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4th King Hearing Lacks Substance

(Dec 9, 2011) The House and Senate Homeland Security Committees held their first joint hearing on Wednesday focusing on the threat of homegrown terrorism to military communities. The hearing, "Homegrown Terrorism: The Threat to Military Communities Inside the United States," was organized by Rep. Peter King (R-NY), chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, and Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I-CT), chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.

This is the fourth hearing organized by Rep. King this year that isolates the Muslim community in an attempt to define terrorism and threats to the United States. ISNA has remained at the forefront of the hearings to keep you on top of how they may directly impact you and to also work with elected officials, the White House, and government agencies to ensure that an entire religious community is not unfairly singled out and discriminated against based upon the mis-guided actions of a few people who wrongfully use the name of Islam to justify violence. We have consistently called for a national security strategy that remains comprehensive in its scope, to include all forms of extremism that may threaten the safety of our nation.

Although Rep. King acknowledged in Wednesday's hearing the 6,024 Muslims troops that have served our country in the military since 2001, and the 14 who paid the ultimate sacrifice to protect our nation and lost their lives in battle, he and Sen. Lieberman still incorrectly isolated Islam as the "enemy" to the security of our military and their families. In so doing, they missed the point that it is neither helpful nor accurate to make the sweeping assumption that all terrorism or dangerous radical ideologies stem from Islam and further laid the foundation for discrimination against Muslims by reinforcing the false ideology that Islam is synonymous with violence.

During the hearings, Assistant Secretary of Defense Paul Stockton flatly refused to use the term "violent Islamic extremism." From his experience as a high-ranking counterterrorism official, he declared that our current primary threat is "Al Qaeda and its affiliates," not Islam, and that it is unhelpful to frame our efforts using the term Islam.

House Ranking Member Bennie Thompson agreed, stating, "Focusing on the followers of one religion as the only credible threat to this nation's security is inaccurate, narrow, and blocks consideration of emerging threats. Our military is open to all faiths. A congressional hearing that focuses on religion and the military is likely to harm unit cohesion and undermine morale within our military."

In written testimony submitted during Wednesday's hearing, ISNA shared with the joint committee the American Muslim communities' commitment to ensuring the security of our service members. We also expressed our concern that the limited scope of this fourth hearing once again sought to discriminate against the Muslim community and isolate it, rather than unite our nation. We encouraged Congress to focus more comprehensively on better strategies to train all members of the military in how to identify indicators that a soldier or military personnel may be a danger to others or themselves instead of casting suspicion on an entire religious group.

All panelists from the Department of Defense testifying on Wednesday agreed that training is a critical comprehensive step and a more meaningful strategy than isolating one community in the military as being more "prone" to violence based on their religion.

To view the full testimony submitted by ISNA at Wednesday's hearing, along with other relevant documents, please see below.

ISNA TESTIMONY: Submitted for the Hearing, "Homegrown Terrorism: The Threat to Military Communities Inside the United States" (Dec 7, 2011)

Shoulder-to-Shoulder Testimony: Submitted for the Hearing, "Homegrown Terrorism: The Threat to Military Communities Inside the United States" (Dec 7, 2011)

RELATED DOCUMENTS:

Congress Blog, "Peter King's Homegrown Terrorism Hearing Risks Repeating History" (Dec 7, 2011)

ISNA Responds to King Hearings (March 11, 2011)

Imam Magid on Our Collective Security (March 5, 2011)

Shoulder to Shoulder Campaign Serves as Counter-Voice in News Coverage of Peter King Hearings (March 12, 2011)

ISNA and Interfaith Community Urge Congress to Re-Think Format of "King Hearings" (Feb 3, 2011)

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