Minnesota Democrat Keith Ellison called the secular Egyptian revolution a "stunning rebuke to al-Qaidaism" and called fears of a takeover by the Muslim Brotherhood a "scarecrow."

Appearing on MSNBC's The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell Thursday night, Ellison, the first Muslim in Congress, said "This is a group of people who are rejecting al-Qaedaism, rejecting religious extremism and saying they want what we already have, which is democracy. We got to stand on the side of that."

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