by JUAN COLE
Rep. Peter T. King PHOTO/ The Huffington Post
Rep. Peter T. King (R-NY)’s hearings on the alleged ‘radicalization’ of American Muslims are an affront to the brave Middle Eastern Muslims who have, during the past two months, thrown off American-backed tyrannies and are even now battling the minions of murderous dictator Muammar Qaddafi.
His hearings contain the same premise deployed by Zine El Din Ben Ali, Hosni Mubarak and Muammar Qaddafi– that dissent from their policies equalled Muslim radicalism.
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It is well known that King is a notorious supporter of terrorism himself, having championed the bombing campaigns in London and elsewhere of the Irish Republican Army in the 1980s and early 1990s. He praised them for fighting “British imperialism.” He said, “If civilians are killed in an attack on a military installation, it is certainly regrettable, but I will not morally blame the IRA for it.” The IRA is estimated to have killed 600 innocent civilians among the 1700 people it struck down. (I should clarify that I am not unsympathetic to Irish concerns on Northern Ireland, but I do object to people blowing up innocents; what Tunisians and Egyptians have demonstrated is that peaceful people power can bring about change much more effectively than sadistic tactics like public bombings.)
King’s lame excuse for his support of terrorism now is that the IRA didn’t happen to have blown up anything in the United States itself. But if the British MI6 intelligence organization had a policy of “rendition” (i.e. kidnapping suspected terrorists and bringing them back for trial), King would be an entirely plausible target and could certainly be convicted in British courts.
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King is pond scum, an exemplar of everything that is going wrong with the American Republic, the Founders of which insisted that Congress keep its grubby mitts off people’s religion.
The response of the American Muslim community should be clear. They should form PACs and give as much money as they can to King’s opponent in the next election (NB: you don’t have to be in New York– the money to the opposing candidate can be donated from anywhere in the country). And, if he libels any of them, they should sue him. That’s how it works in American politics. I don’t like encouraging more single-issue PACs, but they are the only thing that might stand between American Muslims and pogroms whipped up by demagogues like King.
Alternatives International for more
(Thanks to Feroz Mehdi)