Congressman King: Here’s the Beef!
The March 10th Homeland Security Committee hearing on “The Extent of Radicalization in the American Muslim Community and that Community’s Response” was a failure — simply because it added nothing new to Americans’ understanding of Islamist radicalization.
As the chairman of the most important House committee charged with countering Islamist radicalization, it was incumbent on Representative Peter King to present compelling and substantive information that would raise the bar on the topic.
The hearings, however, did not accomplish this. Although the title of the day’s proceedings was totally focused on radicalization, King presented no witnesses to define even what radicalization is, seemingly the basic starting point.
Rather, witness testimony provided only a few location-specific insights (Nashville and Minneapolis), or general comments indicating that there are individuals and organizations in American Muslim communities who radicalize Muslim youth.
This testimony added little to the knowledge of Americans beyond what they already intuitively know from the numerous news stories regarding American Muslims who have attacked, or attempted to attack, the homeland — including American al-Qaeda commander Anwar al-Awalaki, American Nidal Hasan of the Ft. Hood massacre, American Najibullah Zazi of the plot to blow up New York subway cars, or American Faisal Shahzad of the failed plot to detonate an SUV in Times Square.
Because critics characterized the hearings as the new McCarthyism and/or the result of paranoid fantasy, the minimum required of Representative King was a new substantive revelation — a slam dunk. He had the time and staff to deliver, but didn’t.
The Obama administration refuses to admit that violent Islamist extremism has anything to do with Islam, but it has no problem focusing on al-Qaeda as a violent terrorist organization.
So, if King had just concentrated on al-Qaeda, the hearings could have scored a slam dunk by revealing that the very same ideology that radicalized Osama bin Laden and his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri, is used as mandatory study material by two of the most prominent national American Muslim organizations, as you’ll see below.
This ideology was created by Sayyid Qutb, the virulent Muslim Brother theorist and father of the modern jihad movement, and disseminated in his Islamist manifesto Milestones (1964).
The power of this seditious book is demonstrated by the fact that Egyptian prosecutors obtained a conviction against Qutb based almost exclusively on submitting passages taken from its pages as evidence in the trial. Upon being convicted, Qutb was sentenced to death and hung on August 29, 1966.
So what does Milestones say that is so radical? It absolutely and clearly states that democracies and all other “man-made” systems are the enemies of Islam, that only Sharia law can be obeyed, that Islam must rule the world, and that violent offensive jihad must be launched by a vanguard of Salafi-jihadi leaders as the only way to reestablish an Islamic state.
Now, let’s take a look at the facts Congressman King could have marshaled to prove that Qutb’s ideas radicalized Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawhiri, and that this ideology is actively used to indoctrinate American Muslims on a national basis.
To begin with, Congressman King only needed to call witnesses from among his colleagues on the 9/11 Commission to learn about the radicalizing influence Qutb had on Osama bin Laden, as, in its final report, the Commission bluntly stated that “Bin Laden also relies heavily on the Egyptian writer Sayyid Qutb”.
The Commission also clearly described Qutb’s emphasis on violence, stating that in Qutb’s ideology “[a]ll Muslims — as he defined them — therefore must take up arms in this fight.”
Further cementing Qutb’s stature in the jihadi community, King could have entered into the record the fact that Qutb is praised by Anwar al-Awlaki and the influential jihadi cleric Abu Muhammad al-Maqdisi, who most recently made the news on March 6, 2011, when a crowd of 300 al-Qaeda supporters marched in Amman, Jordan, demanding his release from prison.
The congressman could then have called witnesses to show the family connection between Qutb and bin Laden’s deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri.
“So, if King had just concentrated on al-Qaeda, the hearings could have scored a slam dunk by revealing that the very same ideology that radicalized Osama bin Laden and his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri, is used as mandatory study material by two of the most prominent national American Muslim organizations.”
Well, I don’t know about that. I agree that the hearings were a bust and probably didn’t add anything to our understanding of radical Islam. It also probably wasn’t worth all of the trouble that it caused, especially in the Muslim community. But al Qaeda is NOT the problem. Al Qaeda is simply a “symptom” of radical Islam and terrorism is its chief tactic. Radical Islam based in Sharia law is what is sweeping the Middle East and that is the greatest threat to western civilization, especially in Europe. The world, though, should already know that by now.
The world obviously doesn’t include the majority including, in America, the MSM, academia, Hollywood, Barack Obama, his entire administration, and those who still support him.
Great article. They don’t call the Repubs the stupid party for nothing. Going way out on a limb, I’d say King was terrified of being labeled a racist by the weepy race hustler from Minnesota (with full background howling from gays, feminists, oikophobic atheists, etc), put his tail between his legs, and ran for cover. We are doomed. Doomed.
It’s the Stupid Party. Remember?
Of course a lot of people today do not know what McCarthy really exposed and how correct he was and the record proves that. America is led by idiot leaders and a news media that is lazy and dishonest.
Let us assume that Representative Peter King presented enough compelling and substantive information that it raised the bar on the topic so high that the astronauts living on the International Space Station has to use the Hubble Telescope to view its roots: then what..?
We have a (he used to be an Islamic Muslim, but now he is what kind of Christian) President that; even if he wasn’t clueless wouldn’t do a damn thing to throttle the radicalization in the American Muslim Community.
In turn he, Obama is strongly supported by a Justice Department that is as skewered against America as any radical Muslim group in the world, an equally divided Supreme Court, half of a Congress that thinks all of the death threats against Republicans are so much ho-hum distortion and a liberal mainstream media / press that is frozen solid by fear when it comes to saying anything bad about Muslims.
And then we have the newly elected GOP power-House that seriously might cut a whopping 60 billion dollars out of our 13 trillion dollar and growing budget deficit…WOW!
No, its much better to stick with sensible things like making sure everyone has government provided health care, giving amnesty to 40 million illegal Hispanics plus all of their cousins, aunts, uncles, nephews and nieces; stopping the GOP’s dismemberment of the American workers union rights and putting an end to the careers of a s many stupid whites cops as possible.
Another September 11th, 2001..?
Get serious.
The slam dunk is that America now has Change and Hope.
Neither will dredging up Qutb do the job — that’s ancient history to the under-educated hip-hop Harvard grads today, let alone the mouth-breathing public.
But you’re right about King blew it. Did he get paid off?
Or was he just stupid and cowardly like most congressmen?
Everybody seems to be looking for the “slam dunk”, but there is so much disinformation abbot Islam and the seditious influence of Muslims at all levels of government that I think this would be impossible. Linking Qutb’s MB to AQ accomplishes what? It is obscure for the purposes of exposing the hideousness of Islam. And I think that it risks perpetuating the catastrophic idea that terrorists are “perverting Islam”. After all, the MB is simply what the Islamic reformation looks like, getting back to the basics of Islam 101. Same with AQ. There is no difference between any of the Islamic movements engulfing the world, except ibpn their scope. They all logically lead to continuing the genocidal march begun by Muhammad.
The issue must be hit directly: Islam is central in spreading terrorism, spreading of Jihad, spreading the incitement of hatred, and spreading Muslim conquest and genocide of unbelievers.
I’d start by calling those rarest of birds, those brave souls who have left Islam and are willing to speak plainly about what Islam is all about. We do not need more taqiya from Muslim liars and obscurantists. We do not need more insanity and confusion from Islamic apologists who present themselves as “reformed” Muslims or “moderate” Muslims such as Dr Jahsser or Irshad Mangy or Steven Sulieman Schwartz. These syncretistic nut jobs perpetuate the myth that a moderate Islam exists and that yhey are representatives of it. When pressed it is evident that they are parriahs in the Muslim communities, and that they’d easily count the adherents of their peculiar reading of Islam on their fingers and toes. These obscurantists have not helped the West come to grips with Islam. Instead they hold out vain hopes among us that it isn’t as bad as our gut tells us it is – in short they tell us what we want to hear.
I knew the King Hearings were doomed when I heard him talk about Islam being hijacked.
The hijackers are the self-described moderates whose beliefs are incoherent and immune to their fundamental dissonance.
Maybe King was intimidated by the hysterical smear job on him and the valiant defense of islam by our selectively tolerant media. If he wishes to regain their favor maybe his next hearing will be on Christianity & it’s American followers. The media knows[?] who the real threat is and will make a hero of King immediately.
Let’s start with the principle that any religion that does not allow freedom of conscience and freedom of speech is not a legitimate religion but rather an intolerant, supremacist, totalitarian, political ideology.
Of course by not allowing I mean requires the killing of people who exercise or attempt to exercise these fundamental human rights.
Judging from the intensity of the almost frenzied criticism King and his proposed hearings have drawn from the Democrats in Congress, the Left, the MSM, and outfits like CAIR (unindicted co-conspirators in the recent Holy Land terrorism funding trial, with testimony by government witnesses at that trial about their connections with HAMAS and the Muslim Brotherhood see, http://www.investigativeproject.org/1854/doj-cairs-unindicted-co-conspirator-status-legit) that purport to speak for the “Muslim community” here in the United States, a very, very, raw nerve was touched, and they did not want these Hearings to be held at all, much less that the Jihad/War that is being waged by Islam and Muslims against all unbelievers in the World and here in the United States to be acknowledged, stated out loud, or explored—this Truth, as in Harry Potter, was the equivalent of the name Voldemort, of “He who cannot be named” and, although the hearing was held, they got their wish.
Some have charged that King is just a publicity hound, and was not really serious about delving into this subject, and the fact of the matter is that King barely and timidly dipped just one toe into the water and, indeed, by the “witness” list he put together King insured that, rather than an analytical, hard-hitting, realistic, objective, fact-based look at this critical subject, most of what we got was just more Muslim propaganda, more “disinformation,” more of the Muslim’s “Holy Deceptions” of Takiyya (lying) and Kitman (withholding key parts of the truth) directed at us “unbelievers” and “Infidels” from the representatives of the very Islamic ideology that is trying to destroy us; they dominated the hearing, and it was their deceptive view of reality that we heard and that made the headlines; propaganda theater made possible by the “air cover” provided by the Democrats on the Committee.
Muslim Representative Keith Ellison—during his decade of fervent support for the Nation of Islam known as Hakim Ellison, Keith X. Ellison, and Keith X. Muhammad (see http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/012/764obcsx.asp) and the very same Keith Ellison whose recent pilgrimage to Mecca, his Hajj, he finally admitted, was paid for, not by himself, as he first said, but by the Minnesota branch of the Muslim American Society which, it has been charged (see, http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/printgroupProfile.asp?grpid=6263), is a Muslim Brotherhood front group–was allowed to put on his act, to blubber away and to cry his fake, crocodile tears, and to basically commandeer the hearing and block any progress, for no hard questions were put to him after he brought out the crying towel.
Moreover, potential witnesses and experts like Robert Spencer, Andrew Bostom, Ayan Hirsi Ali, Wafa Sultan, Maj. Stephen Couglin or others extremely knowledgeable about Islam and its Jihad and Muslim terrorism–who could have brought their informed and very clear-eyed analysis to bear–were nowhere to be found on the witness list, and the fix was in; it was not even a half-hearted attempt at fearless, objective analysis, it was a propaganda show, pure and simple, and King—for whatever reason—allowed himself and the American public to be snookered, and manipulated, and deceived.
As an aside, I note the fact that since he proposed such hearings Representative King has been the recipient of multiple death threats from the Muslim followers of “The Religion of Peace.”
Let’s hope he does better in the future.
Reminds me of the apparent RINO re-emergence of the speaker, et al.
The least King could have done is lean heavily on Janet Napolitano[The OX] and her statement about the biggest problem is now homegrown terrorists.
Let the media choke on that one.
Face it, King took a dive, though it’s easy for me to say. Great being a Democrat, you can be the most ugly slime & you still get favorable coverage.
Well put Morton,
I agree that there could have been better witnesses called. Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Nonie Darwish to name two. But Dr. Jasser’s voice deserves to be heard. Jihadist Muslims need to be culled from the heard of moderates and leaders like Dr. Jasser are best positioned to do it….. if he can stay alive long enough. Remember that most Muslims (more than 60%) are illiterate…. and most of those who can read, have never read the Koran. Muslims, like most religious followers, will follow those leaders who can capture their hearts and minds. I’ve read the Koran, and it is inconceivable that an intelligent man like Jasser wouldn’t be able to outshine what Mohamed had to say.
The crypto-jihadis that are in positions of political power appear from top to bottom now, this w/o the thought conspiring is needed any more than it is required for any plague.
Those that espouse what does not comport with our constitution have no place in positions of such power or influence as is being imposed on us today — as a free society supports all views but not all actions; we must enforce the law against all those who desire dominance or our death by suicide as well. These are not things covered by the cloak of religious freedom by any leap of secular logic.
Those that cannot both enjoy and sustain this as a free country must be constrained in it or go where their fantasies take them, even unto death and good riddence.
For the faint-hearted, freedom is too hard and painful, no pity is enough; but they are not my children for whom I must make any greater sacrifice than I have already — as for the rest, if you want Shariah Law I too am prepared to give you some of that Shariah Law on your own fine self — with no further warning.
I will not submit — I will not surrender — I will let no one just take my life and liberty without inficting a cost. No one.
Molon Labe.
Since you stated it by using latin characters, the ancient Greek expression is pronounced as in: molon lave.
I have read many articles about how Rep. King did not do this and did not do that but I think the main focus should be supporting his continuing efforts to make the islamists and islam a topic that is allowed to be discussed in this country. This is a process that will be long and arduous. Rep. King needs everyone that supports him to do just that. Recognize that he is putting his neck on the line for all of us and that, in time, the discussion will grow more and more relevant but that they must start somewhere.
Whitney Gann
Top experts on Islam, Robert Spencer and Steve Emerson, were NOT wanted by Rep King at his hearings. Nor were others who should have been called.
At the hearings, Muslim congressman, Keith Ellison, shed crocodile tears. But not a single tear for Islam’s many victims, including our cherished 3,000. See: http://www.thereligionofpeace.com/
There have been 16,956 deadly Islamic terror attacks since 9/11
Terror attacks by other religions: NONE
Any nation that ignores these facts, are nations committing suicide.
Our freedom and survival is at stake. Why could the following vitally needed testimony not be given?
Former Muslims Excluded From King Hearings
Nonie Darwish on Mar 17th, 2011
http://frontpagemag.com/2011/03/17/former-muslims-excluded-from-king-hearings/
“Muslims are told openly in mosques that they have a mission in America and that is to make Islam the law of the land. Lying to America and getting offended to cover up the jihadist aspiration was encouraged, and became a perfected art and a religious obligation…”
http://frontpagemag.com/2011/03/17/former-muslims-excluded-from-king-hearings/
King totally screwed up. Totally worthless hearings in my book.
The people who could have testified have already been put in the box labeled HATERS and NUTCASES, Bigot racist etc
Throuroghly libeled by media and liberals Alinsky-fied, banished into the far reaches of internet and resolutely IGNORED by our govt, our media and half of USA that voted the Obamanation into office.
For these Pollyannas to accept any of the ideas from these people they have viliifed would cause so much cognitive dissonance, their head’s would explode!and so in all fairness they are just shutting all that OUT of their pretty fantasy world in self defense.
The MYTHs they have been sold and bought into about multi-culti,the “all relgions are equal” (equally bad) and the idea it’s racist to oppose the real haters racists apartheid seditionists,if allowed into the liberal brain might cause “awareness of reality” and you know they can’t allow that to happen, they might see their emperor has not clothes!
Dr. Zuhdi Jasser has been popping up more and more—and is becoming the “go-to guy” when someone wants to exhibit a real, live, self-described “moderate Muslim,” but as has been pointed out, because of his views Dr. Jasser has been kicked out of his mosque in Arizona, he has apparently no real influence in the “Muslim community” at large, and according to what he once told a questioner, his “American Islamic Forum for Democracy,” apparently consists of only his immediate family and about a hundred people all told. Moreover, some pretty sharp people are convinced that he is not what he says he is/seems to be at all (see, for instance, http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2011/02/zuhdi_jassers_predicament_and.html http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2011/02/where_are_all_the_jassers.html, http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/02/american_islamists_find_common.html
http://www.debbieschlussel.com/5181/the-sad-truth-about-dr-m-zuhdi-jasser-star-narrator-producer-of-the-third-jihad/).
In fact, I am not sure whether he is truly a “moderate Muslim,” as we in the West might define “moderate,” or represents anyone else but himself and his family or if, indeed, his whole shtik isn’t just another thread in the tapestry of Muslim’s “Holy Deceptions,” of Takiyya and Kitman, a carefully woven cloth bag of deceptions and lies that is being pulled over our heads to disorient and confuse us, to blind us, and to distract and prevent us from looking at the unpleasant reality about Islam, Muslims, and their Jihad that we should really be looking at and facing head on; a shtik intended to convince us that the vast majority of Muslims, a vast army of “moderate Muslims” (and, therefore, a “moderate Islam,” too) really exists, when–from the evidence we see all around us each and every day– they are actually as “real” and thin on the ground as Unicorns, the Snark, and the Tooth Fairy.
It is extremely urgent that an investigation and hearings are made into Muslim Brotherhood operatives being given key posts in the government! It’s not just the Muslim Brotherhood who want to destroy America and take away our freedom and human rights!
http://www.examiner.com
February 15th, 2011
Report–Obama quietly appoints Muslim Brotherhood to key posts
An ex-CIA agent and counter-intelligence expert has revealed in a special report that Barack Obama has quietly appointed individuals who are friendly to radical Islam to key posts within the Administration.
http://www.examiner.com/conservative-in-national/report-obama-quietly-appoints-muslim-brotherhood-to-key-posts
Appointing Muslim Brotherhood to key posts in the U.S. government is approval of, and aids and abets the Muslim Brotherhood goal of the destruction of America and the Free World and its replacement by a global Islamic state.
From the document of the Muslim Brotherhood in North America:
The process of settlement is a “Civilization-Jihadist Process” and all the word means. The
Ikhwan [Arabic for brothers] must understand that their work in America is a kind of grand Jihad to eliminate and destroy the Western civilization from within, and sabotage its miserable house by their hands and the hands of the believers, so that it is eliminated, and God’s religion is made victorious over all other religions.
It is a Muslim’s destiny to perform Jihad and work wherever he is and wherever he lands until the final hour comes, and there is no escape from that destiny…”
Now, let me get this straight; there’re people who seriously think that in a Third World country now (w/ a current debt level at 110% of GDP, and a federal budget deficit at about 40% of the current annual budget level) ruled by a president named Barack Hussein Obama, the son of an arab muslim from Kenya, there would be a Congressional Hearing into islam? Get real, people. The US is no longer “The Waltons” with John-Boy.
If you want “change” then ask for and participate in a Second American Revolution. Otherwise, drink a sixpack and go to sleep, don’t waste your time.
You may wish to add the following to your indicators of ThirdWorldness: a state-run, propaganda spewing “press” and a corrupt fascist/communist government coupled with an inefficient and overbearing bureaucracy and a secret police. And don’t forget the corrupt and decadent intelligentsia.
Cry for me America.