Peter King’s Hearings on Muslims
To the Editor:
Re “Peter King’s Obsession” (editorial, March 8):
I don’t doubt that Representative Peter T. King, Republican of New York, is correct to worry somewhat about extremists from the Muslim world. Such people do exist. My concern is that Mr. King’s method of dealing with such threats — with Homeland Security Committee hearings that start on Thursday — only adds to the disease.
The kind of extremists found in the Muslim world exist in every other group of people in our nation, religious and otherwise. It is time for Mr. King and all of us in America to address the real and substantial problems facing our nation and to cease pandering to the bigotry and prejudices of our nation.
Ian Wachstein
Collingswood, N.J., March 9, 2011
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To the Editor:
According to Representative Peter T. King, the chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security, Muslims in the United States aren’t cooperating enough with law enforcement to counter the radicalization of youth.
As a youth leader belonging to the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community U.S.A., I have always openly condemned terrorism and have taken this same message to tens of thousands of others through Muslims for Peace fliers in various cities in northern New Jersey.
The vast majority of American Muslims are peace-loving. Muslim-Americans have been instrumental in thwarting terror attempts by Muslim radicals. There should be no reason to blindly accuse the Muslim-American community of noncooperation.
But if the government thinks that Congressional hearings will improve homeland security and help expose those exploiting Islam, I assure full cooperation. I, too, aspire to have a more secure America.
Kashif N. Chaudhry
New Milford, N.J., March 9, 2011
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To the Editor:
Re “Flailing After Muslims,” by Bob Herbert (column, March 8):
Representative Peter T. King says, “The threat is coming from the Muslim community,” adding: “The radicalization attempts are directed at the Muslim community. Why should I investigate other communities?”
He will find his answer to that question unequivocally clear on the Southern Poverty Law Center Web site or in any issue of its intelligence reports.
For example, the latest issue lists the 1,002 active hate groups in the United States (Ku Klux Klan, neo-Nazi, white nationalist, racist skinhead, Christian identity and so on). These people are not members of the “Muslim community.”
The more pertinent question to be asked and answered is, If Mr. King is now holding these hate-filled and bigoted set of hearings about radicalized Muslim communities, when will he be holding hearings to examine radicalized Christian communities and their threat to our homeland security as well?
Terry N. Crawford
Tigard, Ore., March 8, 2011
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To the Editor:
“Fair to Muslims?,” by Akbar Ahmed (Op-Ed, March 9), misses the point. The hearings by Representative Peter T. King are not about knowing more about the Muslim community. They are purely an attempt to smear and possibly indict a whole group.
Here in America, all faiths are equal, all groups are equal and all individuals are equal. A transgression on one of them is a transgression on all. Furthermore, the fact that Mr. King once supported the most extreme acts of the Irish Republican Army (“Pro-I.R.A. Past for Chairman of Terror Panel,” front page, March 9) should make him the least likely figure to look into any kind of extremism.
Wagih Abu-Rish
Houston, March 9, 2011
The writer is president of the Arab-American Secular Coalition.
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To the Editor:
Re “Drawing U.S. Crowds With Anti-Islam Message” (front page, March 8) and “Peter King’s Obsession” (editorial, March 8):
So now we have our own little McCarthyites. It might do us well to have Congress hold hearings to investigate home-grown McCarthyism.
Bruce Lipton
New York, March 9, 2011
Re “Peter King’s Obsession” (editorial, March 8):
I don’t doubt that Representative Peter T. King, Republican of New York, is correct to worry somewhat about extremists from the Muslim world. Such people do exist. My concern is that Mr. King’s method of dealing with such threats — with Homeland Security Committee hearings that start on Thursday — only adds to the disease.
The kind of extremists found in the Muslim world exist in every other group of people in our nation, religious and otherwise. It is time for Mr. King and all of us in America to address the real and substantial problems facing our nation and to cease pandering to the bigotry and prejudices of our nation.
Ian Wachstein
Collingswood, N.J., March 9, 2011
•
To the Editor:
According to Representative Peter T. King, the chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security, Muslims in the United States aren’t cooperating enough with law enforcement to counter the radicalization of youth.
As a youth leader belonging to the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community U.S.A., I have always openly condemned terrorism and have taken this same message to tens of thousands of others through Muslims for Peace fliers in various cities in northern New Jersey.
The vast majority of American Muslims are peace-loving. Muslim-Americans have been instrumental in thwarting terror attempts by Muslim radicals. There should be no reason to blindly accuse the Muslim-American community of noncooperation.
But if the government thinks that Congressional hearings will improve homeland security and help expose those exploiting Islam, I assure full cooperation. I, too, aspire to have a more secure America.
Kashif N. Chaudhry
New Milford, N.J., March 9, 2011
•
To the Editor:
Re “Flailing After Muslims,” by Bob Herbert (column, March 8):
Representative Peter T. King says, “The threat is coming from the Muslim community,” adding: “The radicalization attempts are directed at the Muslim community. Why should I investigate other communities?”
He will find his answer to that question unequivocally clear on the Southern Poverty Law Center Web site or in any issue of its intelligence reports.
For example, the latest issue lists the 1,002 active hate groups in the United States (Ku Klux Klan, neo-Nazi, white nationalist, racist skinhead, Christian identity and so on). These people are not members of the “Muslim community.”
The more pertinent question to be asked and answered is, If Mr. King is now holding these hate-filled and bigoted set of hearings about radicalized Muslim communities, when will he be holding hearings to examine radicalized Christian communities and their threat to our homeland security as well?
Terry N. Crawford
Tigard, Ore., March 8, 2011
•
To the Editor:
“Fair to Muslims?,” by Akbar Ahmed (Op-Ed, March 9), misses the point. The hearings by Representative Peter T. King are not about knowing more about the Muslim community. They are purely an attempt to smear and possibly indict a whole group.
Here in America, all faiths are equal, all groups are equal and all individuals are equal. A transgression on one of them is a transgression on all. Furthermore, the fact that Mr. King once supported the most extreme acts of the Irish Republican Army (“Pro-I.R.A. Past for Chairman of Terror Panel,” front page, March 9) should make him the least likely figure to look into any kind of extremism.
Wagih Abu-Rish
Houston, March 9, 2011
The writer is president of the Arab-American Secular Coalition.
•
To the Editor:
Re “Drawing U.S. Crowds With Anti-Islam Message” (front page, March 8) and “Peter King’s Obsession” (editorial, March 8):
So now we have our own little McCarthyites. It might do us well to have Congress hold hearings to investigate home-grown McCarthyism.
Bruce Lipton
New York, March 9, 2011
