Lost context: argument about Peter King's Muslim Hearings

by YankeeJim | March 7, 2011 at 06:28 am

103 views | 0 Recommendations | 0 comments

Muslims may be a minority in America, but they surely are not in many parts of the world. In fact, the most volatile parts of the world are Muslim and people are seeking freedom from dictators and royal rulers. Which way will they go: 1) Islamic governments, 2) Radical Islam, 3) Democracy, who knows?

The source of terrorist attacks in the world and against the USA comes from radical Islam. In America, the primary source of terrorism is breeding in the Muslim community as we have seen in countless examples.

So, Peter King is not off base in investigating the situation. I am not so keen on hearings as I am on diligent research and investigation.

Surely, there are other subversive groups in America as Eric Holder indicates, but none are as visible as Islamic radical terrorists.

The style of the Obama administration is to sleep on things until they erupt and then react slowly. That doesn’t cut it.

“Congressman King defends himself against criticism over hearings on radical Islam

By Emi Kolawole and Scott Wilson

Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, March 6, 2011; 8:50 PM

This week's House Homeland Security Committee hearing on "radical Islam" is needed to highlight and investigate the threat posed by homegrown Muslim terrorists, Chairman Peter T. King(R-N.Y.) said Sunday.

Defending himself against criticism that he is scapegoating a religious community and ignoring threats from other extremists, King said that U.S. Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. "is not saying he's staying awake at night because of what's coming from anti-abortion demonstrators or coming from environmental extremists or from Neo-Nazis. It's the radicalization right now in the Muslim community."

King was joined Sunday on CNN's "State of the Union" by Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), a practicing Muslim who plans to testify at the hearings. Ellison, the first Muslim elected to Congress, said that he agreed with holding the hearings but that the scope was too narrow.

"It's absolutely the right thing to do for the chairman of the Homeland Security Committee to investigate radicalization," Ellison said. "But to say we're going to investigate a religious minority, and a particular one, I think is the wrong course of action to take."

Asked why he would participate in the hearings, Ellison said, "I believe in engaging the process. I think you've got to be involved in the conversation. You've got to offer an alternative view."

King and Ellison had differing takes on the highly charged issue of whether the American Muslim community has helped to counter radicalization. Ellison said, "The stats say 'yes.' " The Muslim community, he said, should not feel frightened but empowered.

King's outlook, however, was not as positive. "I'm aware of a number of cases in New York where the community has not been cooperative," he said, adding that law enforcement officials do not always "get the level of cooperation that they need."

In an effort to set out President Obama's position before the hearings, his deputy national security adviser, Denis McDonough, spoke Sunday evening to the All Dulles Area Muslim Society, one of the nation's largest Islamic congregations.

"The bottom line is this: When it comes to preventing violent extremism and terrorism in the United States, Muslim Americans are not part of the problem, you're part of the solution," McDonough told about 200 people, most of them Muslims.”