Swearing his oath on the Koran: first Muslim elected to Congress.

Keith Ellison (aka Keith Hakim, Keith X Ellison, Keith Ellison-Muhammed) is the first Muslim to be elected to the U.S. Congress. Controversy has now erupted over whether he will be sworn into office with his hand upon the Koran, the holy book of Islam. Ellison, a 43-year-old attorney and a "former" disciple of Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, won the November 7 election for Minnesota's 5th Congressional District, a Democratic stronghold that includes part of Minneapolis.

The Ellison race attracted financial support from Muslims throughout the United States, and Mideast media giant Al Jazeera and other major Muslim media throughout the world celebrated his victory. Ellison, a convert to Sunni Islam, has been closely allied to the North American Imams Federation, which reportedly teaches that Islam is incompatible with America's constitutional republican form of government and that all laws that conflict with Islamic law are unacceptable. Ellison's campaign also received backing from the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), whose chairman, Omar M. Ahmad, has called on Muslims to make the Koran the highest legal authority in America, and Islam the only accepted religion.