Hearings on Muslims leave US House deeply divided

Highly controversial Congressional hearings on Muslim American radicalization on Thursday revealed a House committee deeply divided, not only by the day’s testimonies but also by the premise of the hearings. The House Homeland Security Committee called for the hearings to address what it says is the growing threat of homegrown terrorism within the Muslim American community.

At the center of the firestorm was Representative Peter King (R-NY), chair of the Committee, who has been embattled since announcing the hearings weeks ago. In opening remarks King redoubled his commitment to continue despite repeated and harsh criticisms that he was stigmatizing the Muslim community, fueling discrimination and encouraging infringement on religious freedom.

King said it was his duty push ahead. “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 American from a terrorist attack,” he said.

King accuses the Muslim community of failing to cooperate with law enforcement officials during terror investigations.

“The overwhelming majority of Muslim Americans are outstanding Americans. But there are realities we cannot ignore,” King said.

But civil rights groups, many Democrats, and some terrorism experts disagree, saying King is demonizing Muslim Americans and compromising national security by playing into the hands of those who say the U.S. is at war with Islam. Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), the first Muslim elected to Congress, began his testimony by questioning the validity of the hearings.

“We need to conduct a thorough, fair analysis and to do no harm. The approach of today’s hearings, I fear, does not meet those standards,” Ellison said.

Five others testified during the hearing, including two relatives of radicalized Muslims who complained that local mosque leadership was to blame, and that most Muslim American organizations preferred to sweep the problem under the rug.

Abdirizik Bihi, uncle of a Somali-American who joined the terrorist group Al Shabab in Somalia, said, “[The imams] are brainwashing the youth and taking them back into the burning inferno of Somalia.”

Mainstream Muslim organizations in the U.S. complained that they were overlooked by not being asked to testify, saying the so-called experts called on by the Committee were not representative of the vast majority of Muslim Americans.

Throughout the day raw emotions underscored the usually staid Congressional proceedings. Ellison repeatedly choked back tears as he told the story of Mohammed Salman Hamdani, a paramedic in New York who died during 9/11 rescue efforts and was thought to be part of the terror plot until DNA evidence proved otherwise.

Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX) lashed out at King’s assertion that Muslims were being uncooperative, declaring “Muslims are here cooperating. They are doing what this hearing has suggested that they do not do! It is an irony and outrage that we are wasting time when Muslims are sitting before us, a Muslim is on this panel, a Muslim has testified, so I question, where are the uncooperative Muslims?”

Though similar hearings have been held in recent years, none have been as divisive as the one led by King, a polarizing Republican from New York whose district was heavily affected in 9/11. King initially incited ire by claiming that more than 80% of American mosques are led by extremists, saying “after9/11 a switch flipped” when he saw the Muslim American community “covering up for Al Qaeda.” His critics have pointed out he was once a staunch supporter of the Irish Republican Army, and defended their use of violence in civilian settings, a fact they say undermines his campaign against extremism. King has said his support for the IRA is irrelevant because their acts of terror were never directed at the United States