Rep. Peter King Talks, But Imus Hears Only Certain Things

The newly-minted Chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, Rep. Peter King of New York, made headlines today because, according to Newsday, he clashed with Rep. Keith Ellison, a Democrat from Minnesota who is also Muslim, over his intention to hold hearings on the radicalization of Islam in America.
 
King was reluctant to address the issue, having not yet read the article, leading Imus to wonder, “How many Muslim congressmen do you have disagreements with, over how many subjects?”
 
Point taken, King conceded the dust-up, or lack thereof, had been with Ellison, though from King’s perspective, there had been no disagreement. “After I announced the hearings on radicalization of Muslims, Keith…approached me on the House floor and said, ‘We have to talk,’” King recalled. “I thought maybe he was going to be upset, but he told me that, basically, he agreed with the hearing, he wanted to work with me, he agrees it’s a problem that has to be addressed.”
 
Happily surprised, King had offered to have Ellison testify alone to a special panel. “He said, ‘I trust you, you’ve always been straight with me,’” said King, who, out of respect for Ellison’s privacy, had not told anybody about the exchange. “Then I’m watching MSNBC a few nights later, amd he said he confronted me on the House floor, told me this was a bad idea.”
 
King promised Imus his version of events was the truth, but Imus seemed more concerned with an entirely separate matter. “You were watching MSNBC?” he asked his guest. “I can’t tell you how annoyed I am about that.”
 
Actually, King had only tuned in because a staffer called alerting him to Ellison’s comments. “I will go anywhere to hear people talk about me,” he said, sensing in Imus a kindred spirit.
 
King’s planned hearings will address Al-Qaeda’s recent attempts to recruit within the United States. “We saw that last year with Zazi, who was going to be the subway bomber; with Major Hasan at Ft. Hood; and Shahzad, the guy in Times Square last May,” King noted, adding,  “Because of that, it’s important we get full cooperation from the Muslim community, and I don’t believe that cooperation has been coming.”
 
Law enforcement agencies frequently tell King their investigations are thwarted by moderate Muslims, and moderate Muslim leaders, who are reluctant to provide assistance or information.
 
“They draw, basically, a wall around themselves,” King said, and told Imus he first noticed this phenomenon after 9/11, when otherwise rational members of a mosque near his Long Island, NY district supposed it could have been the Jews, or the CIA, or the FBI that carried out the attacks, and not Al-Qaeda.
 
“That started me thinking,” King admitted. “And since then, the more I follow it, the more I see that many people in the leadership community amongst Muslims don’t want to get involved, don’t want to cooperate.”
 
Again, Imus’s ears were perked not by the overall message of King’s response, but by the sentence, “that started me thinking,” which made Imus wonder when, exactly, the Congressman had stopped thinking.
 
“Probably when I decided to go on your show,” King said. Touché.
 
-Julie Kanfer