http://onfaith.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/ 15 On Faith is an innovative, provocative conversation on all aspects of religion with Sally Quinn of The Washington Post. Keep up-to-date on global religious developments with On Faith. en Copyright 2011 Sun, 06 Mar 2011 21:30:43 -0500 http://www.movabletype.org/?v=4.2-en http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.), chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, will begin holding hearings Thursday on "the extent of the radicalization of American Muslims." Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, has characterized the hearings as "a witch hunt." Are they? King also has said he believes the "self-radicalization" of American Muslims represents "a very small minority" of the overall community. What are the potential consequences of singling out one religious group? All one needs to know about what is behind the King hearings can be gleaned by Peter King's own statements regarding Muslims in the US. How does Rep. King feel about Islam in the United States? "Unfortunately, we have too many mosques in this country. There are too many people who are sympathetic to radical Islam. We should be looking at them more carefully. We should be finding out how we can infiltrate [them]. How http://onfaith.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/panelists/reza_aslan/2011/03/on_muslims_king_has_reached_his_own_fact-less_conclusion.html?wprss=onfaithpanelists http://onfaith.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/panelists/reza_aslan/2011/03/on_muslims_king_has_reached_his_own_fact-less_conclusion.html Fri, 11 Mar 2011 09:07:11 -0500 Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.), chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, will begin holding hearings Thursday on "the extent of the radicalization of American Muslims." Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, has characterized the hearings as "a witch hunt." Are they? King also has said he believes the "self-radicalization" of American Muslims represents "a very small minority" of the overall community. What are the potential consequences of singling out one religious group? Representative Peter King's hearing did not transcend the faulty frame he created for it. http://onfaith.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/panelists/melissa_rogers/2011/03/faulty_frames_and_other_flaws_of_the_king_hearing.html?wprss=onfaithpanelists http://onfaith.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/panelists/melissa_rogers/2011/03/faulty_frames_and_other_flaws_of_the_king_hearing.html Fri, 11 Mar 2011 08:25:54 -0500 Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.), chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, will begin holding hearings Thursday on "the extent of the radicalization of American Muslims." Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, has characterized the hearings as "a witch hunt." Are they? King also has said he believes the "self-radicalization" of American Muslims represents "a very small minority" of the overall community. What are the potential consequences of singling out one religious group? According to a study by the Triangle Center on Terrorism, there have been 120 cases of American Muslims charged with committing or conspiring to commit an act of terrorism since 2001. That's approximately ten a year. Given the American Muslim population is estimated to be between 2 to 6 million, it should be rampantly evident that radicalization among American Muslims is not widespread at all, despite Rep. King's declaration that it is a major problem http://onfaith.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/panelists/pamela_k_taylor/2011/03/kings_hearings_barking_up_the_wrong_tree.html?wprss=onfaithpanelists http://onfaith.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/panelists/pamela_k_taylor/2011/03/kings_hearings_barking_up_the_wrong_tree.html Thu, 10 Mar 2011 09:48:29 -0500 Representative Peter King's (R-N.Y.) congressional hearings on the extent of radicalization in the American Muslim community are not designed to uncover facts and resolve conflicts. Like the McCarthy hearings of a bygone era, and indeed like the very extremism they claim to fight, the hearings are designed to fuel emotions - not noble emotions like patriotism, solidarity, and love of humankind but base emotions like fear, suspicion, and hatred. No matter how much we wish to argue against emotions with facts, emotions will always be more powerful than raw data. This makes emotions the source of our greatest weakness as well as our greatest strength. Facts do not support the narrative of increasing Muslim-American radicalization. According to the Triangle Center on Terrorism and Homeland Security, in 2010, the number of American Muslims involved in terrorist acts dropped by more than half compared to 2009. More non-Muslims than Muslims were involved http://onfaith.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/panelists/feisal_abdul_rauf/2011/03/at_peter_kings_muslim_hearings_focus_on_our_common_enemies_extremism_and_fear.html?wprss=onfaithpanelists http://onfaith.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/panelists/feisal_abdul_rauf/2011/03/at_peter_kings_muslim_hearings_focus_on_our_common_enemies_extremism_and_fear.html Thu, 10 Mar 2011 08:20:22 -0500 Weekly Jewish Wisdom: The Outsider Wins by Dr. Erica Brown "There is no prophet in his own city." Jewish adage When institutions face difficult, seemingly intractable problems, what do they do? They bring in a consultant, of course! This person, for usually large sums of money, proceeds to tell them what their problem is and, if lucky, offers some possible solutions. Most often, the problem identified is already evident to most of the people involved anyway, so what good does an outsider bring to the complexity of a situation? As one joke has it, a consultant is a person who asks to borrow your watch to tell you what time it is. What do families do when they face difficult, seemingly intractable problems? They bring in an outsider, a professional, a counseller or a member of the clergy to help them name a problem that they already know exists. Most http://onfaith.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/panelists/erica_brown/2011/03/the_outsider_wins.html?wprss=onfaithpanelists http://onfaith.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/panelists/erica_brown/2011/03/the_outsider_wins.html Wed, 09 Mar 2011 17:24:00 -0500 Testifying at the 1920 House immigration hearings, Representative John M. Robsion, a Republican from Kentucky, described Polish Jewish immigrants as: filthy, un-American and often dangerous in their habits. . . Most of them nursed hate from their mother's breast. . . Government to them is slavery and oppression. They have become Anarchists, Bolsheviks, Communists, and radicals. . . they become a great recruiting force to the undesirables already here. . . most of them will never learn the spirit of our institutions and our Government. Robsion's testimony--as well as that of others--resulted in the passing of one of the harshest immigration laws in U.S. history. The 1924 Immigration Act effectively closed America's borders to would-be immigrants from eastern and southern Europe and eventually prevented untold numbers of refugees from Nazi Germany from finding safety in the Goldene Medina (the Golden Country). http://onfaith.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/panelists/Jill_Jacobs/2011/03/a_certain_people_scattered_and_dispersed.html?wprss=onfaithpanelists http://onfaith.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/panelists/Jill_Jacobs/2011/03/a_certain_people_scattered_and_dispersed.html Islam Wed, 09 Mar 2011 10:57:20 -0500 Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.), chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, will begin holding hearings Thursday on "the extent of the radicalization of American Muslims." Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, has characterized the hearings as "a witch hunt." Are they? King also has said he believes the "self-radicalization" of American Muslims represents "a very small minority" of the overall community. What are the potential consequences of singling out one religious group? If the goal of the King hearings is for legislators to better understand the threats of terrorism from within the Muslim community,  then the whole thing is misconceived. Presumably members of Congress can draw upon extensive classified information made available through our government's extensive intelligence gathering agencies, without conducting their inquiries in front of TV cameras.  We are right to worry, then, that the real purpose is to stir up more Islamophobia. As someone who frequently http://onfaith.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/panelists/richard_mouw/2011/03/arent_there_better_ways_to_do_intelligence_work.html?wprss=onfaithpanelists http://onfaith.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/panelists/richard_mouw/2011/03/arent_there_better_ways_to_do_intelligence_work.html Wed, 09 Mar 2011 08:24:43 -0500 A Roman Catholic lay minister marks the forehead of a student with the sign of a cross during Ash Wednesday on school grounds in Las Pinas city, Metro Manila March 9, 2011. Ash Wednesday, which serves as a reminder that "as a man is dust, so unto dust he shall return," marks the beginning of the season of Lent. It is a season of penance, reflection and fasting which prepares believers for Jesus Christ's resurrection on Easter Sunday. REUTERS/Erik de Castro I like to think of Ash Wednesday as a kind of Catholic "coming out" day in our country. Suddenly, I can readily recognize those sportscasters, grocery clerks, and mailmen who share my faith by the smudges of ashes on their foreheads. Distribution of Ashes They're not really smudges, though. They're crosses. And reminders. On Ash Wednesday, the first day of the penitential season of Lent, we mark ourselves http://onfaith.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/panelists/Danielle_Bean/2011/03/lent_2011_a_catholic_coming_out_day.html?wprss=onfaithpanelists http://onfaith.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/panelists/Danielle_Bean/2011/03/lent_2011_a_catholic_coming_out_day.html Wed, 09 Mar 2011 07:08:48 -0500 Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.), chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, will begin holding hearings Thursday on "the extent of the radicalization of American Muslims." Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, has characterized the hearings as "a witch hunt." Are they? King also has said he believes the "self-radicalization" of American Muslims represents "a very small minority" of the overall community. What are the potential consequences of singling out one religious group? With Rep. Peter King beginning hearings this Thursday, hearings which will examine the issue of radicalization within the American Muslim community, two things should be stated very clearly: Islamic terror is real and so is Islamophobia. Denying the former is a deadly error, but addressing that real and pressing problem in no way necessitates or justifies the latter. http://onfaith.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/panelists/brad_hirschfield/2011/03/islamic_terror_is_real_so_is_islamophobia.html?wprss=onfaithpanelists http://onfaith.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/panelists/brad_hirschfield/2011/03/islamic_terror_is_real_so_is_islamophobia.html Tue, 08 Mar 2011 15:16:23 -0500 Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.), chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, will begin holding hearings Thursday on "the extent of the radicalization of American Muslims." Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, has characterized the hearings as "a witch hunt." Are they? King also has said he believes the "self-radicalization" of American Muslims represents "a very small minority" of the overall community. What are the potential consequences of singling out one religious group? Throughout our history, the United States has endured periodic outbreaks of fear and hysteria - from the Red Scare to the Yellow Peril. To that ignoble list, we can now add the "Muslim Menace." http://onfaith.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/panelists/charles_c_haynes/2011/03/the_truth_about_muslims_in_america.html?wprss=onfaithpanelists http://onfaith.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/panelists/charles_c_haynes/2011/03/the_truth_about_muslims_in_america.html Tue, 08 Mar 2011 13:37:29 -0500 Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.), chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, will begin holding hearings Thursday on "the extent of the radicalization of American Muslims." Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, has characterized the hearings as "a witch hunt." Are they? King also has said he believes the "self-radicalization" of American Muslims represents "a very small minority" of the overall community. What are the potential consequences of singling out one religious group? Score one for Al Qaeda. http://onfaith.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/panelists/valerie_elverton_dixon/2011/03/love_rather_than_fear_can_defeat_terror.html?wprss=onfaithpanelists http://onfaith.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/panelists/valerie_elverton_dixon/2011/03/love_rather_than_fear_can_defeat_terror.html Tue, 08 Mar 2011 13:13:00 -0500 Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.), chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, will begin holding hearings Thursday on "the extent of the radicalization of American Muslims." Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, has characterized the hearings as "a witch hunt." Are they? King also has said he believes the "self-radicalization" of American Muslims represents "a very small minority" of the overall community. What are the potential consequences of singling out one religious group? By singling out one particular religious community for investigation, Representative King's hearings fly in the face of religious freedom as it is enshrined in the First Amendment to our Constitution. These hearings are not only the wrong answer to the wrong question, but in the end, they may only perpetuate the problems the Homeland Security Committee seeks to solve, as well as add to a disturbing climate of anti-Muslim sentiment extant in America today. Freedom http://onfaith.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/panelists/c_welton_gaddy/2011/03/rep_kings_hearing_is_the_wrong_answer_to_the_wrong_question.html?wprss=onfaithpanelists http://onfaith.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/panelists/c_welton_gaddy/2011/03/rep_kings_hearing_is_the_wrong_answer_to_the_wrong_question.html Tue, 08 Mar 2011 10:48:14 -0500 Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.), chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, will begin holding hearings Thursday on "the extent of the radicalization of American Muslims." Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, has characterized the hearings as "a witch hunt." Are they? King also has said he believes the "self-radicalization" of American Muslims represents "a very small minority" of the overall community. What are the potential consequences of singling out one religious group? It is always a threat to religious liberty for government to single out a particular faith for investigation - not just for the group investigated, but for everyone. It sets a dangerous precedent whose effect goes beyond the targeted religion. http://onfaith.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/panelists/j_brent_walker/2011/03/singling_out_one_faith_affects_them_all.html?wprss=onfaithpanelists http://onfaith.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/panelists/j_brent_walker/2011/03/singling_out_one_faith_affects_them_all.html Tue, 08 Mar 2011 10:28:21 -0500 Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.), chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, will begin holding hearings Thursday on "the extent of the radicalization of American Muslims." Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, has characterized the hearings as "a witch hunt." Are they? King also has said he believes the "self-radicalization" of American Muslims represents "a very small minority" of the overall community. What are the potential consequences of singling out one religious group? Depending on who you ask, there are 1.5 million to seven million Muslims in the United States. When you consider that our country has about 307 million people, you can start to grasp what a small community of believers this truly is. Nor are these believers monolithic. They encompass a wide range of theological and political stances. Yet we are to believe that this population as a whole holds a special danger to our safety http://onfaith.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/panelists/Jason_Pitzl-Waters/2011/03/the_appeal_to_fear.html?wprss=onfaithpanelists http://onfaith.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/panelists/Jason_Pitzl-Waters/2011/03/the_appeal_to_fear.html Tue, 08 Mar 2011 09:46:59 -0500 Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.), chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, will begin holding hearings Thursday on "the extent of the radicalization of American Muslims." Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, has characterized the hearings as "a witch hunt." Are they? King also has said he believes the "self-radicalization" of American Muslims represents "a very small minority" of the overall community. What are the potential consequences of singling out one religious group? As the congressional hearings on the alleged radicalization of Islam approach, one key question is how Rep. Peter King's justifications for holding the hearings stack up to what the American public thinks about Islam and the place of American Muslims in society. The recent PRRI/RNS Religion News Survey, to date the only barometer for public opinion on the hearings, gives us a window into the differences between King and the public. The poll, conducted by http://onfaith.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/panelists/Robert_P_Jones/2011/03/peter_king_vs_the_american_public.html?wprss=onfaithpanelists http://onfaith.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/panelists/Robert_P_Jones/2011/03/peter_king_vs_the_american_public.html Tue, 08 Mar 2011 09:33:59 -0500