By Kevin Foley
The little known member of Congress with a thin portfolio saw an opportunity to generate enormous publicity for himself while pandering to the far right wing of his party. For awhile, his paranoid ravings made for great political theater but ultimately Americans woke up and saw his stunt for what it was; a self-serving witch hunt.
I refer of course to Rep. Peter King whose congressional hearings on the radicalization of American Muslims opened with great media fanfare last month before quickly closing with a whimper.
Like Joe McCarthy’s Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations hearings more than a half century ago, King’s inquisition was based on deceit and helpfully entitled “The Extent of Radicalization in the American Muslim Community and that Community’s Response” as if to foreordain its findings.
"The State Department is infested with communists,” McCarthy reportedly declared in 1950. “I have here in my hand a list of 205…names that were made known to the Secretary of State as being members of the Communist Party and who nevertheless are still working and shaping policy in the State Department."
“No American Muslim leaders are cooperating in the war on terror,” charged King in 2004.”Eighty to 85 percent of mosques in this country are controlled by Islamic fundamentalists. This is an enemy living amongst us.”
We now know Tail Gunner Joe had no list of communists in the State Department just as we now know Rep. King’s 80 to 85 percent number is bogus. King merely regurgitated baseless figures made up by a Muslim cleric in 1999.
Fear is the common denominator here. McCarthy knew Americans were terrified of World War III as the post war Soviet Union expanded into Eastern Europe just as Peter King knows Americans are terrified of another 9/11 … or worse.
Thus, people who look and sound different than most of us and practice a religion few Americans understand make a convenient piñata for King and his bully boys and girls in the far right media. The Republican congressman from Long Island was toasted by Fox News, Rush Limbaugh and the rest as a fearless seeker of truth just as McCarthy was once honored.
But the truth had a funny way of interfering with Rep. King’s search for it.
“A two-year study by a group of academics on American Muslims and terrorism concluded that contemporary mosques are actually a deterrent to the spread of militant Islam and terrorism,” reported the New York Times last August. “The study was conducted by professors with Duke’s Sanford School of Public Policy and the University of North Carolina. It disclosed that many mosque leaders had put significant effort into countering extremism by building youth programs, sponsoring antiviolence forums and scrutinizing teachers and texts.”
A 2007 Pew Research Center study found that Muslim newcomers are highly assimilated into American society and generally believe Muslims coming to the U.S. should try and adopt American customs.
Mohammed Salman Hamdani and his family were such Muslims. King’s hearing took an unexpected turn when Rep. Keith Ellison, one of two Muslims in Congress, tearfully recounted Hamdani’s story. The 23-year-old former high school football player and New York City Police Department cadet died trying to aid victims of the 9-11 attack. Rumors that he was connected to the terrorists flew until the truth was uncovered along with Hamdani’s remains at Ground Zero.
“His life should not be defined as a member of an ethnic group or a member of a religion, but as an American who gave everything for his fellow citizens,” Ellison said.
It would also seem investigations of religious groups by government officials touch a raw nerve for some Americans.
"Homegrown Muslim extremists pose a real threat to the United States, but the issue is one that may be difficult to explore seriously in a hearing that has engendered an unfortunate atmosphere of blame and suspicion of the broader American Muslim community," the Anti-Defamation League said in a statement. "We need to be careful not to single out an entire community for special scrutiny or suspicion."
Such reactions may have dampened Rep. King’s enthusiasm for persecuting American Muslims but more probably it was the revelation of his own terrorist-supporting past. It seems the congressman was an outspoken supporter of the Irish Republican Army’s brutal and bloody terror campaign against civilian targets in Northern Ireland and England in the 1980s.
McCarthy was publically and memorably eviscerated by Joseph Nye Welch when he asked the senator on live television, “Have you left no sense of decency?" The same should be asked of Peter King
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Kevin
Foley is president of KEF
Media Associates, an Atlanta-based producer and distributor
of sponsored news content to television and radio media. |