McCaul at Radicalization Hearing: "We have to look at the obvious"

AUDIO/VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8cYyrC2tEHk

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Congressman Michael McCaul (R-TX), Chairman of Homeland Security Oversight & Investigations, dismissed claims that congressional hearings on radicalization are based on the flawed assumption that religious belief is a precursor to terrorism.

"We have to look at the obvious, that there is a religious component to this," said Rep. McCaul, a former Chief of Counter-Terrorism in the U.S. Attorney's Office, during today's Homeland Security Committee hearing. "It doesn't reflect the vast majority of Muslims. I agree the vast majority are good, law abiding citizens. But there are those within the United States, the enemy within, that do want to do us harm and bring down this nation and kill our soldiers and kill innocent civilians."

Faiza Patel, Co-Director of the Liberty and National Security Program at the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law testified that the Committee’s recent hearings on radicalization do not rest on a firm factual basis. "They proceed from a premise – which is contrary to empirical evidence – that “radicalization” is prevalent among American Muslims and poses an existential threat to our country," Patel testified.

An estimated 2.7 million American Muslims live in the United States. According to the results of a 2011 Pew poll, 16% of American Muslims (440,000) had a favorable or only somewhat unfavorable view of Al Qaeda. Further, 13% of American Muslims (357,000) believed that suicide bombings or other violence against civilians, to defend Islam from its enemies, was often, sometimes or rarely justified.

"This is real," Rep. McCaul told Patel. "Talk to those families," he said, referring to the families of 13 U.S. Army soldiers killed at Fort Hood in November 2009. Major Nidal Hasan had exchanged emails with radical cleric Anwar al Awlaki, an al Qaeda leader in Yemen prior to opening fire on the base.

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