The threat of homegrown terror is real, as the terrorist attack at Fort Hood, Texas vividly illustrated. Today the House Committee on Homeland Security, under the chairmanship of Congressman Peter King (R-NY), held a critically important hearing on “The Extent of Radicalization in the American Muslim Community and that Community’s Response.” Predictably, the liberal media is up in arms condemning the hearing and politically correct liberal groups have likened it to modern-day McCarthyism.
Congressman King should be commended for shedding light on the emergence of radical Islam in America. He is taking a bold stand to turn the spotlight on how homegrown terror has become a top security threat facing America. Fortunately, the American people understand the necessity of focusing on this most critical issue. A new Gallup poll out this week shows that 52 percent of Americans side with Congressman King and his hearings on homegrown radical Islamism.
Citizens United Productions has produced a hard-hitting documentary called America at Risk: The War with No Name hosted by Newt and Callista Gingrich that examines radical Islam and the threat of homegrown terror. One of the cast members in America at Risk, Dr. M. Zuhdi Jasser, the president and founder of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy, was a key witness in Congressman King’s important hearing. Dr. Jasser said at the hearing today, “The course of Muslim radicalization in the United States over the past two years makes it exceedingly difficult for anyone to assert with a straight face that in America we Muslims do not have a radicalization problem.” Dr. Jasser’s eye-opening statement should put the nation on notice; the radical Islam threat is real and cannot be left unchecked.
President Obama continues to refuse to tell the truth about radical Islam. Under his administration, the Global War on Terror has been renamed the “Overseas Contingency Operation.” They have removed the words “Islamic extremism” and “jihad” from national security strategy documents. Further, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano has suggested we replace the word “terrorism” with the more benign phrase “man-caused disasters.” In America at Risk, Dr. Jasser asks, “How do you fight an enemy that you can’t even say?” Unfortunately, radical Islam has taken root in America and the Obama administration will not even acknowledge it.
Army Major Nidal Malik Hasan, an American-born Muslim, killed 13 American soldiers (one pregnant) and wounded 32 others in the fall of 2009 at Fort Hood. Eyewitnesses reported hearing Hasan shout “Allahu Akbar!” while on his rampage and the ensuing investigation revealed that Hasan was radicalized by known terrorist and American citizen Anwar al-Awalaki, who holds dual citizenship in the United States and Yemen. Al-Awalaki is one of the most dangerous people in the world.
The evidence is overwhelming that Hasan was motivated to commit mass murder because of his allegiance to radical Islam, but the Obama administration will not state this truth. As is noted in America at Risk, the after-action report on the Fort Hood shootings failed to mention the words “Islam,” “Muslim,” “Muslim Brotherhood,” “Sharia,” “Jihad,” or “Islamic terrorism.”
Between September 11, 2001, and the end of 2009, the U.S. government reported forty-six incidents of “domestic radicalization and recruitment to jihadist terrorism” that involved at least 125 people, according to a May 2010 Rand Corporation report (PDF). We are at war with an enemy that is patient and will use any means necessary to strike us — even by radicalizing our own citizens. Congressman King’s hearing on this important national security issue should have happened years ago. Unfortunately, liberal Democrats in Congress and the Obama administration are beholden to political correctness, rather than keeping America safe.
David N. Bossie is the president of Citizens United and Citizens United Productions, and the executive producer of “America at Risk.”