|
MINNEAPOLIS – Vandals struck the garages and homes of five Minnesota members of Congress late on Oct. 21 or early on Oct. 22. Among the targets was the home of U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison, the nation’s first Muslim congressman.
The spray-painted graffiti called for the members of congress to resign and included a biblical reference to "Psalm 2."
The other homes belonged to Sen. Norm Coleman, Sen. Amy Klobuchar, Rep. Michele Bachmann, Rep. Jim Ramstad, and Rep. John Kline.
Police say sometime between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m., someone came alongside the north Minneapolis corner home of Keith and Kim Ellison and left the words "TRAITOR. RESIGN NOW. PSALM 2," for a shaken Kim Ellison to find.
Larry Weiss, Keith Ellison’s campaign manager, noted that the word "SCUM" was spray-painted high enough above the garage door that the culprit probably would have needed a step stool.
The invocation of Psalm 2 also does little to shed light on possible motives. Sometimes called the coronation psalm, it refers to rulers who have displeased God and risk his wrath, William Barnes, a professor of Hebrew and the Old Testament at North Central University in Minneapolis, told the Minnesota Star-Tribune.
"I took it to a meeting [of biblical scholars] today and we just don’t know what to make of it," he said. "It’s not something we’ve commonly seen used in a political context."
Barnes noted that the targets were a group that includes a Jew (Coleman), an evangelical Christian (Bachmann), and a Muslim (Ellison).
"It’s just odd," he said.
|
