Realizing the election of the nation's first black president and his election as a black representative to Congress from Minnesota makes playing the perpetual black victim card difficult, Rep Keith Ellison (D-MN) has chosen to play the Muslim victim card.

Ellison, the first Muslim elected to Congress, and who is black, was in full Muslim victim mode speaking -- or trying to speak--before Rep Peter King's (R-NY) Thursday hearing on the radicalization of American Muslims. Choking back tears, covering his face, Ellison quaveringly spoke about a Pakistani Muslim, Mohammed Hamdani, who dashed to the World Trade Center that horrible September 11 to rescue people but was killed when the building crashed down. For Hamdani's efforts Ellison sobbed

After the tragedy some people tried to smear his character solely because of his Islamic faith. Some people spread false rumors and speculated that he was in league with the attackers only because he was Muslim. It was only when his remains were identified that these lies were fully exposed.

[S]ix weeks after the September 11 attacks - before Hamdani's remains were identified, which Ellison implies to be the turning point of public perception - Congress signed the PATRIOT Act into law with this line included: "Many Arab Americans and Muslim Americans have acted heroically during the attacks on the United States, including Mohammed Salman Hamdani, a 23-year-old New Yorker of Pakistani descent, who is believed to have gone to the World Trade Center to offer rescue assistance and is now missing." That is, Hamdani was actually singled out for particular high honors among the thousands of victims of the September 11 attacks.

There's little evidence of the "rumors" of which Ellison speaks, either. Poke around yourself on Google.

(snip)

You'll discover two discordant sets of returns: none for sites and news reports accusing Hamdani of being a terrorist, and many thousands of pages honoring him as a hero while claiming that he was "widely accused" of being a terrorist.

(snip)

[H]e was eulogized by the New York Times, had scholarship funds named after him, was honored by Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Ray Kelly (both of whom went barefoot to honor Muslim practice) at his funeral, and has been celebrated over and over again by the media.

Ah, but Bloomberg and Kelly, who removed their shoes, didn't convert to Islam.

Bigots! Boo! Hoo!