A fifth member of Illinois's hate crimes commission is resigning over an appointee who is a high-ranking official in the Nation of Islam

Associated Press:

Cook County State's Attorney's Office spokesman John Gorman said Alan Spellberg planned to resign from the panel on Wednesday. Spellberg is a supervisor in the state's attorney's office.

He did not immediately return an Associated Press call for comment and a spokeswoman for the state's attorney's office said he did not want to make a public comment.

The latest resignation comes a day after Sister Claudette Marie Muhammad spoke out for the first time since four Jewish members of the Governor's Commission on Discrimination and Hate Crimes resigned last week rather than serve alongside her. Spellberg also is Jewish.

Gov. Rod Blagojevich appointed Muhammad to the commission in August, but she was under the radar until she invited other commissioners to attend a speech last month by Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan.

Criticism of Muhammad mounted after the speech, which included references to "Hollywood Jews" promoting homosexuality and "other filth."

Some former commissioners have said Muhammad should not be on the commission unless she repudiates Farrakhan's criticism of Jews, gays and other groups. Muhammad has not done that but said in a written statement that she supports the commission's goals of eradicating hate and discrimination.

The governor's office did not immediately return a phone call Wednesday seeking comment on Spellberg.

Blagojevich has said he didn't realize he had appointed a Nation of Islam official until learning about it from news reports.

Nation of Islam officials on Tuesday praised the governor for supporting his nominee but said they would have considered legal action if he hadn't.

Spellberg was a member of the commission when it was formed under former Gov. George Ryan in 1999.

He was reappointed to the commission in August 2005, along with other members of the commission, including Muhammad, who serves at the Minister of Protocol for the Nation of Islam.

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