The Pete "McCarthy" King Inquisition

Representative Pete King is using his position on the Homeland Security committee of the United States Congress to hold hearings on homegrown ‘Islamic Radicalization’.

We are not the first ones to use the ‘McCarthy’ label on Rep. King. In a pot-kettle exchange during a public falling-out with ally and Islamophobe Steve Emerson , it was Mr. Emerson who labelled King’s decision to not invite him as reeking of McCarthyism. In more than one way, events have overtaken the hearing, and it promises to underwhelm.

What does this hearing plan to achieve except for one-upmanship among the shrill Islamophobic crowd? Not much, as a comprehensive study by The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life summarized: Violent jihad is discordant with the values, outlook and attitudes of the vast majority of Muslim Americans, most of whom reject extremism.

The U.S. Congress is a legislative body, and it makes laws that are then executed by the Government. In addition to the current panoply of programmes that are out of control, and law enforcement that seem to be on top of things, what else can Congress do? Let them figure out what else it can do — while we talk about two other interesting factoids:

• Rep. King himself was a big supporter of the militant wing of the IRA, and his support may have crossed the line into actually condoning some illegal activities of IRA members.
• The irksome cult-like Ahmadiyya group were plugged by the New York Post as the prime candidate to appear before the hearings. The Post headed this by saying “Muslim sect on our side” — which summarises the polarizing nature of these hearings. By an unlikely co-incidence the Ahmadiyya went on a blitz of ‘Peace Week’ in order to let Pete King see their outstretched ‘me-too’ hands.

The events in Egypt unfolded and watered down the phobia that could have been fanned by these hearings. Oh, those pesky protesters — how can Pete King paint them as ‘hating our values and way of life’.