Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Politics:

Berkley, Reid question hearing on radicalization of Muslim America

Shelley Berkley

Shelley Berkley

Harry Reid

Harry Reid

Nevada Rep. Shelley Berkley has probably been one of the most outspoken voices in Congress when it comes to sounding cautious warnings about the threats of Islamic terrorism, or pro-terrorist leanings in heavily-Muslim sections of the Arab world, in the context of U.S. foreign relations.

But even she thinks that New York Rep. Peter King’s planned hearing on the radicalization in Muslim American communities is going too far.

“I am concerned about the tone and substance of the upcoming hearing,” Berkley said in a statement released the night before the hearing. “Members of the Islamic faith are our neighbors, our friends, and our colleagues...If this hearing were focused on the Jewish community, Japanese community, or the African American community, or any other community, would we not be justifiably outraged?”

King’s hearing before the House’s Homeland Security Committee, of which he is chair, takes place Thursday and features prominent Muslim scholars, law enforcement officials, Congress’ first-serving Muslim Rep. Keith Ellison and Rep. John Dingell of Michigan, whose district boasts the country’s largest concentration of Arab-Americans.

But there’s been ample tension that’s grown up around the hearing, as lawmakers and citizens alike have objected to a congressional focus on one particular ethnic group, arguing it constitutes the sort of racial profiling many in Congress oppose.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada has also expressed concerns about the hearing.

“No one is more committed to hunting down terrorists and bringing them to justice, wherever they live, than I am,” Reid said earlier this week. “But I am deeply concerned about these hearings, which demonize law-abiding American Muslims who make important contributions to our society.”

Since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the dialogue around the U.S.’s relationship with followers of Islam, citizens and foreigners, radical and otherwise, has been a subject of discord and growing understanding.

Most recently, tensions flared over proposals to build a mosque/community center a few blocks away from Ground Zero.

Everyday Muslims in America have been struggling through events like those to distance themselves from the stigma recent acts of terrorism have brought on the community at large, as well as take steps to normalize a climate of political moderateness, even in the most conservative of mosques.

King has said his hearing is intended to expedite that process — one which he’s said Muslims in America are not taking enough responsibility for themselves. But activists fear King may be pursuing a vendetta against a crisis that is largely the product of his own obsession.

King’s position on who is and is not a terrorist does seem to be somewhat selective. Reports Wednesday have highlighted his fervent support of the Irish Revolutionary Army, a paramilitary force that fought a bloody, near-30 year standoff in Northern Ireland to free the territory from the United Kingdom and were deemed a terrorist organization in Britain (though it was never listed as such by the State Department).

But one man’s terrorist is another’s freedom fighter — which is what the IRA constituted to King.

King’s record on Islam has been mixed. In the 1990s, prior to 9/11, he backed U.S. intervention in the Balkans to defend Muslims who were being persecuted. But in 2004, he suggested on a Fox News program that Islamic extremists control 80 to 85 percent of U.S. mosques, a statistic that was shown to be patently false.

Critics have been likening King’s current campaign to past episodes of national ignominy, such as Sen. Joseph McCarthy’s attempts to purge the United States of communists or the program of internment of Japanese-American citizens during World War II.

King and his defenders point to the recent historical record — that save for the Oklahoma City Bombing, most of the recent large-scale attacks on the United States have been perpetrated by organizations with some sort of fundamentalist Islamic message.

While Nevada’s Democratic lawmakers appear to accept this premise, they still say King’s position is flawed.

“We must not be naïve or close our eyes to the fact that terrorist incidents such as 9/11 have been perpetrated by people who professed an adherence to a radical form of Islam,” Berkley said. “We must not back down from facing that threat...But I believe the solution is working closely with the Muslim community in Las Vegas and across our nation to root out terrorist cells and radical actors, not distancing ourselves or stereotyping an entire community of people.”

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