Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.) charged that all U.S. Muslim groups are doing is “complain about the fact that they’re being harassed and they’re being surveilled” as they need to step forward and help stop jihadi recruitment on U.S. soil.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations said in a brief statement Friday that the group “engaged with DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson during two separate meetings focused on the Obama administration’s new countering violent extremism (CVE) program in New York.”
“CAIR officials met previously with the secretary on the same issue in both Minneapolis and Los Angeles.”
King said a source in the meeting told him Johnson was “asking for them to step forward and be more cooperative” as they complained about harassment.
“Well, if we keep that attitude up, we’re going to get nowhere. The Muslim community has to realize that a lot of the responsibility lies with them to cooperate with law enforcement,” King said this morning on MSNBC.
The former chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee said “there was real concern this weekend, that I can tell you” when the threat level was raised on military bases.
“Again, there has been a significant increase in threat streams coming to the U.S. So we are very concerned. That’s number one,” King continued. “Just because of signals that are out there, things that have been picked up.”
He couldn’t go into more detail about the threats and added there are “also other concerns which I can’t go into.”
“But having that said, I believe that we are on to it as much as we can be, and I’ve been talking to different police officials and they are certainly monitoring certain events.”
Leaders from the Council on American-Islamic Relations Arizona (CAIR-AZ), the Islamic Community Center of Tempe, the United Islamic Center, the Islamic Center of East Valley, the Islamic Center of Tucson, the Islamic Center of North East Valley, the West Valley Islamic Center, Masjid Al Noor (Mesa), Islamic Center of North Phoenix, Arizona Cultural Academy, the Somali American United Council, the Arizona Muslim Police Advisory Board, and the Muslim American Society – Arizona signed a statement last week condemning “all forms of terrorism and religious extremism.”
The attackers of the Garland, Texas, Muhammad cartoons event lived in Phoenix.
“We also share the view that violence in response to anti-Islam programs like the one in Garland is more insulting to our faith than any cartoon, however defamatory. Bigoted speech can never be an excuse for violence. Unfortunately, human history shows us that hatred breeds more hatred and extremism leads to more extremism,” the statement continued.
“Ironically, bigots like those that planned the anti-Islam event and the perpetrators of Sunday’s attack share a common goal of seeking to provoke a downward spiral of mutual hostility and mistrust in America. People of good will must work together to ensure that extremists of all faiths and backgrounds do not accomplish that malevolent goal.”
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