Minnesota becoming the Florida of politics?

[djones520]

Paper Trail

Minnesota's Muslim Congressman Keith Ellison became the first U.S. representative to make the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca in December. But one terrorism expert says the group that paid for the trip has ties to Islamic extremism. Steve Emerson says the parent organization of the Muslim American Society of Minnesota is "the Muslim equivalent of the neo-Nazi party... the agenda of the M.A.S. is to... undermine U.S. counterterrorism policy."

The group was founded by members of the Muslim Brotherhood. Radical members of the Brotherhood founded the terror group Hamas and were among the first members of Al Qaeda. But Ellison's office defends the group saying, “The Muslim American Society of Minnesota is a widely respected organization... whose mission is to promote interfaith understanding."

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,478925,00.html

Man, something funny in the water up there?

[docstew]

I was unable to find it online, but doesn't Islam require that the hajji pay for their own hajj?  And why does he need a sponsored junket to afford it?  Does this mean a Catholic Representative can get a free trip to the Vatican from the K of C or Jerusalem, or is that considered to be some form of bribery?