Pete King, America's new McCarthy

[CHIMO]

As our new chairman of the House homeland security committee, I see that you have established congressional hearings on Muslim Americans to investigate the threat of homegrown terrorism, starting on 10 March. Just so I can rehearse, exactly how American would you like me to be? Can I just lip sync the Toby Keith lyrics at my hearing, or do I actually have to don the American flag as a bandana, too? After all, my family and I need to prepare for our big day in court.

Since your hearings have been set up to demonstrate that Muslim Americans are, as you say, "uncooperative with authorities", might I direct you to the new study by the Triangle Centre on Terrorism and Homeland Security? It found that tips from Muslim Americans provided information that helped authorities thwart terrorist plots in 48 of 120 cases. The report further notes that: "Muslim Americans have been so concerned about extremists in their midst that they have turned in people who turned out to be undercover informants." Don't take my word for it, though. The director of the National Counterterrorism Centre, Michael Leiter, FBI Director Robert S Mueller III and US Attorney General Eric H Holder Jr have all praised the American Muslim community for playing an instrumental role in assisting law enforcement agencies. A little strange, then, that apparently, you won't be calling any law enforcement officials.

However, you are correct; there have been plenty of terrorist attacks that no Muslim has brought to a halt. Not one Muslim turned in Arizona shooter Jared Lee Loughner, or the gunman who killed the security guard at the Washington DC Holocaust Museum, or Timothy McVeigh, or the Virginia Tech shooter. Perhaps the inconvenient truth here is that none of those terrorists were Muslim. Fifty-one Muslim, civil rights and interfaith groups, including 15 rabbis, sent a letter to you calling for the investigation of all extremists, rather than just Muslims, but you claimed this would be "political correctness at its worst". Considering you now assert that there are "too many mosques in this country", I should remind you of your campaigning days, when you gave speeches at mosques and held book signings in Muslim prayer halls.

Let us examine who will testify at your witchhunt, which will convene next week. For one, there is Dr Zuhdi Jasser. How convenient. An active Republican who has supported the US wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, Dr Jasser is quoted as saying that Islam harbours "insidious supremacism". As if every other faith does not. Your own Muslim colleague, Congressman Keith Ellison (Democratic-Farmer-Labour party representative for Minnesota's fifth district), is also scheduled to appear.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/mar/03/congress-islam

[Dawson Leery]

1. Is it possible to draw his district out of existence?