Rep. Keith Ellison's Historic Testimony during House Hearings
10 March 2011By Juan Cole
Just as our children today read in their history books
about the internment of Japanese-Americans and about
the McCarthy Hearings, a time will come (not too far
in the future hopefully) when our children's children
will read about how there was a generation of
Americans who stood by idly as an elected member of
public office–a United States congressman no less–held
anti-Muslim hearings.
That future generation will marvel at our complacency.
But, we will not just be accused of apathy, but of
wholesale bigotry. And many of us will be disgraced
and shamed–just like those police officers captured in
1960's footage hosing down black Americans will
forever live in infamy for what they did. Mostly those
who will be remembered will be the villains–Peter
King, Glenn Beck, maybe Barack Obama (the president
who did nothing to stop it–the guy who made it seem
like it's a smear to be called a Muslim)…
But there will be one good guy we'll read about, and
one testimony that we'll remember. It will be one of
those defining moments in history. His testimony is
hardly eloquent…but Ellison has captured the moment
beautifully. He has shed a tear for us all, for
America's lost soul. Here it is:
Peter King's "Muslim Hearings" are
Political Theater to Target Muslims
Loonwatch was live blogging the controversial
(anti)-Muslim Hearings being chaired by bigoted ex-IRA
terrorist supporter Peter King. It was a circus. It
devolved along partisan lines with Republicans
predictably falling behind the rhetoric and narrative
of Peter King. Democratic Congressmen/women issued
strong rebukes: Rep. Sheila J. Lee, Rep. Al Green,
Rep. Keith Ellison, Rep. Andre Carson, Rep. Laura
Richardson, Rep. Sanchez, and others delivered the
message home that these Hearings were nothing more
than political theater meant to castigate and
intimidate a minority group and most importantly they
were bereft of facts and therefore unbeneficial.
The leading witnesses for King were non-experts, Zuhdi
Jasser, AbdiRizak Bihi and Melvin Bledsoe, all of
these individuals were bereft of any credentials or
expertise in the field of radicalization, terrorism or
extremism. Zuhdi Jasser is considered an apologist for
Neo-Cons and is viewed with suspicion amongst American
Muslims for his close association with Islamophobes
and war-mongerers. AbdiRizak was incomprehensible at
times and much of what he and Bledsoe said were
anecdotal and not factual evidence.
King began the hearings with what can only be
classified as a bigoted comment, he said, "Moderate
leadership must emerge from the Muslim community." He
said this to set up a straw man argument for what
would become a recurring attack on CAIR, almost making
it into a hearing about CAIR.
After getting its name wrong, calling it the
"Committee of American Islamic Relations," he and
other Congressmen labeled CAIR a Hamas and Muslim
Brotherhood group. This is the usual trope brought
forth by Right-wingers and anti-Muslims such as Robert
Spencer and co., the best response came from Sheriff
Lee Baca (one of the anti-Loons of 2010) when he said,
‘If CAIR is this terrorist group or has terrorist
links then why hasn't the FBI prosecuted them? Why
haven't they charged them? They wouldn't be around if
they were terrorist or terrorist sympathizers.'
Some highlights included:
-Keith Ellison made three important points: 1.)
Security is important to all American Muslims, 2.)
Hearings threaten our security and 3.) We need
increased engagement with Muslims.
Ellison also got quite emotional while mentioning the
story of a Muslim first responder who died saving
people but was the victim of a smear campaign by
Islamophobes who attempted to link him to the 9/11
attacks.
-Andre Carson brought up an excellent point about the
fact that cooperation between law enforcement and
communities such as the American Muslim community is
endangered by the backdoor actions and methodologies
of organizations such as the FBI when they send agent
provocateurs into Muslim mosques. Such actions cause
distrust and engender fear that Muslims' civil rights
and liberties are being violated. One really only has
to look at the example in California of the criminal
Craig Montielh who was later arrested and confessed
that he was sent by the FBI on a fishing expedition to
entrap Muslims.
There were also other quite interesting WTF moments:
Such as when Peter King mentioned Kim Kardashian and
CAIR in the same sentence. Or when non-expert witness
Melvin Bledsoe told Rep. Al Green "you don't know what
these hearings are about." There was also the earlier
moment when Peter King denied making the comment that
"there are too many mosques in America." A blatant
falsity.
We will have more in depth coverage but it is safe to
say that American Muslims are in for a rocky
Islamophobic time with these hearings
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