Peter Beinart Misses the Point of the King Hearings

Peter Beinart is at it again. He, in his capacity as Senior Political Writer for the Daily Beast, has attempted to tar Rep. Peter King (R-NY) and, by association, his fellow Republicans with the stain of religious intolerance. If you weren’t aware, Rep. King is Chairman of the Homeland Security Committee and has recently opened hearings on the radicalization of American Muslims. Mr. Beinart starts out by claiming Republicans have left their accustomed wheel house, concentrating on “unfettered capitalism, traditional morality and bucketloads for defense” to slide into anti-religious fervor.

It’s at that point when Beinart starts building straw men.

“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.”

Well, the majority of terror attacks in America in the last decade were done by Muslims. Of course, he has to go through the regular list of home grown terrorists, from McVeigh to Kaczynski and on to, strangely, Jared Lee Loughner, whom, if I understand correctly is more of an insanity case then a terrorist. Curiously missing from the list are folks like the Weather Underground or the Speedway Bomber, but that might cause some embarrassment to people Beinart holds in high esteem. In the end, if he is willing to accept the premise that American Muslims are statistically more likely to commit terrorism than non-Muslims, it’s wrong to point out their religion.

That’s the point that the straw really starts flying. In the 50s, he surmises, that Jews were more likely to be Soviet spies. Italians were more likely to be involved in organized crime. These groups weren’t singled out for their Jewishness or Italianness, even though sociologically they may have been more predisposed to join these groups. Ergo, we shouldn’t look at Muslims as potential terrorists.

Except for one small detail that Beinart seems to be over looking. The fact that Al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups are actively recruiting in America and as Jennifer Rubin in the Washington Post quipped, they aren’t looking for Reform Jews or Christian Evangelicals. Beyond that, unlike the Jews and Italians he brought up, they do have a religious imperative to engage in Jihad.

I’m not, and neither is Rep. King, coming to say that all Muslims are terrorists. The problem is the Muslim community is not attempting to ostracize those who do come to radicalize the members thereof.

On a side note, Rep. King has a long standing friendly relationship with the Islamic community in his district. He was the guest of honor at the opening of a multi-million dollar prayer hall and was known for taking in Muslim interns, as well as being one of a handful of Republicans pushing for American intervention in Kosovo to help Muslims. Rep. King has come out and stated that the majority of American Muslims are outstanding patriots, but he wants Americans to realize the extent to which Al-Qaeda is attempting to radicalize within the Muslim-American community.

The constant push for political correctness brought about the Ft. Hood massacre. It has caused the farce that is the TSA and brought us Security Theater, which is inconvenience without bringing us security. The constant need to ignore the religion of, not potential terrorists, but actual terrorists has created this level of blow back. Everyone remembers when Attorney General Eric Holder asked about the ties that connect the Underwear Bomber, the Times Square bomber, and the Fort Hood shooter refused to use the phrase radical Islam. Juan Williams was fired from NPR for making a politically incorrect comment about potential Islamic terrorists. Janet Napolitano has put more emphasis on the potential threat of demobilized veterans and Tea Party groups but even when discussing al-Qaeda inspired Jihadism she is unable to mention the fact that it is all based on Islamic ideology.

King’s hearings are a counterweight to this, a push back against the prevailing political correctness. Hopefully, they are also a wake-up call to the American Muslim community. They, more than anyone else, need to repudiate those who would speak for them. Groups like c, unindicted co-conspirator in a successful terrorist funding case, purport to represent Muslims. The group also is on tape warning Muslims against cooperating with the FBI. If the group that represents you funds international terrorism, then it stands to reason that your entire community will, to some extent, be suspected of terrorism.