1/2 Andre Carson's Grandmother Julia Carson

Julia Carson and Louis Farrakhan go way back.

They were together, says Andre's wife, on the night Andre Carson was born. They were acquainted from Farrakhan's visits to meetings of the Congressional Black Caucus. When Farrakhan came to Indianapolis in 1997, Julia showed up at Farrakhan's news conference and gave him a hug. And as she lay dying in her Near-Northside home, Farrakhan called to wish her well.

Andre Carson knew little of the personal history. He said he had never met Farrakhan. Word of Farrakhan's phone call came to him from his grandmother's professional caregivers, and from Julia herself. As a grandson, Carson insists he was far from the final voice on her arrangements. But he still sought advice from Siddeeq, who said he must honor his grandmother's wishes . . .

So, in the end, he says he chose to honor his grandmother's wishes for her funeral. But matters grew more complicated for him when Farrakhan, while speaking over Julia's casket gave what essentially amounted to an endorsement of Andre as his grandmother's political successor. It was something he and his campaign staffers say he could easily lived without. It sparked letters to the editor referring to Andre as Farrakhan's emissary. Indianapolis political blogger Gary Welsh says Carson should repudiate Farrakhan's endorsement.

"If he disapproves of what he stands for then you wouldn't want his endorsement for the office you are seeking. And I've never heard that," Welsh wrote.

http://advanceindiana.blogspot.com/2008/02/carson-blames-grandmother-for-farrakhan.html

Andre Carson tried to down play his "acquaintance" with Farrakhan despite going to Million Man march/

http://advanceindiana.blogspot.com/2008/02/carson-blames-grandmother-for-farrakhan.html

But the Farrakhan episode also called attention to something that went largely unrecognized before – that Andre Carson is a Muslim and that, if elected March 11, he would be Indiana's first Muslim representative in Congress and only the second in U.S. history.

Carson explains in the story how he was originally drawn to the Nation of Islam but turned off by what he called Farrakhan's, divisiveness, admitting, however, that he attended Farrakhan's Million Man March in D.C. in 1995. King writes:

Perhaps most transformative, though, was the "Autobiography of Malcolm X," the story of a complex man who preached black separatism as a spokesman for the Nation of Islam only to moderate his views before his death.

That story – and the young Nation of Islam men patrolling his neighborhoods – made Andre curious, he said. But he couldn't get past the divisiveness embodied by Farrakhan.

"That did not match my experiences or personal beliefs," Carson said. "So, for me, it was like it was good to see the drug dealers being pushed out. But the philosophy and the ideology do not match who I am."

Even so, Carson attended Farrakhan's Million Man March in 1995 – with a white friend, he says – because of his interest in black men taking responsibility, rather thanany aspect of Farrakhan's persona.

"I was one of the many people," Carson points out, "who didn't agree with everything he said. Still don't."

Muhammad Siddeeq, the father of a friend, helped Carson sort through things. He spent hours answering Carson's questions about Islam, the Nation and Farrakhan. "It was really touching for me," Siddeeq said, "because he was such a youngster and he was seeking clarification."

Andre confronted a choice many young black men considering Islam face, Siddeeq said: To follow Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam, with its street credibility on social matters but record of divisiveness, or more universal Islamic teachings that promote tolerance. At crunch time, Siddeeq said, Carson chose tolerance.

"This man," Siddeeq said, "moved in the spirit of what was right and what was wrong and he made the right decision, at the right time."

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