Peter King Radicalization Hearings: Another Barrel of Monkeys?

Peter King Radicalization Hearings: Another Barrel of Monkeys?

Politico featured a story this week headlined “Muslim groups nervous about King hearings.” It went on to discuss Muslim apprehension regarding upcoming congressional hearings led by Rep. Peter King, R-NY, “on the threat posed by radical Islam in America.”

That phrase — “radical Islam” — is truly a marvel: a 14-karat, bulletproof, titanium shield for Islam itself, which, sorry guys and gals, is the source of all things we deem “radical” in Islam. “Islam is Islam and that’s it,” as Turkey’s Erdogan so memorably put it. But since we don’t want Islam to be “it,” we pretend and operate and make policy and even war based on some mythic radicalism of “twisted” or “hijacked” or “perverted” Islam.

If these King hearings turn out to be about the threat posed by “radical Islam” — and not about the threat posed by what is radical about Islam — “nervous” Muslim groups have nothing to worry about, and anti-jihad, anti-Shariah citizens have nothing to gain.

Hope I’m wrong, but it looks like any rational analysis of jihad or of Shariah is already off the table. Politico writes: “In a move that will come as a relief to Muslim leaders, King told Politico that he’s not planning to call as witnesses such Muslim community critics as the Investigative Project on Terrorism’s Steve Emerson and Jihad Watch’s Robert Spencer, who have large followings among conservatives but are viewed as antagonists by many Muslims.”

Let’s break this revelation down. It may be smoothly packaged, but it is utterly mind-boggling.

Read the rest here.

You May Have Missed This On the News Reports

I know this has been all over the news casts already, but just in case you missed it:

Israel reports discovery of arms cache on board Gaza aid ship

Israeli security forces have reported finding a weapons cache on board the Turkish-flagged merchant vessel in which around 10 pro-Palestinian civilian activists were killed during a boarding operation by Israel Navy (IN) commandos.

The deaths occurred during close-quarter fighting between individuals travelling in the Mavi Marmara – one of six vessels in a convoy that attempted to break the Israeli blockade of Gaza on 31 May – and members of the Flotilla 13 (Shayetet) naval special forces unit.

Later that day the ship was brought into the Israeli port of Ashdod, where searchers found "a supply of weapons including knives, Molotov cocktails, detonators, wood and metal clubs, slingshots and rocks, large hammers and sharp metal objects", according to the Israel Defence Force (IDF). "In addition gas masks were found, pointing to the
prior intention of the ship's passengers to use violence against IDF soldiers who would then be forced to use riot dispersal methods."

Mavi Marmara was the largest vessel in the convoy that left Cyprus on 30 May carrying 10,000 tons of humanitarian supplies to the Gaza Strip, which has been under Israeli blockade since the Islamist Hamas movement seized power in the 25 mile-long territory in 2007.

"Programs--Get cher programs--"

"Ya can't tell the players without a program...:

FOUNDATION FOR HUMAN RIGHTS AND FREEDOM AND HUMANITARIAN RELIEF (IHH)

The Foundation for Human Rights and Freedom and Humanitarian Relief was established in Turkey in 1992 by a member of the Turkish Refah Party, and was formally registered in Istanbul three years later. Better known by its Turkish name
(Insani Yardim Vakfi) and acronym (IHH), the Foundation's initial mission was to supply aid to Bosnian Muslims during their conflict with Christian Serbs in the Yugoslavian civil war. To this day, IHH continues to send aid to distressed areas throughout the Middle East – in the form of food, medicine, vocational education, and the construction of schools, hospitals, medical clinics, and mosques.

According to Reuters, IHH “has been involved in aid missions in Pakistan, Ethiopia, Lebanon, Indonesia, Iraq, Palestinian territories and other places.” In recent years, IHH has also established branch offices in a number of European countries.

While IHH is involved in the foregoing humanitarian activities, its overall objectives are much broader. Belying the dove of peace whose image appears on its logo, IHH overtly supports Hamas, is sympathetic to al Qaeda, and maintained regular contact with al Qaeda cells and the Sunni insurgency during the bloodiest stretches of the Iraq War. IHH has supported jihadist terror networks not only in Iraq, but also in Bosnia, Syria, Afghanistan, and Chechnya. According to Carnegie Endowment analyst Henri Barkey, IHH is “an Islamist organization” that “has been deeply involved with Hamas for some time.” A 2006 report by the Danish Institute for International Studies characterized IHH as one of many “charitable front groups that provide support to Al-Qaida” and the global jihad.

/snip

In early 2010, IHH collaborated with the Free Gaza Movement to organize a six-ship flotilla of Muslim and anti-Israel activists who would sail to Gaza for the purpose of breaking Israel's naval blockade (which had been established to prevent Hamas from importing weaponry from Iran and other allies abroad). On April 7, 2010, IHH leader Bülent Yildirim had told a press conference in Istanbul that the forthcoming flotilla would represent a “test” for Israel. He warned that Israeli opposition to the initiative would be viewed as “a declaration of war” against the countries whose activists were aboard the ships.

The flotilla embarked on its journey toward Gaza in late May of 2010. For several days, Israel issued warnings that the ships would not be permitted to reach Gaza without first submitting to an inspection of their cargoes. But the crews of the vessels refused to comply; thus Israeli commandos intercepted the flotilla in the early morning hours of May 31. The IHH-affiliated activists responded violently, attacking the commandos with knives, clubs and pistol fire. In the melee that ensued, nine
activists were killed and seven Israeli soldiers were wounded.