NAACP Urges Rep. King to Rethink His ‘Reckless’ Hearings Singling Out the Muslim Community
Hilary
Shelton, director of the NAACP’s Washington Bureau, is urging Rep. Peter King,
R. N.Y., to “reconsider holding the narrowly focused and reckless hearings” centered on domestic terrorism
and the Muslim community in the United States scheduled for tomorrow, March 10.
In
a letter to Rep. King, who chairs the House
Committee on Homeland Security, Shelton warns that focusing on the Muslim
community alone will skew the perception of where the threat of domestic
terrorism is likely to originate.
“Factual
history has clearly demonstrated that ‘homegrown domestic terrorism’ cannot be
relegated to one racial or ethnic group. To do so is to overlook actual
historic and current events, which are both riddled with terrorist acts by
extremists from a large variety of racial, ethnic, political, social and
religious groups.”
The
approach of singling out an entire community is also counterproductive in
deterring the threat of terrorism, adds Shelton.
“…by
identifying one group as being largely responsible for current terror threats
against our nation, you are promoting misinformation and stereotypes that can
only build mistrust among members of that group. This in turn will make it more
difficult for members of that group to cooperate with authorities in
identifying or reporting genuine threats, and more unlikely that they will.”
Full
text of the letter is available below.
The
Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights is also calling
on Rep. Peter King to cancel tomorrow’s
hearing on “radicalization of the
American Muslim community and homegrown terrorists.