The demonization of Peter King for daring to look into the extent of jihad sympathies and activities among Muslims in the U.S. continues. Here we learn from CNN that he has a “strange obsession with Islam,” which is a peculiar obsession indeed. It is as if he decided to pick on Islam out of the blue, as if it could just as easily have been Buddhism.
Yeah, sure, Velshi — Peter King just has a “strange obsession.” Who knows how he could have developed such a thing. One thing we know is that it was completely random. It could not possibly have had anything to do with Khalid Aldawsari, the would-be jihad mass murderer in Lubbock, Texas; or Muhammad Hussain, the would-be jihad bomber in Baltimore; or Mohamed Mohamud, the would-be jihad bomber in Portland; or Nidal Hasan, the Fort Hood jihad mass-murderer; or Faisal Shahzad, the would-be Times Square jihad mass-murderer; or Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad, the Arkansas military recruiting station jihad murderer; or Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the would-be Christmas airplane jihad bomber; or Muhammad Atta, Anjem Chaudary, Omar Bakri, Abu Hamza, Abu Bakar Bashir, Zawahiri, Zarqawi, bin Laden and all the rest.
No, King is just “obsessed.” Nothing to do with all those men and so many others like them. He could just as easily have become obsessed with collecting baseball cards, spending all his time searching for the elusive Honus Wagner Sweet Caporal issue, and sparing us this inundation of hatred, bigotry, and Islamophobia.
“CNN’s Velshi: Rep. Peter King Has ‘Strange Obsession with Islam,'” by Matthew Balan for the Media Research Center, March 12:
On Thursday’s Newsroom, CNN’s Ali Velshi claimed that Rep. Peter King has a “seemingly strange obsession with Islam and Islamists, or whatever you want to call it,” given the lead up and the first day of hearings looking into the radicalization of American Muslims. Velshi also bizarrely stated that “I don’t quite understand how when you put an -ist at the end of it [Islamism], it changes the subject.”
The anchor discussed the hearings with former FBI agent Foria Younis, CNN national security analyst Peter Bergen, and former Catholic turned Episcopal priest Rev. Alberto Cutie during the last segment of the 2 pm Eastern hour. Midway through the panel discussion, Velshi turned to Cutie and made his claim about the New York congressman, along with his doubt about the validity of “Islamist” as a term:
VELSHI: Let’s put aside Peter King’s seemingly strange obsession with Islam and Islamists, or whatever you want to call it. I don’t quite understand how when you put an -ist at the end of it, it changes the subject. But let’s just say, putting that aside, should Muslims be looking more carefully at themselves? Is there something that law-abiding American Muslims should be doing simply- to be doing to satisfy this call to action that Peter King has put out?
Perhaps he doesn’t understand that Islamist is a synonym for a radical Muslim, and that the term, in its current usage, has been around for decades, and has its origin in French academia.
As you might expect, Cutie spouted the liberal talking point about not singling out one community and the need to examine extremism outside the Muslim population:
CUTIE: Well, listen, in my conversations with the ecumenical community, with rabbis, with imams, with pastors, and then priests, everybody agrees that the big problem for some people is that Muslims have not come out in thousands and thousands of numbers marching down the street, maybe in New York City or other places, and saying, we are against terrorism. This is what some people need and want. I’m not sure that that’s going to do anything. I think that the sheriff said it right. My concern is the radicalization of people in all faith groups. I think we have to be very careful when we single out one group. Certainly, when are you in charge of Homeland Security, you are worried about terrorism. We’re all worried about terrorism. But how are we going to end this stigma of Muslim equals terrorist?…
Hmm. That’s a tough one, Cutie. Maybe it would help if Muslims stopped committing acts of terrorism and justifying them by reference to the texts and teachings of Islam?