The media calls these Congressional hearings a "witch-hunt" similar to the days of the "red scare" when McCarthyism lead to Hollywood Blacklisting.
Luckily I was able to watch a portion of the hearings on my favorite reality show (C-SPAN). As a result I feel less frightened and more sympathetic towards American Muslims. I think we've come a long way as a country in the last 60-70 years in how we can discuss sensitive issues like this.
The Democrats were united in objecting every chance they got, saying that these hearings would only result in Islamophobia. They wanted the hearings to be fair and include all of the Christian terrorists groups as well. In fairness to them, I think they helped keep it civil by reminding everyone of the dangers in discussing such a sensitive subject.
The Republicans made the point that is was about time this hearing happened as there was no Congressional hearing on the Fort Hood shootings (which killed 13 people and injured 29) 2 years ago, though a hearing was held on Toxic FEMA Trailers which apparently had killed no one.
A Muslim witness also pointed out that the government report on the Fort Hood shootings made no mention of the radical Islamic motivation of the shooter[1]. He made the analogy that if you are trying to get rid of cancer, but are not allowed to mention it in any way, then you will have a hard time removing it. He said it is time to talk about the cancer.
I only watched a portion, but what I heard seemed fair minded and from what I could tell the millions of peace loving American Muslims outnumber the extremist American-hating Muslims.
There were many good sound bites, but my favorite was the Los Angeles County Sheriff talking about reading the Koran and sharing the true message of Islam :)
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