Silly”Muslim radicalization”hearings will expose Islamophobic myths?

Hunting the non-existent witches of “Muslim radicalization.” The election of the radical right to positions in our state and national governments now means that we have to put up with perhaps a couple of years of silliness, crudeness and outrageous behavior from these radicals. Representative Peter King of New York is not a top rank among the right-wing radicals now engaged in outrageous “hearings” into almost non-existent “Muslim radicalization.” King is a radical himself, engaging  in un-American activities by holding these witch-hunt hearings.As in Europe – “radical Muslims” are not a great problem beyond a very small few and “lone wolves,” who are most often turned in by others in their Muslim community. According to the Triangle Center on Terrorism and Homeland Security at Duke University, the majority of cases (120 out of 161) where reported by the Muslim community members.  According to the same report, there were only 10 perpetrators in 2010, 18 in 2009 and 0 (yes 0!) in 2008. The Triangle Center condemned the King hearings as counter productive and divisive, but some “common ground” was found – and none of this “common ground” calls for demonizing every single Muslim living in the US as “potential terrorist” (see also Pete King’s hearings ignore extremism in a different hue, Karen Finney, The Hill).Rep. King’s claim that “Muslim communities refuse to cooperate with law enforcement appears to be utterly wrong. Not surprising.The REAL security and terrorist threat IS NOT from “Muslim radicals!” Now – as the argument has been made by this Author several times – there is focus on the small and non-existent “Muslim terrorist,” while ignoring the real security threats from the radical and extremist right. There is an excellent article from The Hill by Karen Finney that points out that the real “homegrown terrorism” comes from vastly more souses than “Muslim extremists” (see Domestic Terrorism In the Post-9/11 Era – FBI).Mark Potok of the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) points out the hypocrisy of Rep King’s hearings with an exclusive focus on Muslims that ignores the threat from white supremacists and the radical right, active as a “backlash” against President Obama (There is also King’s past support for the IRA.).According to SPLC, right wing radicalization and extremism became record breaking in 2010.  The number of active hate groups active in the US topped 1000 for the first time since the SPLC began counting these groups in 1980. From 2009-2010, there was a 22% rise in the three strands of the raidcal right – hatemongers, the nativists and the antigovernment zealots – with a count of 2, 145 radical and extreamist groups. From looking at the reports – we see that the 10 or so “radicalize Muslims” fad in comparison to the 1,700% rise in anti-Muslim hate crimes in the US in 2010, which included attempted bomb attacks on mosques (see The Year in Hate & Extremism, 2010 – SPLC). So – let the hearings on radicalization and extremism in the US begin, and if they were not about demonizing and stigmatizing Muslims and Islam – most of the time would be taken up talking about the real threat, the right radicalization and extremism. In the backdrop, a radical racist was arrested for planting a bomb at a MLK celebration in Washington State. Was there no mention of this at King’s hearing? Well, perhaps the minuscule “problem” of “Muslim radicalization” is not the whole point, according to Potok:

The reality is that King’s hearing are about demonizing Muslims, and they are, unfortunately, very likely to accomplish that goal. After all, they come in the midst of a renewed bout of Islamophobia — a round of hatred and fear that began last summer when other opportunistic politicians ginned up alarm about the Islamic center planned for lower Manhattan. They follow by just a few months the adoption of an absurd Oklahoma law designed to prevent the introduction of Islamic religious law in the state’s courts — a law that is now being emulated elsewhere.

One of the positives that is emerging from these despicable-witch hunt hearings is that “Muslim radicalization” is not the threat – as this Author has said – that Islamophobes in “counter terrorism” studies like to make it ut to be. The fact is that “Muslim radicalization – here in the US or in Europe – is simply not the threat in comparison to the radical right.These ginned up “problems” with “Muslim radicalization” also mirror the ginned up problems and hateful myths about “Islamisation” and “Muslim take overs,” as well as obsession with near non-existent “Muslim radicalization.” Also a familiar (especially to Dutch readers) is the statement from Rep King that he “will not be scared off by political correctness.” Well – facts and reality will hopefully rule the day, even if the “politically correct” use of facts and reality is hard from a radical like King to swallow.The most pressing question is: What is causing radicalization of Americans toward joining violent hatemongers, the nativists and the antigovernment zealots’ groups ?