There’s got to be a better way. A better way to assess where America is in integrating its Muslim population and to what degree home-grown radicalization is–from mosques to prisons–a legitimate national issue.
Unfortunately, the point man for this issue is Rep. Peter King of New York, the Republican Chairman of the Homeland Security Committee. The same blustery King who was a staunch supporter of the IRA back in the day. The same nigh-on-to-accusatory King who is now presiding over hearings on “The Extent of Radicalization in the American Muslim Community and That Community’s Response.” Even sounds like King was allowed to come up with his own wording.
There are, as we know, American-soil precedents in the aftermath of 9/11 that are cause for concern and a reminder that infidel-targeting jihadists–whether at Fort Hood or Times Square–aren’t all in the Middle East. And if Times Square had been successful or a certain pair of combustible underwear had taken down an airliner, this point would now be moot.
But what we don’t need is a witch hunt. Or an exercise in demonizing Islam or scapegoating all Muslims. If anything, the times call for an earnest, honest conversation about a world rife with religious extremism and to what degree the United States is vulnerable from within as well as from without.
It’s no time for political correctness. Nor is it helpful to characterize an inquiry about radical Islam as an example of McCarthyism or analogous to a Japanese interment-camp mentality.
Granted, it’s too bad Rep. King is asking a lot of the questions, but that doesn’t invalidate them.