Andre Carson Will Replace His Grandmother, the late Rep. Julia Carson
By Jon Ponder on 3/12/2008, 6:06pm PT  

Guest blogged by Jon Ponder, Pensito Review.

And no, the first Muslim was not Sen. Barack Obama. It was Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.). Now there are two:

Indiana voters on Tuesday elected a Muslim to Congress, only the second of that faith chosen in U.S. history.

Andre Carson, grandson of the late Democrat Rep. Julia Carson, was elected to serve the balance of her term in the U.S. House of Representatives in a special election.

She died in December 2007, after serving 11 years in the heavily Democratic district.

The younger Carson, 33, a member of the Indianapolis City Council who converted to Islam about a decade ago, will serve out the remainder of his grandmother's term through calendar 2008. He beat Republican Jon Elrod and a third party candidate with 52 percent of the vote to 44 percent for Elrod.

Ellison was sworn in on a copy of the Koran owned by Thomas Jefferson. No word yet if it will be used by Rep. Carson.

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