from the IL GOP
Senator Dick Durbin hasn’t even started his public hearing on Muslim civil rights today and already it is making headlines. Unfortunately the real story isn’t being reported by the mainstream press.
Durbin, who is invoking the Founding Fathers, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights in what he billing as a hearing to highlight intolerance and bigotry of Islamic Americans, has a glaring credibility gap on the subject.
U.S. Congressman Peter King held a hearing on the dangers of Islamic radicalization three weeks ago and was roundly criticized by the mainstream media - which went out of their way to put King’s hearing and all of its claims under a microscope and discredit it as a “targeting” Muslim Americans.
Durbin’s hearing, conspicuously held three weeks after King’s hearing, reeks of a political agenda and, coupled with Durbin’s history of poor judgment on Islamic issues and the shady cast of characters appearing at the hearing, yet he is getting a free pass by the media.
Fortunately, there has been some good reporting on the real nature of the hearing and the Washington Times has followed Durbin’s extremely questionable history trying to pander to a religious community.
Illinois Republican Party Chairman Pat Brady has 10 questions for Senator Durbin that are not being asked by the media, but must be in light of the facts:
1. You said these hearings were needed due to “a spike in anti-Muslim bigotry in the last year including Quran burnings, restrictions on mosque construction, hate crimes, hate speech, and other forms of discrimination,” yet there is no data to back that up. In fact, hate crimes against Muslims have remained steady for several years. What are you basing this statement on?
2. When you visited a mosque in Bridgeview earlier this year, the photograph that you appear in shows you, according to Steven Emerson of the Investigative Project on Terrorism, with 6 people with ties to Hamas and 4 people who have made statements endorsing the killing of Jews. Do you acknowledge that you should use better discretion when doing photo ops?
3. Are you aware of one of your key “witnesses” at your hearing today, Farhana Khera, has a history of discouraging Muslim Americans to cooperate with law enforcement, including an imam who aided a suspected suicide bomber?
4. In 2003, you wrote a letter that raised serious concerns about CAIR (Council on American-Islamic relations). As recently as 2009, your said that CAIR “advances a greater understanding of Muslim culture and serves as essential thread in the multi-cultural fabric of our nation.” What prompted the change of heart and do you acknowledge that CAIR has discernable ties to Hamas?
5. You posed for a photograph with several members of the Mosque Foundation. This organization also has documented ties to extreme Islamic organizations including Hamas. Do you acknowledge these ties and renounce the actions of the Mosque Foundation?
6. Another one of your witnesses today at the hearing is Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, who is a “prominent participant in interfaith dialogues manipulated by the large Muslim Brotherhood front in the United States, the Islamic Society of North America,” according to Frank Gaffney of the Washington Times. Do you share Gaffney concerns that McCarrick has such strong ties to the Muslim Brotherhood?
7. Do you support National Counterterrorism Center Director Michael Leiter, who recently said that “Al Jazeera was his favorite television station, radical Islam was only a nuisance, a tiny problem, and that Islamaphobia was the biggest problem we faced?”
8. Do you believe that, during this time of turmoil in the Middle East, specifically in Egypt where the Muslim Brotherhood may rise to power, that the American public should be educated on the dangers of radical Islam in the world?
9. Do you believe there is a greater danger from radical Islam in America or the potential civil liberty violations that accompany pursuing radical Islamists in America?
10. Do you support Obama’s statement last night that he wants to depose Qaddafi but does not want regime change in Libya?
