WASHINGTON - Rep. Keith Ellison, the first Muslim elected to Congress, had little good to say about President Bush's foreign policy when he ran for office in 2006.

Now, two months into office, the Minnesota Democrat has plans to meet with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and other top State Department officials to talk about showcasing his story as part of their public diplomacy efforts in the Muslim world.

"Hey, my country first. We can work out our political differences later," said Ellison, an outspoken critic of the Iraq war. "I've said I'm willing to do whatever I can to make some friends for America."

Building on the international cachet he's built since taking his oath of office on Thomas Jefferson's Quran, Ellison has been profiled three times by the State Department's overseas press bureau. On Monday he did a Voice of America interview from his office, where an American flag was placed conspicuously behind his desk for the cameras.

He's scheduled to follow up Thursday in a teleconference with Karen Hughes, the State Department's undersecretary for public diplomacy. The teleconference has been tasked by the White House to promote American values and confront ideological support for terrorism around the world.

Muslim commentators and administration officials say that, whatever controversy Ellison has engendered at home, he can help America's image abroad, especially in the Arab world.

"It's a very positive development," said Voice of America's Faiz Rehman, a Pakistani native and senior political producer. "He is the most famous freshman congressman in the world."

Ellison's swearing-in in January turned him into one of the hottest journalistic commodities on Capitol Hill, particularly for the foreign press, which had to be ushered out of his office after he took his oath of office to make room for home-state news crews.

Now the State Department's public diplomacy arm is swinging into the act.

Ellison has now been featured in a series of articles written for foreign dissemination by the Department's Bureau of International Information Programs. The most recent, published last month, highlighted the diversity of his constituents in Minnesota, ranging from Swedes and Norwegians to "the largest Somali immigrant community in America."

The article has been translated into Farsi and Arabic, according to State Department officials.

In his Voice of America interview, which is aimed at the Middle East and South Asia, Ellison quoted the Quranic verse Surah 49:13: "Oh humanity, we created you from a single pair ..."

He said it's part of his message of global inclusiveness.

Although the Bush administration is promoting Ellison as an example of American religious tolerance, part of his international cachet comes from the controversy he's encountered at home.

Since Ellison became a candidate for Congress last year, his religion has been fodder for political opponents, including Minnesota Republicans who tried to tie him to Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan.

After he decided to take his oath on the Quran, Virginia Republican Rep. Virgil Goode called it an illustration of the need for immigration changes, even though Ellison grew up in Detroit. A national talk show host asked him if he was working with "our enemies."

Ibrahim Hooper, a spokesman for the Washington-based Council on American Islamic Relations, compared Ellison's overseas appeal to that of boxing icon Muhammad Ali, who refused to serve in Vietnam.

"Muslims around the world know that America has a tradition of religious tolerance," he said. "They'd like to see us live up to that tradition."

Ellison, for his part, plays up the positive in the American experience, noting that the nation's founders chose not to establish an official state religion.

"Religious tolerance has a much longer pedigree in America than some of the intolerance we've seen lately," he told Voice of America.

But he hasn't backed off from his criticism of the Bush administration's Iraq policy, saying he wants people around the world to know that "there are many Americans who want to relate to the rest of the world in terms of cooperation, not military domination."

His staffers say the State Department has shown no signs of squeamishness about publicizing his criticism of the war.

Rick Jauert, Ellison's communications director, said he warned one State Department writer that "we don't agree on much." That was fine, came the reply. "They said it's about democracy and dissent," he said.

By Kevin Diaz

Source: McClatchy Newspapers