“Our real enemy is not Islam or Muslims,’’ Rauf said. “The enemy is extremism and radicalism and radical ideology.’’
The chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, Representative Peter King, has said that affiliates of Al Qaeda are radicalizing some American Muslims. King plans hearings starting Thursday on the threat he says they pose.
King, a Republican from Long Island, told CNN’s “State of the Union’’ yesterday that he sees an international movement with elements in the United States of Muslims becoming more radical and identifying with terrorists.
“The overwhelming majority of Muslims are outstanding Americans, but at this stage in our history there’s an effort . . . to radicalize elements within the Muslim community,’’ King said in the interview. “It’s there and that’s where the threat is coming from at this time.’’
“I don’t believe there is sufficient cooperation’’ by American Muslims with law enforcement, King said. “Certainly my dealings with the police in New York and FBI and others say they do not believe they get the same — they do not give the level of cooperation that they need.’’
Speakers at the cold and drizzly Times Square rally said King was targeting Muslims unfairly.
“American Muslims are as fully American as any other faith community,’’ said Rabbi Marc Schneier, founder of the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding.
The White House yesterday praised American Muslims for helping fight violent extremism.
Denis McDonough, deputy national security adviser, speaking at an interfaith forum at a mosque in Sterling, Va., commended its members for taking “an unequivocal stand against terrorism.’’
“You’ve sent a message that those who perpetrate such horrific attacks do not represent you or your faith, and that they will not succeed in pitting believers of different faiths against one another,’’ McDonough said.
