The PointBy Daniel Greenfield

Keith Ellison was formerly a member of the Nation of Islam, a racist black nationalist hate group. He has allegedly met with Farrakhan more recently and has worked with anti-Semitic and pro-terrorist Islamic organizations such as CAIR and ISNA.

Despite that, as Robert Spencer at Jihad Watch reports, he’s demanding that Amazon censor books and other materials produced by organizations listed by the Southern Poverty Law Center as hate groups.

As Spencer notes, “The far-Left Bezos likely also thinks that the SPLC is a reliable authority, and so it is entirely possible that he will comply with Ellison’s demands and purge Amazon of all materials by people that the SPLC has smeared and defamed. Given Amazon’s dominance of the book market, that would be a serious blow to the freedom of speech, as the SPLC is making an all-out attempt to delegitimize the full spectrum of opinion that dissents from the Leftist agenda — on Islam, immigration, social issues and more. If Amazon drops SPLC-designated “hate” material, there should ensue a national discussion about whether the SPLC is really a reliable authority, and whether only one viewpoint should be allowed in the public square. If not, this will just be another nail in the coffin of the freedom of speech in the U.S.”

It would indeed.

Between Google, Facebook and Amazon, the marketplace of ideas is being tightly controlled by a handful of megacorps.

Amazon already censors a variety of materials. And the SPLC, despite its record of bad research and fraud, and its recent multi-million dollar settlement over an entry on its anti-Muslim list, the basis for which any ban against Jihad Watch and the Freedom Center would be leveled, is considered an authority. And its hate maps and lists have been used to go after conservative groups fighting against Islamic supremacist and black nationalist groups of the kind that Ellison belonged to and continues to support.

Ellison’s letter describes his idea of “hate groups” as having provided, “support for racist policies like the Muslim ban, and the “zero tolerance” immigration policies”. Those are mainstream policies enacted by the President of the United States and supported by the majority of Americans.

If that makes one a hate group, then most Americans are members of a hate group.

Keith Ellison’s letter is an attack on the Freedom Center, on freedom of speech and on the majority of Americans. It should be condemned and repudiated by the DNC and by fellow House Democrats.

And the Freedom Center will go on fighting against censorship, terrorism and hate groups like the one that Keith Ellison used to begin his entry into politics.