New York Rep. Peter King attacked Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin over his decision to hold a hearing on the civil rights of the Muslim community today:
"This just perpetuates the myth that somehow Muslims are the victim of September 11," Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., told Fox News.But Durbin, D-Ill., said he called the hearing so that Congress could examine potential civil rights violations particular to Muslims, like Koran burnings and restrictions on mosque construction, as well as hate speech and other forms of discrimination.
Given Rep. Keith Ellison's tearful testimony about the death of a Muslim 9/11 first responder who was smeared as a potential terrorist while his body lay under the rubble of the World Trade Center, it's not really possible to argue that King is unaware of the idea that Muslims were killed on 9/11. Rather, King believes that just as Muslims are, on some level, collectively responsible for the actions of al-Qaeda, they cannot also be their victims.
King also denied that Muslims civil rights have actually been violated:
King held hearings based on the implicit premise that terrorist radicalization among American Muslims is widespread -- while he walked back many of his more inflammatory statements, King has insisted (falsely) for years that most American mosques are radicalized.While critics of King's hearing questioned why he didn't examine other domestic threats like the KKK, King likewise questioned why Durbin wouldn't examine civil rights violations of other religious groups.
"The best they can do is come back with these hearings by Senator Durbin, which is somehow trying to create the illusion that there's a violation of civil rights of Muslims in this country. It's absolutely untrue, and to me it makes no sense," King said.
Addressing Civil Rights Division head Thomas Perez, Durbin responded to King, saying that Perez's testimony "reflects the reality" of Muslim discrimination in the U.S.
"Muslims comprise less than 1 percent of the American population, but 14 percent of the religious discrimination cases," Durbin said. Perez, in his testimony pointed out that of 24 possible violations of the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act since 9/11, nearly two-thirds have been opened in the last 10 months.
It's understandable that King would understate statistics like those. After all, just before the precipitous rise in RLUIPA cases, King was joining conservatives in their war on a proposed Islamic community center near Ground Zero.
