Although Bill Sali has officially apologized to the US Congress' Muslim Representative, Keith Ellison, it appears that his desultory remarks are set to worsen the controversy.

On August 18 in an interview with the conservative American Family News Network, Sali alleged that a Muslim representative in the US Congress is not what the American founding fathers had envisaged.

Sali's comments were considered a blatant insult to Keith Ellison. Following strong protests, Sali in a letter finally apologized for his comments.

According to political analysts, with the 2008 elections' season looming, the reverberation of the event are set to continue.

For sometime, Christian extremists influenced by the Zionist lobby's inducements have closed ranks against the sole Muslim representative of the US Congress.

Ellison found his way into the US House of Representatives from Minnesota in the Nov 2006 elections. At that time the Christian extremists had carried out feverish propaganda saying the Muslim Congressman must not use the holy Quran for his oath of office. But the House majority turned down the illogical demand since it ran counter to the US Constitution. From then on, verbal attacks against American Muslims have consistently continued.

Recently Tom Tancredo, a Republican candidate for the 2008 presidential elections further insulted Muslim sentiments worldwide by calling for the atomic destruction of Islam's two-holiest cities, Makkah and Medina. Such insulting and ill thought out comments led to anger and objections even from the high-ranking White House and Congress officials.

Following the highly suspicious Sep 11, 2001 events, anti-Islamic trends have intensified in the US.

More than 10 million Muslims live in the US. Their numbers are rapidly growing and they and carry out prominent roles in the economic and industrial growth of the US. Muslims are among the most educated American minorities and they ardently oppose terrorist activities. However despite these facts, Christian extremists, Zionist Christians, extreme right wing media and a group of the US officials are feverishly indulging in a heavy handed offensive against the religious identity of American Muslims. Of course, in confronting such an offensive, the groups defending the Muslim rights in the US society have extended their political and social activities whose result is entry by the first-ever Muslim representative to the US Congress.

The US extremists such as Sali are intent on confronting the political and social ascent of the Muslim American citizens. This is while such contradictory behaviour will ultimately threaten most severely the US social cohesion as a migrant multi-cultural country.