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Inquiry in Washington examined risk of ‘homegrown’ Islamic terrorism.
WASHINGTON — Rep. Peter King and his fellow Republicans in the House declared their much-criticized hearing into Muslim “radicalization” in America a success, even as detractors slammed it as an “outrage” and “reality TV.”
“Our hearings today were informative and educational, and hopefully will have consequences in the Muslim American community,” King, chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, told reporters after the more than four-hour hearing on Capitol Hill on Thursday.
“The hysteria and madness leading up to this did nobody much good,” he said.
“The purpose of today’s hearing was to inform, not to inflame,” added Rep. Dan Lungren, R-Calif.
King, a New York congressman, spent much of the day offering a strident defense of the hearing, which examined the risk of “homegrown” Islamic terrorism, while Democrats and civil rights groups decried it as a divisive spectacle that they argued would sow mistrust in Muslim communities nationwide.
At the close of the hearing, King pledged more inquiries would soon follow, including one that would focus on radical Islam in America’s prisons.
The committee heard testimony from several members of Congress, including Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., a Muslim who perhaps provided the day’s most memorable moment when he broke down and tearfully described the actions of a Muslim paramedic from New York who died while responding to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
“Mohammad Salman Hamdani was a fellow American, who gave his life for other Americans,” Ellison said. Democrats made clear they disapproved of the proceedings.
Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, shouting over King’s pounding gavel, labeled the proceedings “an outrage.” Rep. Yvette Clarke, D-N.Y., dismissed the hearings as “great congressional theater” and “the equivalent of reality TV.”