Representative King Mixes Muslims With Terrorists

Representative Peter King has a problem with mainstream Muslims.

“It’s not just people who are involved with the terrorists” that we have to worry about, said King (R-NY) in an October 2010 interview with radio personality Don Imus, “it is people who are in mainstream Islam, leaders of mosques…who do not come forward and denounce, officially denounce, officially cooperate with the police against those extremists.”

As a result of this perceived lack of cooperation from Muslim leaders, King held a hearing in March 2011 on the subject of the radicalization of American Muslims, which drew criticism from civil rights organizations as well as members of King’s own party. Another hearing is scheduled for Jun. 15.

Riding the tide of anti-Islamic sentiment that has gripped the United States since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Peter King and others are ushering in a new version of McCarthyism (referencing Illinois senator Joseph McCarthy, who held anti-Communist hearings targeting many top politicians and celebrities during the Cold War).

Xenophobia—the hatred or fear of foreigners—is not a uniquely American phenomenon, nor is the United States one of the more oppressive states in the modern world.

Europe is currently having issues dealing with its own anti-Muslim sentiment, leading to a sweeping victory for xenophobic, far-right parties in elections in Finland, Sweden, Austria and other countries.

The record of the U.S. on xenophobia is cleaner than many nations, but not spotless: in the 1880s, during a period of high Chinese immigration to the U.S., the Chinese Exclusion Act was a law passed by Congress that aimed to bar Chinese immigrants from entering the country, and prevented Chinese immigrants already in the U.S. from being eligible for citizenship. This act was only repealed in 1943, during another dark period in America’s relationship with its immigrants.

Xenophobia continued for America during World War II, when following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii in 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt implemented “War Relocation Camps” for Japanese-Americans. Over 110,000 Japanese-Americans were forcefully relocated into camps along the West Coast and in Hawaii for the duration of the Second World War. Many second or third generation American citizens were still treated like outsiders. American Muslims too are being regarded as foreigners rather than citizens.

In a 2004 interview with Fox News, King claimed, “80-85 percent of mosques in this country are controlled by Islamic fundamentalists.” He still has not provided proof. One of King’s major points in the first round of hearings was that there was not enough cooperation from Muslim-Americans in the search for extremists in the U.S. In February 2011 a study was released by the Triangle Center on Terrorism and Homeland Security stated that of the 120 Muslims arrested in the U.S. on terrorism charges since 9/11, 40 percent were arrested due to information provided by other Muslim-Americans.

This is a staggeringly high statistic for a relatively low number of perpetrators (that same study found that there had been approximately 150,000 murders in the U.S. since 9/11).

Furthermore, a 2009 Gallup report discovered that 70% of Muslim-Americans have jobs, as opposed to 64% of the U.S. population. This same report found that Muslims are the second-most educated religious community in the U.S. (after Jews).

Journalist John Esposito of the Washington Post notes that it is important remember that many Muslims immigrated to the U.S. to escape persecution and violence of their homelands, and “their families and friends in ‘the old country’ have been the primary victims of terrorist attacks” (compare the average of 3 American deaths due to terrorism per year, as cited in the Triangle report, to 150 per year in Iraq, or 70 in Russia). Not only did Muslims see friends and loved ones die alongside others on 9/11, but, Esposito argues, “they have seen their religion…vilified” by politicians and citizens around the world.

But these facts are not important to Peter King, who told Fox News that the idea that Muslims were also victims of the 9/11 attacks is a “myth.” In his hearings of March 2011, King did not call as witnesses any Muslim community leaders or experts; the only law-enforcement official at the hearings testified that Muslims had been very cooperative in anti-terrorism efforts.

King’s type of misinformation is toxic to the fabric of American society, especially when it is spread by political leaders. Inflammatory rhetoric like that perpetuated by King’s hearings reverberates among many Americans, such as a California grandmother who declared to the New York Times’ Laurie Goodstein: “Islam is not about a religion. It’s a political government, and it’s 100 percent against our Constitution.”

In addition to enabling unfair and unfounded views on Islam, misleading statements can harm U.S. relations with the Middle East. If politicians like Peter King become more militant in order to appease uninformed constituents, the entire political system of the United States will be undermined — and that is precisely the goal of the extremists we are so worried about.

Kelsey Allagood can be reached at kallagood@spartans.ut.edu