He studied the civil rights movement, and in college was attracted to Islam because of its tenets on racial equality. Ellison turned his focus to inner-city economic and social-justice issues when he moved to Minneapolis for law school, protesting gang and youth violence and working against what he considers harsh sentencing for crimes like drug possession.........

Ellison became a Muslim when he was 20, but he wrote that he doesn’t aggressively push his faith, that for him it’s more about inner peace than preaching the good word.