Lawrence O'Donnell talked to our only Muslim member of the House of Representatives, Keith Ellision about the way the right has used the crisis in Egypt to push conspiracy theories about the Muslim Brotherhood and President Obama.
O'Donnell asked Rep. Ellison about his interview with Rep. Steve King the previous night if there was anything he could say to his colleagues to get them to quit fearmongering by saying President Obams is a Muslim. Rep. Ellison said he'd be "more than happy to help enlighten my colleagues about issues about Islam, about the world in general." I applaud Keith Ellison for his willingness to do so, but sadly I have a feeling that any "enlightenment" would likely to fall on deaf ears that prefer the fearmongering for political gain.
After praising McCain for doing the right thing during the primary race with President Obama and telling the woman who told him that then candidate Obama was a Muslim, Rep. Ellision expressed to O'Donnell why he feels we need to be on the right side of history with the protesters in Egypt. Rep. Ellison feels the same way I'm sure a lot of us do including myself, which is that those protesters out there just want many of the same rights that we in the United States take for granted; the right to vote and have your vote mean something, the right to free speech and the right to have some sort or representative democracy that reflects the needs and wants of the voters.
What's really pitiful is -- compare and contrast if you've got the stomach for it this conversation about Egypt by O'Donnell and Ellison and their response to Director of National Intelligence James Clapper's statements on the Muslim Brotherhood during a House committee meeting and Beck's hysteria from the same day.
While anyone may rightfully say that Ellison is painting as rosy a scenario as is possible on what type of government we may end up seeing in Egypt and how much influence there might be from religious groups once all of this plays itself out, Beck's almost 19 minute long rant is completely over the top. I think Beck has finally proved that there's absolutely nothing he can do on the air that will cause Murdoch to fire him.
