[Today], Rep. Peter King (R-NY), chair of the House Homeland Security Committee, will use his authority and the sacred space of the US Capitol Building to put an entire religion on trial when he convenes a hearing on the “Radicalization of American Muslims.” King has a long track record of Islamophobic conduct, and the planned hearings are being decried by religious leaders and scholars as an abuse of government power, a blow to religious freedom, and a government-backed demonization of millions of decent people of faith.
As a Mormon, I find the King hearings particularly objectionable. Because Mormons of all people know what it feels like for an entire religion to be publicly demeaned for the objectionable deeds of its fringe minorities. And because our religion too was once put on trial by Congress.
In 1903, Reed Smoot, a high-ranking LDS Church official, was elected to serve as Senator from the state of Utah. Government leaders, politicians, Protestant churches, and business leaders petitioned Congress that Smoot was unfit to serve because of his affiliation with Mormonism and its outlaw practice of polygamy. What followed was a four-year show political show trial involving more than 100 witnesses that put every dimension of Mormon life under national scrutiny.
Tags: islamophobia, mormon, peter king, peter king hearings, religious discrimination
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