D.C. “But what’s more saddening is that no prominent person is able to respond to those conservatives, because Muslims are easy targets.”

Asked if he’s disappointed with the criticism that seems to be glued to each step he takes, Ellison said that this particular outcry will eventually wane down.