Peter King: I won't "surrender to political correctness"
Amid heightened security, Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.) opened his controversial hearings on the radicalization of Muslim Americans Thursday by stating that the criticism he has received from special interest groups and the media "has ranged from disbelief to paroxysms of rage and hysteria."
"Let me make it clear today that I remain convinced that these hearings must go forward," said King, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee. "And they will. To back down would be a craven surrender to political correctness and an abdication of what I believe to be the main responsibility of this committee-- to protect America from a terrorist attack."
King, who has been accused of McCarthyism over the hearings, went on to say that his effort is neither radical nor un-American. He called the inquiry "the logical response" to warnings from the Obama administration, citing Deputy National Security Advisor Denis McDonough's comments that "al Qaeda and its adherents have increasingly turned to another troubling tactic: attempting to recruit and radicalize people to terrorism here in the United States...This threat is real, and it is serious."
Ellison breaks down in Muslim radicalization hearings
King also noted comments by Attorney General Eric Holder that the radicalization of young Americans keeps him awake at night, and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano's testimony that the threat level is the highest it's been since September 11, 2001 because of domestic radicalization.
He then responded to critics who say the hearings should have a wider focus than just Muslims.
"This Committee cannot live in denial which is what some would have us do when they suggest that this hearing dilute its focus by investigating threats unrelated to al Qaeda," he said. "The Department of Homeland Security and this committee were formed in response to the al Qaeda attacks of 9/11. There is no equivalency of threat between al Qaeda and neo-Nazis, environmental extremists or other isolated madmen. Only al Qaeda and its Islamist affiliates in this country are part of an international threat to our nation."
King said that he believes "the overwhelming majority of Muslim Americans are outstanding Americans and make enormous contributions to our country" - but added that "there are realities we cannot ignore."
"For instance a Pew Poll said that 15 percent of Muslim-American men between the age of 18 and 29 could support suicide bombings," he said. "This is the segment of the community al Qaeda is attempting to recruit." He called for moderate leadership from the Muslim community and said Muslim Americans should reject The Committee on Islamic-American Relations (CAIR) and similar groups that King says do not deserve to be treated as legitimate groups.
King shrugs off McCarthy comparisons
Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., left, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, talks to Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss, the top Democrat on the committee, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, March 10, 2011.
/ AP Photo/J. Scott ApplewhiteKing listed Americans who had been recruited by al Qaeda, including New York City Subway bomber Najibullah Zazi, Times Square Bomber Faisal Shahzad, Fort Hood Terrorist U.S. Army Major Nidal Hasan and Colleen LaRose, aka "Jihad Jane."
"As we approach the 10-year anniversary of the September 11th attacks, we cannot allow the memories of that tragic day to fade away," he said. "...Today, we must be fully aware that homegrown radicalization is part of al Qaeda's strategy to continue attacking the United States."
King's hearings have been greeted with outrage in the Muslim community; in his testimony, Democratic Rep. Keith Ellison, one of two Muslims in Congress, accused King of "ascribing the evil acts of a few individuals to an entire community" and said the hearings could make the country less safe.
Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, the top Democrat on the committee, was also critical, stating, "I cannot help but wonder how propaganda about this hearing's focus on the American Muslim Community will be used by those who seek to inspire a new generation of suicide bombers."
Witnesses who plan to testify at the hearing include family members of young men who became radicalized, who plan to tell the committee that the young men were brainwashed by Muslim extremists.
In an interview with CBS News earlier this week, King said he wouldn't change how he's handled the hearings.
"No when I see people who are attacking me I'm gratified ... to me it's a badge of honor to be attacked by the likes of these people," he told CBS News correspondent Nancy Cordes.
King not troubled by comparisons to McCarthy
Ellison: Islamic radicalization hearings "McCarthyistic"
King defends hearings on Islamic radicalization
Ellison: Hearings targeting religious minority "dangerous"
Ellison: Muslim radicalization hearings a "bad idea"
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Everyone of us base our lives on less than perfect text. To target one without the other is rather hypocritical.
It should be about all text which vilifies other Religious or Secular not persons.
The fact is Muslims are already radicalized the reason being from the Islamic texts Quran foundation chapter "THE COW" onwards vilification of and justification of 'grevious harm' against other is the main theme.
This is why terrorists are good boys and girls coming from good Muslim families. It is that simple.
The radical Muslim clerics are not triggering anything they are simply providing the opportunity. The trigger has already been created by the basic Islamic text which forms all Muslims.
The fact all Muslims do not act on it is irrelevant for as we see enough Muslims do from generation to generation to perpetuate the terror against other.
If you read the Quran - only Chapter "THE COW" which sets up the framework by which the Islamic text will be challenged, vilifies the perpetrators sets them as less and then informs the remedy 'grevious harm' with the ultimate authority God authorizing all within, given this is an old recipe for genocide against other and the terror we clearly are experiencing would it not be rational to be rightfully concerned?
Also more importantly as we are all formed by textual constructs such as the Islamic text, there may just exist evil text informing evil action and we should seek it out be it secular or religious so we can change the future for humanity?
Change the text forming our new citizen's change the outcomes otherwise more of the same.
This means not just looking at Islamic text but other texts within our communities which are used to form new citizens and accept the fact finally 'Freedom of Religion' has been a curse on society because we are not able to easily challenge such Religious text which generates real evil against other without being erroneously labeled and censured.
Sikh Murder: Hate Radio and Rep. King Responsible for Incitement?
He was just an elderly gentleman walking down the street wearing the badge of his faith and now he is dead. When the shock jocks get off on attacking and demonizing an entire religion, as has now become standard practice on Hate Radio, this is what you get. It appalls me to see the remarks in right-wing blogs claiming "every devout Muslim is an enemy of America" (yes, I have actually read this) but when you play with fire, what do you expect? For the most part you'll be arguing with idiots who didn't pass Sesame Street's lesson on making distinctions for three-year-olds ('one of these things is not like the other...'), harmless if ugly, but occasionally these twisted ideas will be latched upon by real mentals who only need that that last bit of prodding. And now another man is dead.
This follows a rise in hate crimes against Muslims or perceived-Muslims which should make every American ashamed, and now it is in the halls of Congress.
MSNBC:
WEST SACRAMENTO, California - The daily stroll had become routine for two elderly Sikh men in a Sacramento suburb, as well as for neighbors and friends accustomed to seeing the men walk by with their long beards and turbans.
But the traditional headwear might have singled them out late last week when they were gunned down, one fatally, in what police are investigating as a suspected hate crime.
Now this fool Rep. King is validating this hateful mentality of demonizing an entire group of people. This is a natural culmination of the Ground Zero Pier 51 debate in which, lacking a communist threat to justify the vast and wasteful Military Industrial Complex which President Eisenhower tried to warn us of, it has been replaced by shilling that part of the population which doesn't think too much with the threat of the Ground Zero Triumphalist Mosque as the beachhead of the coming Cosmic Caliphate.
Mark Twain in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: "'Don't worry! says the Duke. 'Hain't we got all the fools in town on our side? And hain't that a big enough majority in any town?'"
The kicker is Rep. King and whoever is behind his circus must know that they are in fact helping the real terrorists. Jonathon Alter reports:
I had dinner last weekend with a U.S. attorney for a district not far from ground zero, and he was disturbed by the King hearings. The congressman has said law enforcement officials have been telling him privately that they aren't getting cooperation from local Muslim communities. Not so, said this U.S. attorney. He told me-privately-that he meets regularly with representatives of the community. They routinely provide the FBI and prosecutors with valuable leads and evidence. But now they are terribly worried about the stigma coming from King's hearings. This U.S. attorney and his colleagues are being forced to spend valuable time reassuring local imams that the U.S. government means them no harm.
The moron who attacked the two Sikh men was so stupid he couldn't tell the difference between a Sikh and a Muslim, a dimwit Brownshirt savage ordinarily kept under a rock by civil society. But they are encouraged and incited to violence in ugly times when the Powers That Be use this precise mechanism to keep attention away from the wholesale theft of the US Treasury, through bail-outs, permanent wars, and tax cuts for the rich.
This is not accidental. People like Hate Radio's Michael Savage have a national audience and are carried by radio broadcast giant clear Channel Communications. Savage once advocated the killing of 100 million Muslims, saying:
"Oh, there's a billion of them...'So, kill 100 million of them, then there'd be 900 million of them.' I mean ... would you rather us die than them?...Would you rather we disappear or we die?
Peter King cut and ran like faster than a gazelle.
The expected outcome, as expressed by Rep. Peter King, and by others, is to shed light on the problem of radicalized Islam - which seeks to implement Sharia law in the United States which would allow for Islamists to operated outside of our laws and Constitution, and would seek to suppress American freedoms and to terrorize this nation.
It's worth talking about, because it really does matter.
One_American - Thanks for your lucid and thoughtful response. While discussion may be important, I don't agree that Congress should be having these discussions. And I sure don't think they should be doing it in front of the camera. Quite frankly I have yet to see a politician, liberal, conservative or otherwise, that didn't turn into a self-serving moron the instant a camera is turned on.
If you want to have this discussion with a positive expected outcome then have it among the law enforcement and intelligence communities.
if you want to group other religions like christianity for example with Islamic radicalism come up with a comparison that is also prevelant now, get it? We could look at ancient history for any issue but that has no relevance to modern acts of terrorism perpetrateed by radical Islamists
=======
Sure - easy enough:
Was George Bush a muslim? Nope - he was a Christian who got 100,000+ people killed as a result of his decision to invade Iraq, as his Christian "God" told him.
.
What are you talking about? Man it's tough for you libs to stay on topic when there is no logical rebuttle.
On another note people like you and skyk who compare conservative American to Nazi's are totally wrong in stating such nonsense. Apparently you have absolutley no idea in regards to world war II, or truly yhe unbelievable evil perpetrated by those Nazi's. Your comparisons are completely false, shameful and utterly insulting to any clear thinking adult.
The Germans in WWII killed the jews, because that's what Martin Luther directed them to do in his book, "On the Jews and their Lies". He said that they should either be enslaved or exterminated, and that's what the Third Reich tried to do. (All with Pope Pius XII blessing, I might add.)
You dared me to compare ancient history to modern history, so I did. It's not my fault that you and Hitler worship the same monster. I just find it ironic that you'll demonize an entire religion because Bin Laden killed almost 3,000 people, yet Hitler killed almost 6,000,000 in the name of HIS GOD, George Bush killed tens of thousands because "his god told him to", and yet the Christian religion gets a free pass from you.
Got a hypocrisy problem? Sure looks that way.......