As a House committee prepares to turn the spotlight on Al Qaeda’s efforts to radicalize Muslims in America, the White House issued a public plea Sunday to focus on the American Muslim community’s support for anti-terrorism efforts and to avoid stigmatizing law-abiding followers of Islam.
“We must resolve that, in our determination to protect our nation, we will not stigmatize or demonize entire communities because of the actions of a few,” Deputy National Security Adviser Denis McDonough told a crowd gathered in a gymnasium and prayer room at a mosque in northern Virginia.
“In the United States of America, we don’t practice guilt by association. And let’s remember that just as violence and extremism are not unique to any one faith, the responsibility to oppose ignorance and violence rests with each of us. “
The hearings, set to begin Thursday at the call of House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Peter King (R-N.Y.), have caused widespread concern among Muslim civil rights groups, civil liberties organizations and interfaith groups — many of whom have urged King to broaden the focus of the hearings beyond Muslims to include environmental terrorists and neo-Nazi groups. He has declined, saying those threats simply aren’t on a par with Al-Qaeda-inspired radical Islam.
Some of McDonough’s speech to the largely Muslim audience of about 150 at the All Dulles American Muslim Society seemed to underscore the complaints of critics who claim King is singling out Muslims for criticism.
“Instead of condemning whole communities, we need to join with those communities to help them protect themselves,” McDonough declared. “Efforts to protect communities against violent extremists must be led by those communities. Indeed, we’re fortunate that Muslim Americans, including organizations represented here today, have taken unequivocal stands against terrorism. … Many of the incidents and arrests that do make headlines are because of the good citizenship and patriotism of Muslim Americans who noticed something and spoke up.”
After McDonough’s remarks Sunday, King said he agreed with much of what the top White House official said and detected no attempt to oppose his hearings.
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“I support his speech. I welcome it,” King told POLITICO on Sunday night. “By making a speech like that, not making one word of criticism about the hearings, to me speaks volumes. He had every opportunity to criticize our hearings and didn’t.”
After the speech, McDonough initially rebuffed reporters’ questions about whether his remarks were directed in any way at King or his planned hearings. However, after being pressed by journalists, the White House official offered what could be interpreted as a couched endorsement of the hearings, at least in principle.
“We welcome congressional involvement in the issue. It’s a very important issue,” McDonough said, without elaborating.
While the thrust of McDonough’s remarks seemed aimed at declaring common cause with the Muslim community, the White House official was also careful not to minimize the dangers posed by efforts to radicalize Muslims inside the United States. He also managed to announce, in advance of King’s hearings, that the administration will soon roll out a comprehensive plan aimed at combating the radicalization effort.
“This threat is real, and it is serious,” McDonough declared. He said the administration planned “in the coming weeks” to announce the results of more than a year’s work by an interagency panel he headed to draft a strategy to tackle the problem of Al Qaeda and similar groups inspiring Americans to carry out attacks.
In his remarks, McDonough shied away from using the term “Islamic radicalization,” but he left no doubt that the threat the White House has been focusing on stems from groups that assert to be Islamic and which look largely to Muslims for recruits.
King said he viewed the speech as an endorsement of his decision to focus his hearings on radicalization in the Muslim community. “Everyone’s saying I should expand the hearing to include people other than Muslims, but, in his speech, he says Al Qaeda is recruiting people,” King said. “Denis McDonough didn’t mention anyone else today except Muslims. … It’s the reality.”
Muslims leaders who helped organize Sunday’s event said they had no objection in principle to governmental efforts aimed specifically at addressing the threat of radicalization in the Muslim community. Several of them endorsed in broad terms the effort the administration is making to do that, but they said they feared that King’s inquiry would not be as inclusive toward Muslims.
“Look at what was said today about partnership with the American Muslim community and statements that have been made by Congressman King prior. … that say that Muslims don’t work with law enforcement,” said Rizwan Jaka, the emcee for Sunday’s event. “There’s a different approach. Either partnership or you know a kind of separation, and we believe in the partnership approach.”
With King, Jaka said, “There’s a little bit of a marginalization approach.”
“Our message is, when a hearing takes place it should not single out a community by putting a stigma about them and painting them as a community that has a threat,” said Mohamed Magid, president of the Islamic Society of North America.
“One ought to come and mix with the community to collect information before a person has hearing about them.”
King insisted those criticisms were misplaced and said he would have two Muslims as witnesses at the opening hearing Thursday. “I’m not demonizing Muslims,” he said.
While McDonough highlighted cases in which American Muslims tipped off the authorities to terrorism plots, he did not speak about instances where members of the Muslim community have failed to share such information with authorities, nor did he refer to episodes where some community leaders have actively encouraged Muslims not to cooperate with the FBI.
Immediately after referring to “community partnerships” that had help thwart plots, McDonough mentioned several cases, including that of Najibullah Zazi, a Denver Airport shuttle driver who pleaded guilty to conspiring to bomb the New York City subway. Authorities say a New York City imam who police thought was helping them, Ahmad Afzali, actually informed Zazi that he was under surveillance. Afzali pled guilty to lying to authorities and agreed to be deported, though he contended he didn’t intend to help the plotters.
King said the Zazi example was a poor one for McDonough to cite. “Zazi was not a cooperation case,” King said. “If anything, it shows a lack of cooperation.”
Mosque officials said they had been working for months to arrange some address by a White House official. However, one leader local mosque leaders were told of the final date for McDonough’s speech was set only on Wednesday, four days in advance. King said he got a call from McDonough on Friday, offering a heads up about the planned address.
While promoters described the event as a town-hall style meeting, there was no public back-and-forth between the audience and McDonough on the sensitive issues he raised. However, Muslim, Christian and Jewish leaders addressed the crowd briefly before the White House aide spoke.
Organizers of McDonough’s appearance pulled out all the stops to underscore the message that Muslims are patriotic Americans.
A Boy Scout color guard posted the American flag as the event began and the audience was led in the pledge of allegiance. Mosque leaders publicly saluted Muslim community members who serve in law enforcement or in the military. In his remarks, McDonough noted that some local Muslims have died in combat. One had his funeral in the same space where Sunday’s event took place, an organizer said.
