GOP Rep Plans Hearings on 'Radicalization' of US Muslims

A New York Congressman plans to hold hearings “to assess the extent of the radicalization of the Muslim community” in the US, and for some weird reason, Muslim American groups are not pleased, the New York Daily News reports. Peter King, incoming head of the House Committee on Homeland Security, says al-Qaeda has set its sights on American Muslims more and more, but some US clerics haven’t shown “sufficient cooperation” with officials on the matter.

“We're concerned that it'll become a new McCarthy-type hearing,” says a rep for an Islamic-American relations group. King says he's already been called a bigot and worse, but intends to press on anyway. He believes that clerics have been telling their followers to keep quiet about al-Qaeda's attempts to recruit them. "It's extensive throughout the country," he said, though he added, "The overwhelming majority of Muslims are outstanding citizens." (More Peter King stories.)