PETER KING’S STEADFAST COMMITMENT TO NATIONAL SECURITY
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Peter King’s Steadfast Commitment to National Security
Phil Orenstein
Some encouraging signs have emerged since November 2, that America may be heading in the right direction although the lame duck Congress has delivered a legislative blitz of irresponsible government spending and intrusion into our lives. Now that Republicans will be back in control of the House of Representatives come January, there is hope that the era of big government spending, soaring taxes, takeovers, fragile national security, and disregard of the U.S military will be history, if they stand upon their principles.
There were positive signs already in the lame duck Congress. First was the opening act of extending all the Bush tax cuts. Next, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid withdrew the massive $1.1 trillion pork laden stimulus bill, and then the Dream Act, which would have granted amnesty to millions of illegal aliens, was defeated in the Senate. Also, ObamaCare took a hit when a Virginia federal district judge ruled the mandate unconstitutional that forces all Americans to purchase health insurance.
One major improvement we can look forward to in the 112th Congress is the restoration of a strong commitment to national security since Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.) has been elected chairman of the Homeland Security Committee. We will have a fearless American leader in a position to reverse the past two year’s miserable record of failure to confront the threat of terrorism at home, appeasement of our enemies, hostility toward our allies, and neglect of our military and law enforcement communities.
We’ve had an administration that doesn’t admit we are involved in a war. Such common parlance as “terrorism” and the “war on terror” have been deleted from the lexicon replacing them with “man caused disasters” and “overseas contingency operations.” Eager diplomatic outreach with Iran’s mullahs and the most belligerent state sponsors of terrorism has become the norm. In his first hours as president, Obama planned to close Gitmo in opposition to the allegedly undignified treatment of enemy combatants. In the past two years we’ve seen political correctness – the overzealous concern that no one is offended – subdue us into silence and quash all discussion and debate on the most vital issues of national security and defense of America.
Courageous in the face of widespread politically correct smears and attacks, Peter King is set to hold congressional hearings on the radicalization of American Muslims early next year. In light of the recent wave of jihadist attacks on American soil, he is looking for the answers as to what is driving homegrown terrorism. Najibullah Zazi, arrested for a plot to bomb NYC subways, Times Square bomber, Faisal Shahzad, and Fort Hood murderer, Major Nidal Hasan were all U.S. citizens, recruited to work for al-Qaeda. Currently there is a heightened alert by U.S. counterterrorism officials tracking potential threats to U.S and Europe by al-Qaeda and allied terrorist groups including poisoning of food in U.S. hotels and restaurants.
There is much cause for alarm, but Rep. King is troubled that Muslim community leaders are not cooperating with law enforcement and refuse to face up to the fact that al-Qeada is actively recruiting Muslims living in America. For example, the Queens imam supposedly working with the FBI, tipped off Zazi and he almost got away. Muslim parents went to the FBI with concerns that their sons were being recruited to be suicide bombers in Somalia, but the imams instructed their members not to cooperate with law enforcement. King has now become the nationwide target of demonization by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and other Islamic organizations, as well as the media which have been incessantly blasting him as a “bigot,” “Islamophobe,” and “McCarthyite,” and will raise the volume as he holds the hearings next year.
However, the constant cry of Islamophobia is a bald-faced myth that is wearing thin. Wherever virulent anti-Islamic bigotry has reared its ugly head, it has been instantly stamped out by Jewish, Christian and secular groups. As hundreds of new mosques and a fast-growing outspoken Muslim minority have been steadily flourishing across America in safety and security since 2001, American Jews are far more likely to be the victims of hate crimes than Muslims or any other religious group. In fact, anti-Semitic hate crimes outnumbered crimes against Muslims by as much as 8 – 1, according to law enforcement data from 2009.
For a long time King has enjoyed a closer relationship with the Muslim community than almost any other elected official. He was honored by the Islamic Center of Long Island for his “support of the Muslim community in general” and his “advocacy of human rights in Bosnia and Kashmir,” and after 9/11, he vociferously defended the vast majority of Muslims in our country as loyal patriotic Americans.
King has at all times been a fair-minded, honest public official who is concerned about a mounting threat to our safety and security. By no means is he condemning all Muslims living in America. Those groups who dub him a “bigot” and “Islamophobe” are only shooting themselves in the foot. The fact is that a growing number of young Muslims living in America have been drawn to terrorism. The 2007 Pew poll reported that 13 percent of all U.S. Muslims and one quarter of young Muslims support suicide bombing to a greater or lesser extent. America should be grateful to King for bringing this issue to the forefront for candid discussion.
We are under siege by Muslim terrorists who are part of the global Islamic fundamentalist revival that was spawned in the Middle East early in the last century and has in recent decades of U.S. military presence in the Mideast viewed America as occupiers and interlopers on Islamic soil that must be vanquished, as chants of “Death to America” continue unabated. Today offshoots of this movement have infiltrated every corner of our society as everyone from our president, to our schools, textbooks, TV, film, press, government bureaucrats and electeds trip all over themselves to demonstrate their broadmindedness and acquiescence. It is vital for all who care about the security and protection of our nation and its citizens to stand with Rep. Peter King.
FamilySecurityMatters.orgContributor Phil Orenstein is a Republican County Committeeman from Queens, N.Y. and a manufacturing systems manager at Orics Industries Inc., NY. He blogs at Democracy-Project.com.
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