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Agorism
02-15-2011, 05:46 PM
Peter King: It’s Not Enough For Muslims To ‘Denounce All Terrorism,’ They Must Also Denounce Muslims

http://thinkprogress.org/2011/02/15/king-attacks-muslims/
http://haergar06.files.wordpress.com/2010/12/rep-peter-king.jpg


Rep. Peter King (R-NY) is preparing his controversial hearings into the “radicalization of the American Muslim community and homegrown terrorism,” and he wants to make one thing clear: he’s not anti-Muslim. In an interview with the National Review this week, King said, “I do not want anything said at my hearing that could justify someone throwing a brick at a mosque. … I’ll be managing the hearing, so the responsibility is mine, to make sure there is no kind of religious bias or hostility toward Muslims.”

That’s surely a noble goal, but clearly contradicts many of King’s previous statements on Islam. He has said that 80 percent of American mosques are controlled by “radical imams,” and that in fact there are “too many mosques in this country.” King also said in 2004 that Muslims are “an enemy living amongst us.” His upcoming hearings originally featured a witness who believes “Islam is a cult,” though he later pulled her from the schedule.

This contradiction between King’s longstanding animus for Islam and his stated goal of fair hearings is evident even in the aforementioned National Review interview. While King claims to be wary of stirring up Islamophobia, he at the same time seems to establish a different standard of guilt for all Muslims:




“It is not enough for [Muslim leaders] to say that they denounce all terrorism, that they denounce all violence,” King says. “They have to be much more aggressive. I don’t think they fully realize that. They worry that if they came out and highlighted their opposition to Islamic terrorism, it would focus too much attention on the Muslim community, reminding people that these terrorists are Muslims. So they don’t deal with it in an open way.” [...]

“There has not been enough cooperation from the Muslim community,” King says. “That is what I have learned over the past eight or nine years in dealing with law-enforcement officials at all levels. It has been disappointing. There is no doubt that the overwhelming majority of Muslims are good people, but the leadership in their communities has not cooperated enough, nor have they set a tone for cooperation. I want to see that change.”




The National Review claims that “most of the people [Peter King] is calling to testify are Muslim leaders,” that he is “calling on Muslims to speak up,” and that “he is looking forward to giving Muslims a platform to voice their concerns.” But of two panelists that the National Review reports will be testifying – one of them, Walid Phares, is a Maronite Christian.

Immortal Technique
02-15-2011, 05:49 PM
id be careful reading anything from thinkprogress, i have seen them do some shady reporting.
They conflate like no one does

marc1888
02-15-2011, 05:52 PM
Oh the irony... First off Rep Peter King was a massive supporter and fundraiser for the Provisional Irish Republican Army and Noraid when they were blowing up things in Britain and trying to blow up british citizens (by the way i liked him then i have to confess as an avid irish republican myself) second irony is that Walid Phares was a huge supporter of the Christian Falangist movement and defended and brought over here people that even the christian maronite lebanese govt of the time convicted of war crimes against women and children...

FrankRep
02-15-2011, 05:55 PM
How is that Denouncing Muslims? He wants regular Muslims to speak out against the radical Muslims that use Terrorism and Violence. Well yeah, good.



“It is not enough for [Muslim leaders] to say that they denounce all terrorism, that they denounce all violence,” King says. “They have to be much more aggressive. I don’t think they fully realize that.

There is no doubt that the overwhelming majority of Muslims are good people, but the leadership in their communities has not cooperated enough, nor have they set a tone for cooperation. I want to see that change.”

marc1888
02-15-2011, 05:56 PM
In the 1980s, King frequently traveled to Northern Ireland to meet with IRA members.[12] In 1982, speaking at a pro-IRA rally in Nassau County, New York, King said: “We must pledge ourselves to support those brave men and women who this very moment are carrying forth the struggle against British imperialism in the streets of Belfast and Derry.”[12][18] "In 1985, he convened a press conference before the start of New York City's St. Patrick's Day parade (for which he was Grand Marshal), and offered a defiant defense of the IRA: 'As we march up the avenue and share all the joy,' he declared, 'let us never forget the men and women who are suffering and, most of all, the men and women who are fighting.'"[19]

He called the IRA "the legitimate voice of occupied Ireland."[20] A Northern Irish judge ordered King ejected from the former's courtroom, describing him as “an obvious collaborator with the IRA”.[12] King called himself "the Ollie North of Ireland."[19] He became involved with NORAID, an organization that the British, Irish and US governments accuse of financing IRA activities and providing them with weapons.[12][21][22][23] He was banned from appearing on British TV for his pro IRA views and refusing to condemn IRA activity in the UK.[12] When the Archbishop of New York embraced King at the city's St. Patrick's Day Parade, the Daily Mail "dedicated an entire editorial to the affair and called it the 'handshake of shame.'"[19]

In 1993, King lobbied for Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams to be a guest at the inauguration of President Bill Clinton.[19] In 2000, he called then-presidential candidate George W. Bush a tool of "anti-Catholic bigoted forces," after Bush visited Bob Jones University in South Carolina, "an institution that is notorious in Ireland for awarding an honorary doctorate to Northern Ireland's tempestuous Protestant leader, Ian Paisley."[12]

He stopped supporting the IRA after being offended by Irish public opposition to the invasion of Iraq, labelling it as begrudgery rather than suspicion of and opposition to the war.[12]

In 2008, King spoke in defense of bail for a fugitive IRA member, Pól Brennan, who had escaped from prison in the UK and been detained in Texas 15 years later. The IRA member, who had broken out of prison during the Maze Prison escape and entered America illegally,[24] was being held without bail after his work permit expired; King said: "My experience dealing with (Irish) republicans is that they don't jump bail in this country. They honor their commitments."[25]