n Will stoke fear, hatred toward American Muslims Despite a public attitude that has generally developed in line with the US tradition of tolerance and acceptance, the US government is about to engage in congressional hearings that seem, inexplicably, designed to stoke fear and hatred toward American Muslims. Peter King, a US representative from New York and chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, is holding hearings Thursday to investigate what he calls the “radicalization” of American Muslims and the reluctance of the local Muslim community to assist in law enforcement investigations. First of all, there is not one shred of truth to support the supposition of “radicalization”, and there is plenty of evidence to indicate that US Muslims are as concerned as everyone else about preventing any crime that could emanate from the religious community. In fact, the FBI has been embarrassed more than once by Muslims alerting the government to potential terrorist organizers. It turned out in, at least, one case that the man talking up potential terrorist acts was actually an FBI agent undercover. A recent newspaper article on a group of supposed terrorists from upstate New York quoted an FBI agent as saying that the whole plot for which the group was arrested was designed and run by the FBI. The only reason for Representative King to focus his hearings on the Muslim community is to attempt to instill fear and suspicion in the general population. Certainly, hearings into trends of radicalization across various groups may be justified, but to single out Muslims or any other group, for that matter, is grossly unfair, provocative and counter-productive. King's hearings have been met with vociferous complaints from numerous quarters, both official and unofficial. Requests to cancel the hearings were made by various civil rights groups, governmental and nongovernmental, and public protests were staged in Times Square in New York and at other locales around the United States. With some exceptions, the American people have kept their heads in the now 10-year wake of 9/11. Politicians, however, still feel the need to attempt to focus their constituents' hatred on a religious minority. It is an abomination of the concept of “America”. __
