Congressman Keith Ellison of Minnesota, the first Muslim elected to the House of Representatives, compared President Bush to Hitler.

We live in free country of all sorts of ideas and political leanings, however at least get your history right.

“9/11 is the juggernaut in American history and it allows… it’s almost like, you know, the Reichstag fire. After the Reichstag was burned, they blamed the Communists for it, and it put the leader of that country [Hitler] in a position where he could basically have authority to do whatever he wanted”, said Congressman Keith Ellison. Needless to say historical accuracy is not the congressman’s strong suit.

First let’s be clear that Hitler was a socialist of that time. Did Hitler believe in God? It’s widely supported now that Hitler was a Christian hence the comparison to Bush. No, he was an atheist. Hitler was for the most a vegetarian to the displeasure and protest of many vegans. Hitler promoted health policies, such as herbal remedies or a natural approach to medicine, anti-smoking, anti-pollution legislation, and other strikingly familiar policies on the Democratic side of American Government. I don’t believe in smoking, does that make me Hitler? It seems out of place for congressman to speak like this and make such a ridiculous comparison at a time of war against radicals that share his faith. Where is he on the radicals? No historical comparison to the radicals of which who actually read Mein Kampf? I hear that horrible book is selling really well in the middle east. Maybe it’s just me. (Picture: Scene from Mel Brook’s The Producers)

Some context: “Note that Marx wanted to “emancipate” (free) mankind from Jewry (“Judentum” in Marx’s original German), just as Hitler did and that the title of Marx’s essay in German was “Zur Judenfrage“, which — while not necessarily derogatory in itself — is nonetheless exactly the same expression (“Jewish question”) that Hitler used in his famous phrase “Endloesung der Judenfrage” (“Final solution of the Jewish question”). And when Marx speaks of the end of Jewry by saying that Jewish identity must necessarily “dissolve” itself, the word he uses in German is “aufloesen“, which is a close relative of Hitler’s word “Endloesung” (“final solution”). So all the most condemned features of Nazism can be traced back to Marx and Engels, right down to the language used. The thinking of Hitler, Marx and Engels differed mainly in emphasis rather than in content. All three were second-rate German intellectuals of their times. Anybody who doubts that practically all Hitler’s ideas were also to be found in Marx & Engels should spend a little time reading the quotations from Marx & Engels archived here.” Read More

On the other hand, Bush is a capitalist with an MBA from Yale. Bush believes in God and Bush eats meat. Bush is not planning to annihilate the Jews or any other group in society for that matter any time soon.

Let’s disagree vigorously, but in the context of intellectual honesty and historical fact.