Ahead of congressional hearings into homegrown Islamic terrorism, an Obama national security advisor tells one group: ‘Muslim Americans are not part of the problem. You’re part of the solution.’
Peter Nicholas
Los Angeles Times
3/7/2011
Reporting from Sterling, Va. —
The White House took a preemptive step to defuse an emerging controversy Sunday, sending out a top aide to reassure American Muslims that the U.S. government doesn’t see them as a collective threat.
Denis McDonough, deputy national security advisor to President Obama, addressed a largely Muslim audience days before congressional hearings into homegrown Islamic terrorism. The hearings, which sparked protests in New York on Sunday, will be led by Rep. Peter T. King (R-N.Y.), chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee.
In his speech to members of the All Dulles Area Muslim Society, McDonough said, “The bottom line is this: When it comes to preventing violent extremism and terrorism in the United States, Muslim Americans are not part of the problem; you’re part of the solution.”
Earlier Sunday, King told CNN’s “State of the Union” that Al Qaeda terrorists were “attempting to recruit within the United States. People in this country are being self-radicalized.”
The Obama administration is clearly worried that the hearings, which begin Thursday, could open a rift with Muslim leaders, whose cooperation is needed to foil terrorist recruitment. A message from McDonough’s speech was that the Muslim community is vital to a larger strategy of preventing the radicalization of American youths.
The article continues at the LA Times.
H/T American Power where Prof. Douglas has video from UC Irvine in his discussion of the upcoming Israeli Hate Week…
Also at American Power, Stephen Walt, Harvard’s Israel-Bashing Political Scientist, Implicated in Libyan Influence-Peddling Scandal
Update: Saudi Islamic Scholar: The Day Is Coming When Islam Will Rule the World Again… at Weasel Zippers
Update 2: At Emerging Corruption, Denial: Obama Nat’l Sec. Advisor Says ‘Many Different Faiths’ Turn to Terrorism
…the woefully absurd claim made by Denis McDonough, Obama’s Deputy National Security Advisor, who said that members of many different religions “succumb to terrorist ideologies.” McDonough said this in an address given on March 6 at the Islamic ADAMS Center in Sterling, Virginia.
With his remarks at the headquarters of this Muslim organization, McDonough proved that he simply refuses to recognize reality concerning radical Islam and is even willing to minimize that threat by pretending that all religions contain “terrorists.”
“For example,” McDonough said, “we know there are many different reasons why individuals — from many different faiths — succumb to terrorist ideologies.”
Obviously this is an idiotic contention. No Christians are perpetrating acts of terror throughout the world. No Hindus are blowing up trains in Spain. No Jews are fostering suicide bombings in England or the United States. No Buddhists have flown jetliners into high-rise buildings. Islam is responsible for the bulk of the world’s acts of terror. To use such rhetorical conventions is dangerous because it disarms us from the real threat…
Read the entire article at Emerging Corruption!
Update 3: Video–17 Minutes of Bird’s Eye Terror From a NYPD Chopper on 9/11/2001 via Weasel Zippers.
