House Searching for Solution to Radical Islam

House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Rep. Peter T. King (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

The threat of a terrorist attack on U.S. soil has reached a level unseen since the 9/11 attacks. While military operations are scattering the core structure of the Taliban, terrorist groups are leveraging social media and the Internet to sway individuals toward their goals.

“The threat today may be at its most heightened state since the attacks nearly 10 years ago,” Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano told a House Homeland Security Committee on Feb. 9.

Under the current climate, the House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Rep. Peter T. King (R-N.Y.) is calling a hearing on the radicalization of U.S. Muslims, scheduled to start March 9.

“These hearings will be the first step to many and hopefully it will open the door to our Muslim community—not only to the organized Muslim community, but the unorganized ones that are at home,” said Dr. M. Zuhdi Jasser, president and founder of American Islamic Forum for Democracy, in a phone interview.

Jasser will testify before the House Homeland Security Committee during the hearing. As a devout Muslim himself, Jasser believes that radicalization in the Muslim community is rooted in the push for Islamic government. He hopes to raise a discussion on the separation of mosque and state.

The subject of the hearing is drawing some controversy, yet it ties into King’s stated goal “to break down the wall of political correctness and drive the public debate on Islamic radicalization,” which he wrote in a Dec. 17, 2010, Op-ed in Newsday. “These hearings will be a step in that direction. It’s what democracy is all about,” he said.

Much of the debate on the cause of terrorism has shifted to the fallout of U.S. operations in countries including Pakistan and Afghanistan.

While Jasser acknowledges that the operations may play a role in radical claims that the United States is fighting Islam, the problem runs deeper, as “we’ve been pulling out of these areas [according to] the verbiage from the administration, yet terrorism is increasing.”

According to Jasser, the approach being taken to tackle radicalization is missing the point.

“The problem is the separatism of the ideology of political Islam and its supremacy over Western society,” he said. “They view societies based in liberty, based in a republic or constitution as un-Islamic or anti-Islamic.”

The case of Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, who was charged with killing 13 people at Fort Hood, Texas, in November 2009, brought to light the rising threat of homegrown terrorists—American citizens who are swayed into acts of terror.

Jasser said that Hasan “didn’t wake up one day and just decide to kill 13 soldiers.” There was a radicalization process that took place, and there is currently no voice to counter what Hasan was told. He also cited a Pew Poll showing that 15 percent of Muslims between 18 and 29 believe suicide bombings are justified.

“To me, what I’m hoping these hearings will open up is a discussion about what is the pathology and how do we treat it,” he said.

Part of the spread of radical ideology can be attributed to the Internet, where materials and videos of extremists are readily available.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center (SWC) in Los Angeles recently released the 2011 edition of its annual Digital Terror and Hate Report. It states that there was a 12 percent increase of “problematic” sites, which it estimates total 14,000.

Among the problems found is, “The full range of Internet technologies have been harnessed by Islamist terrorists and their supporters, including the Yemen-based radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, to recruit and encourage ‘Lone Wolf’ terrorists,” states the Simon Wiesenthal Center website.

“It’s a growing problem and will continue to be for some time to come,” said Rick Eaton, senior researcher at the Simon Wiesenthal Center, in a phone interview.

In particular, the Internet is giving a forum for English-language materials. Many of them are subtle with recruitment, and begin by speaking on topics such as family, “but there’s that slight hint there that also leads them to more radical ideas. Most have a section on jihad,” Eaton said.

The radicalization process is similar to recruitment found in other extremist groups. He said that with skinheads, kids do not just wake up one day and decide to join. Rather, “someone was banging on his ear for a while” trying to sway the individual to accept their ideology.

“There are hundreds of millions of peaceful Muslims practicing their religion and there will always be individuals that are going to try to twist that,” Eaton said.