Yesterday House Homeland Security Committee Chair Peter King announced he would not be deterred by “political correctness” and would proceed undeterred with his March hearings on “the threat of Islamic radicalization.” Bennie Thompson, the ranking member of the Committee, had asked King to expand the probe to “a broad-based examination of domestic extremist groups regardless of their ideological underpinnings.” A coalition of interfaith and civil rights groups has denounced the hearings as divisive and McCarthy-esque.
But for King, who believes 80% of American mosques are “controlled by radical imams,” and has ignored warnings from retired miltary brass and scholars at esteemed institutions like West Point that anti-Muslim rhetoric “feeds into the messages of al Qaeda propagandists,” insists that “the al Qaeda attacks of 9/11 and the ongoing threat to our nation from Islamic jihad were uniquely diabolical and threatening to America’s security, both overseas and in our homeland.” As a result, he rejected both Thompson’s request and the warnings about his hearings being “misguided and counterproductive.”
Tags: islam in america, islamophobia, peter king, peter king hearings, religion in america
If you enjoyed this article, please consider sharing it!
