Text 29258, 56 rader
Skriven 2007-07-16 12:00:00 av Jeff Binkley (1:226/600)
Ärende: Ellison
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Please keep a microphone in front of clowns like this.  We want them to keep
talking.

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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/07/14/wbush114.xml

Bush like Hitler, says first Muslim in Congress
By Toby Harnden in Washington
Last Updated: 3:32pm BST 16/07/2007

America's first Muslim congressman has provoked outrage by apparently comparing
President George W Bush to Adolf Hitler and hinting that he might have been
responsible for the September 11 attacks.

Addressing a gathering of atheists in his home state of Minnesota, Keith
Ellison, a Democrat, compared the 9/11 atrocities to the destruction of the
Reichstag, the German parliament, in 1933. This was probably burned down by the
Nazis in order to justify Hitler's later seizure of emergency powers.

"It's almost like the Reichstag fire, kind of reminds me of that," Mr Ellison
said. "After the Reichstag was burned, they blamed the Communists for it, and
it put the leader [Hitler] of that country in a position where he could
basically have authority to do whatever he wanted."

To applause from his audience of 300 members of Atheists for Human Rights, Mr
Ellison said he would not accuse the Bush administration of planning 9/11
because "you know, that's how they put you in the nut-ball box - dismiss you".

Vice-President Dick Cheney's stance of refusing to answer some questions from
Congress was "the very definition of totalitarianism, authoritarianism and
dictatorship", he added.

Mr Ellison also raised eyebrows by telling his audience: "You'll always find
this Muslim standing up for your right to be atheists all you want."

A convert to Islam who was previously linked to the extremist Nation of Islam,
Mr Ellison, 42, has cultivated a moderate image since being elected last
November, concentrating on issues such as health and education.

He is an outspoken critic of the war in Iraq. But he angered his own anti-war
supporters by voting for a budget bill that aims to end the war over the next
18 months. His followers want an immediate withdrawal of US troops from Iraq.

After his speech was reported, Mr Ellison said he accepted that Osama bin Laden
was responsible for 9/11. But his demagogic comments threaten to plunge him in
controversy.

Mark Drake, of the Republican party in Minnesota, said: "To compare the
democratically elected leader of the United States of America to Hitler is an
absolute moral outrage which trivialises the horrors of Nazi Germany."

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