U.S. Rep. Peter King was only 13 when Sen. Joseph McCarthy died.
I was hoping to discover King had been born soon after McCarthy’s death, which would set up some sort of witty reincarnation remark. Maybe he looked up to McCarthy growing up — his current actions make it seem like he did.
For those of you who don’t know, King, the 67-year-old congressman from New York’s 3rd Congressional District, has recently been pushing for hearings to discuss the radicalization of Muslim communities in America.
What, you might ask, is King’s reasoning? Apparently, Muslim communities simply aren’t doing enough to combat the threat of homegrown terrorism.
With King’s new position as chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security, he seems to see this issue as one of the most important ones our nation has to deal with.
Thus, on March 10, said committee held the creatively named “The Extent of Radicalization in the American Muslim Community and that Community’s Response” meeting.
The meeting was largely what many people expected — politicians split by a partisan divide. It seemed like no one was there to have their views changed.
Of course, while many people’s description of King’s hearings as a revival of McCarthyism might not be too true, there are certainly many similarities.
Just as McCarthy accused people of being communists working to take the country down, King is now accusing community leaders of letting extremism go unhindered.
Unlike McCarthy, however, King does not have a magical briefcase full of “evidence” to back these claims.
Although no one has, and probably will not, lose their jobs because of being baselessly accused, this sort of witch-hunt has many social ramifications.
Let’s get this out of the way first: If this action was done to any sort of Christian group, the outcry from the right would be deafening. In fact, the only reason these kinds of hearings can take place right now is because people of the Islamic faith are still largely seen as a sort of boogeyman in our country.
As much as some might like to delude themselves into thinking this is a fight against the spread of “political correctness,” this is simply capitalizing on the still ever-present fear of something perceived as different and evil.
For McCarthy, it was communism. For King, it’s Islam.
Don’t think what I’ve said so far makes me a champion for political correctness, by the way. I think the extent some people want to take this is ridiculous.
Focusing our sights on solely one group is ineffectual (to say the least), and making an entire community responsible for one member’s actions is insane. A typical Muslim American family has just as much control on extremism as I do on what you, the reader, do this weekend.
To further build on the ridiculousness of King’s charges, a quick look at his past shows his defense of a group of terrorists — the Irish Republican Army.
Several times throughout his political career he has defended their actions, even going so far as stating the civilian deaths caused by their actions may be “certainly regrettable, but I will not morally blame the IRA for it.”
I guess what makes the IRA OK is the simple fact that these are Catholic home grown terrorists, and not evil Muslim terrorists.
With all that said, we must be on the lookout for terrorist organizations here at home. It is one of the most persistent threats in our day and age, and we simply can’t let our guard down.
However, it does not give us an excuse to single out certain groups of people unconditionally. If we focus solely on finding Muslim extremists, we blind ourselves to those from other sources.
Though we don’t like admitting it, many groups out there hate us.
Zachary Davis is a 20-year-old history junior from Warsaw, Poland. Follow him on Twitter @TDR_zdavis.
 
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Contact Zachary Davis at [email protected]