3/10/11 

Today, Congressman Peter King (R-NY), Chairman of the House of Representatives' Homeland Security Committee is holding a hearing on "The Extent of Radicalization in the American Muslim Community and that Community's Response." This hearing - the first of its kind to focus on a single religious group - and the false assumptions that Rep. King has based it on have been roundly rejected across the country. Counterterrorism experts, veterans organizations, interfaith leaders, local leaders and editorial boards across the country have rejected King's approach. This is for a simple reason: this hearing represents the wrong approach to homeland security. It is not only ineffective, but it is actually harmful to America's anti-terrorism efforts both at home and abroad. Furthermore, not only is King's approach bad policy, but it's also bad politics.

King's approach and assumptions have been roundly rejected by experts:

Peter Bergen, CNN analyst and one of America's foremost experts on terrorism reveals the empirical results of an extensive study by the New America Foundation and Syracuse University's Maxwell School of Public Policy, examining the post-9/11 cases of Americans or U.S. residents either convicted of or charged with some form of jihadist terrorist activity directed against the U.S. The results of this evidence-based research are clear: "Contrary to King's assertion that Muslim-American communities have not cooperated with law enforcement, more than one-fifth of the post-9/11 Islamist terrorism cases originated with tips from Muslim community members or involved the cooperation of the families of alleged plotters." [Peter Bergen, 3/10/11]

Matthew Alexander, the Air Force intelligence officer who led the team that tracked down Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, writes: "As a former interrogator who worked alongside Muslim American heroes in Iraq, I feel I need to speak out against the attacks on Muslim Americans by Congress. We have to do something. Tomorrow, Representative Peter King begins his hearings on the ‘radicalization' of America's Muslim communities. I'd like Rep. King to have a talk with my interpreter who almost laid down his life for his adopted country. He is Muslim. I was with him the day he almost died-I wonder how many of the Islamophobes out there would put their life on the line for this country like he did? Meanwhile, Rep. King has the gall to insinuate that they are not American when it comes to war. I know what Muslim American interpreters and soldiers are doing for their country - some are now buried in Arlington National Cemetery. Representative King's words are an insult to those heroes... We need to stop demonizing an entire community. This is simply not the way to fight terrorism.  And it's not who we are, as Americans. We must be able to separate radical extremists, like members of the Al Qaeda cult, from mainstream Muslims who share our values." 

America's veterans. VoteVets.org, the largest progressive group of veterans in America, issued a statement yesterday saying: "Rep. King is doing our troops no favors, as he specifically targets Muslims, and only Muslims, in his hearings on domestic terrorism.  A key part of the work of our troops abroad is winning the hearts and minds of the people in any country we operate, and as of right now, most of them are Muslims.  When they hear that the American government considers Islam a threat, and is investigating American Muslims, it only bolsters the message of al Qaeda and other terrorist groups that we are in a war with Islam.  Every wrong signal can be exploited, as we are in this important fight, and we must be extra-vigilant in ensuring that nothing we do aids the underlying message of our enemies, as they seek to recruit." [VoteVets, 3/9/11]

Interfaith leaders. The hearings have drawn condemnation from interfaith leaders. "Senior national religious leaders of several faiths including, Jews, Christians and Muslims will converge on Capitol Hill Thursday to protest Representative Peter King's (R-N.Y.) congressional hearings on the radicalization of the American Muslim community. Following the House Committee on Homeland Security's hearing, the religious leaders will issue a statement voicing their opposition to the congressional inquiries and launch a national interfaith campaign to promote tolerance and to work for an end to anti-Muslim bigotry before meeting with Congressional and Administration officials," reads a statement from a group of Baptist, Jewish, and Catholic leaders. 

Local leaders. Mayor Jack O'Reilly Jr. (D), of Dearborn, Michigan, which has one of the largest Arab and Muslim populations in the United States, including the largest Mosque in North America, rejected King's approach: "You know, when someone goes into what is supposed to be fact-finding but they've already determined the outcome, then that fact-finding process is flawed. For us, we've lived for 80 years with Muslims as an active part of our community. We have direct experience - many of our young people are 4th and 5th generation Americans. Therefore, we have a pretty good perspective on what it is that Islam represents because we see it through the actions and behaviors of our neighbors. The thing it represents is that they want to be fully American, they believe in America, they want to be part of our community. I think that's something that's been misrepresented and misunderstood throughout the country by certain groups." [Jack O'Reilly Jr, via Think Progress, 3/8/11]

Bad policy:  King's approach harms our counterterrorism efforts:

Terrorists are found because of actions, not ethnicity. Peter Beinart, a Senior Fellow at the New America Foundation writes that, "Think about that for a second. King isn't holding hearings on domestic terrorism; he's holding hearings on domestic terrorism by one religious group. Is most American terrorism Muslim terrorism? Actually, no. Over the last decade or so, there's been at least as much domestic terrorism by folks like Timothy McVeigh, Theodore Kaczynski, Eric Rudolph (who bombed the 1996 Atlanta Olympics), Bruce Edwards Ivins (the main suspect in the 2001 anthrax attacks), and most recently, Jared Lee Loughner." A report from the Chairmen of the 9/11 Commission this past fall, pointed out the dangers - from a counterterrorism perspective - of profiling, saying that it overloads the "intelligence and law enforcement agencies, already over-stressed and inundated with information and leads." [Peter Beinart, 3/6/11. Peter Bergen and Bruce Hoffman, 9/11 Commissioners, 9/10/10]

Treating an entire community as suspect harms police efforts to fight terrorism. Scott Bates, who served as senior policy advisor to the House Homeland Security Committee, writes about the hearings that, "Perhaps most troubling, this approach results in ineffective law enforcement, which is an essential tool in our counterterrorism efforts... if a community is being profiled by authorities, it is only natural that the community feels as if law enforcement sees every member as a potential suspect. The sense of being constantly suspect, even when clearly abiding by the law, only inhibits the cooperation that law enforcement authorities seek and depend on." [Scott Bates, 3/7/10]

The notion that the U.S. government is targeting American Muslims feeds into al Qaeda's propaganda, which is exploited by terrorist recruiters. Brian Fishman, a fellow at the New America Foundation recently wrote in the L.A. Times that, "At this point, the most likely outcome of this hearing is that it will be a pointless political show. The worst-case scenario is that the hearing will actually play into the hands of Al Qaeda recruiters... In a March 2010 statement titled ‘A Call to Jihad,' [Anwar al] Awlaki argued darkly that ‘yesterday America was a land of slavery, segregation, lynching and Ku Klux Klan, and tomorrow it will be a land of religious discrimination and concentration camps. Don't be deceived by the promises of preserving your rights from a government that is right now killing your own brothers and sisters.... The West will eventually turn against its Muslim citizens!'" [Brian Fishman, 2/22/11]

The hearings hurt our military's efforts overseas. NSN Senior Advisor Major General Paul Eaton (ret.) said about the hearings that: "America has traditionally relied upon a web of alliances to bolster our power and to help deploy our values...rather than alienate a very large part of the world's population by corrupting those values through racial and religious profiling, we must view our Muslim partners as allies in the current fight, and to treat them so." Around the Park 51 controversy this summer Peter Beinart wrote: "I wonder how David Petraeus feels about all this. There he is, slogging away in the Hindu Kush, desperately trying to be culturally sensitive, watching GIs get killed because Afghans believe the U.S. is waging a war on Islam, and back home, the super-patriots on Fox News have... declared war on Islam.'" [Paul Eaton, 3/3/11. Peter Beinart, 8/17/10]

These hearings are bad politics.  The King hearings are clearly bad politics for conservatives, in terms of how they're perceived by the broader public. Politico reports that, "The top two House Republican leaders are divided over how to handle the bubbling controversy surrounding Homeland Security Chairman Peter King's hearing into ‘radicalization' in the American Muslim community. Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA), the highest-ranking Jewish member of Congress, is squarely behind King as he takes shots from civil libertarians and religious groups over his decision to target one group in his investigation of the causes of terrorism... But Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) and Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) are keeping their distance from King, perhaps trying to avoid letting this issue become a distraction for the GOP majority... The hands-off approach of Boehner and McCarthy shouldn't be surprising: The first hearing promises to be a staple of cable television coverage all week, threatens to portray the GOP as hostile to a religious minority that is protected by the Constitution and distracts from Republicans' economic message."

A large majority of the American public believes the scope of the hearings should be expanded.  Over ten editorial boards across the country have roundly rejected King's approach, including: USA Today,  the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Star Tribune (Minneapolis and St. Paul, MN), the Miami Herald, the Star Ledger (New Jersey), the Philadelphia Inquirer, The Scranton Times, Newsday and South Florida Sun-Sentinel. [Politico, 3/8/11. Public Religion Research Institute, 2/16/11]

What We're Reading

France became the first country to recognize the Libyan opposition's leadership, situated in the city of Benghazi, as the legitimate representative of the Libyan people.

The European Union has agreed to extend its economic sanctions against Libya to include the country's sovereign wealth fund and central bank.

Mohammed ElBaradei announced that he intends to run for president of Egypt.

The Dalai Lama said that he would give up his political role to an elected Tibetan political figure.

An overnight NATO raid accidentally killed an elderly second cousin of Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

A top American diplomat has been removed from his post after stirring outrage in Japan for reportedly belittling Okinawans.

The government of disputed Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo has banned UN and French peacekeeping aircraft from flying over, or landing in, his country.

Kenya says it will challenge the International Criminal Court's right to try six Kenyans suspected of being behind post-poll violence in 2008.

A large force of riot police in the French city of Marseille has broken up a month-long strike by ferry workers protesting against planned cuts.

Ten suspected Mexican gang members have been charged over the murder last year of three people with ties to the United States consulate in Ciudad Juarez.

Commentary of the Day

Lawrence Korb argues that Congress must do more to rein in the healthcare costs associated with the Defense Department.

Gwynne Dyer writes that while Arab protesters are overthrowing deeply entrenched autocratic regimes, Pakistan, a democratic country, is sinking into a sea of violence, intolerance and extremism.

Nawaf Obaid says that while Saudi Arabia shares some characteristics that have been causes for unrest, the kingdom has strengths that its neighbors lack which make it highly unlikely that the unrest in other Arab countries will take root there.