Widgetized Section
Go to Admin » Appearance » Widgets » and move Gabfire Widget: Social into that MastheadOverlay zone
Bigot Slayer Rep. Keith Ellison Tears Apart House GOP Bigot’s Call for Muslim Profiling
After Republican Peter King called for Muslims to be religiously profiled, Rep. Keith Ellison shredded King’s claim that Muslims are the source of the terror threat against America.
Video:
Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Transcript from Meet The Press:
GREGORY: Let’s talk about the surveillance within the Muslim community. That’s partly what you were talking about this week, Congressman King. you said this in the National Review and this is how they reported it, police have to be in the community. They have to build up as many sources as they can. And they have to realize that the threat is coming from the muslim community and increase surveillance there. We can’t be bound by political correctness.
REP. KING: Absolutely. The nypd is doing in New York with 1,000 police officers focusing on this issue, knowing where the threat is coming from. Now most Muslims are outstanding people but the threat is coming from the Muslim community. Yesterday Tom Friedman who is certainly no conservative, said we must ask the question only Muslims can answer. What is going on in your community that a review of your youth believes every military action in the Middle East justifies a violent response? It’s coming from the community. And in previous times when had certain elements in the community are the ones responsible to crime, the police focused on it. For instance in Boston the FBI never spoke to the Boston Police about the older brother. And afterwards there was no intelligence files in boston on these types of people, people inclined to terrorism. The FBI never even got to examining him.
GREGORY: Congressman, you’re a Muslim. This concerns you on civil libertarian grounds and other areas.
REP> ELLISON: Well, I’m an American, and I’m concerned about national safety, public safety, just like everyone is. But I think it’s ineffective law enforcement to go after a particular community. I think what we need to do is look at behavior and follow those leads where they would lead. So, like if Tamerlan Tsarnaev is evidencing dangerous behavior, by all means, go after him. But once you start saying we’re going to dragnet or surveil a community, what you do is you ignore dangerous threats that are not in that community and you go after people who don’t have anything to do with it. And so let me just finish up with this one point. and so this ricin attack, for example, that’s an act of terrorism. That doesn’t come out of the Muslim community. We don’t have enough law enforcement resources to just go after one community and, remember, we went after a community in World War II. The Japanese internment is a national stain on our country, and we are still apologizing for it.
Rep. Ellison was correct. The statistics as of April 2012 tell us that 56% of domestic terror threats came from right wing extremists. Just 12% of domestic terror threats came from Muslim extremists. It would be bad public policy, and a waste of resources to devote law enforcement to going after Muslims.
Rep. King wasn’t interested in what was good policy. He was trying to score political points with those in the Republican rank and file, who believe that Muslims are responsible for all terrorism. Rep. Ellison pretty much destroyed that argument by bringing up the recent ricin letter sender. As usual, Republicans like Peter King claim to be the protectors of civil liberties, while trying to away the civil liberties of others.
Rep. Ellison was well prepared for King’s bigotry based call for the profiling and spying on of all Muslims. It is interesting to note that King was calling for would likely make America less safe by applying our resources to where the majority of the threat isn’t.
Keith Ellison easily poked holes in the bigotry that Peter King was selling, but their exchange was a reminder that the right’s trampling of individual liberties didn’t end when George W. Bush left office.
The Meet Press segment was another example of a Republican trying to wave the flag while planning to take away freedoms, while a Democrat stood up for civil liberties.
It is impossible to understand why any true freedom loving American would ever vote Republican.
Related Posts :
Finding out the identity of the 47% videographer was nice, but Scott Prouty's real contribution is that ...
The Obama White House rebuked the war on terror by confirming that Boston bombing suspect Dzhokhar A. Ts ...
In a blistering special comment on his MSNBC program Countdown, Keith Olbermann dispelled the hysteria a ...
Some people thought the UC Davis students who were pepper soaked had it coming. They should have moved. T ...
Amy Myers was on MSNBC’s The Last Word where she showed the world why Rep. Michele Bachmann is afraid ...
32 Responses to Bigot Slayer Rep. Keith Ellison Tears Apart House GOP Bigot’s Call for Muslim Profiling
Public Service Advertisements
celia
Apr. 28th, 2013 at 8:54 pm
It only takes a background check to take their liberties away.
Darrell West
Apr. 28th, 2013 at 8:57 pm
What do these Tea Party and Fox News have against the Muslim the first place.They are they are trying to started a war aganst religious
Sally
Apr. 29th, 2013 at 6:39 am
They think every black person is America is a secret Muslim. Therefore, our President is Muslim. Surveil (I love that word!) Muslims, blame Muslims for every wrong, and golly, you can start watching the Preisdent, blaming the President for terror at home, and take ALL the focus off the NRA, the KKK, any anti-abortion white guy calling for the murder of abortion clinic workers..and just focus on the black folks. Pretty sinister really, but that is today’s GOP.
ibwilliamsi
Apr. 29th, 2013 at 1:14 pm
I think that they are trying to deflect from the obvious fact that most crimes are committed by WASPs. “Everyone worry about the Muslims, that way you won’t notice all the white men stealing from you!”
cindy
Apr. 28th, 2013 at 9:10 pm
Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
djchefron(Moderator)
Apr. 28th, 2013 at 9:20 pm
Then with your logic the roman catholic church,southern baptist and any orthodox religion is a form of terrorism against women.Be careful when you try to have a argument that your god is a bigger dick than my god
Shiva
Apr. 28th, 2013 at 9:34 pm
I am not sure what her point is. 12% of terrorist acts here are muslim. 56% is right wing nut jobs.
Reynardine
Apr. 28th, 2013 at 9:44 pm
Ah, she’s just puking up Geller/Spencer talking points in whatever order they gave her on the cheat sheet. After a while, this stuff gets boringly familiar.
djchefron(Moderator)
Apr. 28th, 2013 at 9:55 pm
Hatred and ignorance.A terrible way to go through life.
Nefer
Apr. 29th, 2013 at 7:46 am
“…but you better not be a Moslem woman, If you are your testamony in court is only worth half a man’s. YOU will get half of what your brother will inherit,you have very little right to divorce and if you are god forbid raped you will need 4 MALE witnesses to prove it. …”
Wrong. These things happen if you are a citizen of a country that has such laws. None of that is true (other than inheritance and good Christian parents can do the same thing to their children) for a Muslim woman living in the United States.
None of what you are saying addresses the point of the article.
ibwilliamsi
Apr. 29th, 2013 at 1:20 pm
What’s your point?
1) You don’t live in Saudi Arabia, so Islam (not Moslem) doesn’t affact you at all;
2) 19 Saudi Muslim men in the US illegally killed nearly 3,000 people almost 12 years ago;
3) In 2012 in the United States 31,000 people were killed by Christian US Citizens with guns that started out as legal weapons.
Again. Other than that you are a woefully uninformed bigot, what’s your point ?
ibwilliamsi
Apr. 29th, 2013 at 1:24 pm
I’d like to suggest that you try facts. They’re a bit much for a lightweight to begin with, but they ARE real.
projects.wsj.com/murderda...
God doesn’t hate anyone, but I’m pretty sure God is ashamed of people who think like you.
robyn ryan
May. 7th, 2013 at 10:44 pm
You don’t get to tell God who God hates. God hates that.
Shiva
Apr. 28th, 2013 at 9:32 pm
How can they vote republican? All of the people on my facebook from michigan hate dems, even though they complain about the right to work state. Republicans could care less who they vote for as long as they are republicans. They don’t care about others rights or anything else
They care about themselves
Sally
Apr. 29th, 2013 at 6:42 am
I am a liberal from Michigan, and I avoid FB like the plague it is. I got into a discussion with my Ohio sister and my Texas niece a year or so ago about the ACA, and all of a sudden I was being attacked by ‘friends of friends’ and being called vile names. That was it. Done with FB. So don’t believe every Michiganian is for Snyder and against dems. Remember, this state supported Obama twice, and both our Senators are Dem.
Shiva
Apr. 29th, 2013 at 7:47 am
Nope, I only refer to my former coworkers on FB that liver in Michigan. My family lives there too. In fact I lived there for 50 years. But that was back when most of Michigan had some sense
knight4444
Apr. 29th, 2013 at 2:20 pm
BTW, Michigan will vote democrat in 2016! I guarantee it! just because the corporate media took liberal radio completely off the air in the metro Detroit area doesn’t mean we quit!! Snyder is dog food next election!!
Dirk Bentwood
Apr. 28th, 2013 at 11:37 pm
Ellison himself denies that he was ever a member of the NOI,[6] then as now under the leadership of Louis Farrakhan, an anti-white, anti-Semitic, anti-establishment demagogue.[7] In a letter sent in May during the 2006 congressional campaign to the Minnesota Jewish Community Relations Council, Ellison claimed that his association with the NOI had lasted for only eighteen months about the time of the Million Man March in 1995.[8] However, there are problems with this assertion.
On the death of NOI founder Elijah Muhammad, his son Warith Deen Muhammad inherited the movement only to transform it soon after into a new group based on authentic Sunni Islamic principles (later, the American Society of Muslims). Louis Farrakhan remained with Warith Deen Muhammad’s organization for a few years, only to break away in order to reestablish the original Nation of Islam in 1978. The NOI was widely condemned within the orthodox Muslim community, more here www.meforum.org/2756/keit...
jason
Apr. 29th, 2013 at 7:25 am
What ELSE are the voices telling you?
ibwilliamsi
Apr. 29th, 2013 at 1:26 pm
Did you ever notice how people like “Dirk Bentwood” who post these grotesque lists of misinformation always have screen-names that imply that they have an over fascination with their penis?
knight4444
Apr. 29th, 2013 at 3:54 pm
@dirk, be honest are you really michelle bachmann?? because you sound crazier than bat girl! BTW, ”dirk” that’s a real contemporary name if I’ve ever heard one.
Shiva
Apr. 29th, 2013 at 4:11 pm
There was a guy on Battleship Galacta named Dirk.
j
Apr. 29th, 2013 at 8:48 am
Gregory said to Keith Ellison – Congressman you are a moslem —
The next sentence should have been , when addressing
King – Congressman you were a known terrorist and member of the IRA.
Does anyone have the guts to address this?
Sandra
Apr. 29th, 2013 at 10:54 am
But, but Peter King’s excuse for supporting and collectin $$$ for the IRA was that the IRA has never attacked Amurica. In his thinking he was not supporting a terrorist organizaiton. Guess they are only terrorist when they attack America. The interviewer should have asked him about the terrorist attacks America inflicts on other countries?
sherriww
Apr. 29th, 2013 at 9:45 am
Rep.Ellison is a good man,and a pretty sensible fellow.His being Muslim has nothing to do with anything! As has been stated here,there are actually far more radicals and troublemakers,among the Republican”right wing extremes”,and some of our Sitting* U.S. congress and senate members,if anybody bothers to actually LISTEN,to what they say,sometimes daily,would have to know that we the voters,have elected several people to “MAKE LAWS FOR ALL OF US”,Who are extreme to the point we used to call”insanity!” IF ANY OF US, stood on the street corner and said the crazy things some in congress say every day,police would be called to take us to a mental ward for evaluation! VOTE THESE PEOPLE OUT IN 2014 if you want OUR America back again,because its obvious that the”normal”Republicans in office are too “scared of these few to help fix the country,so THEY need to be voted out as well.It is the ONLY way,evidently,for us to return the U.S.A. to a place of prosperity for normal citizens!
John Casey
Apr. 29th, 2013 at 9:55 am
So long as a country on one hand is invading Muslim countries, usually without UK approval, and then on the other hand allow people from the same countries you are invading to enter your country, did you honestly expect not to have terrorist activity? Why during many previous wars were, for example, US citizens of Japanese descent put in prison if the US was at war with Japan? Has something changed in 50 years? It is no longer about the safety of US citizens or that practice would still be in place and all Muslims would be in prison. Fact is the new government wants to mention terrorist and have terrorism in its citizens heads at all times. Why else do you think they were so concerned about when and if Obama calls a situation a terrorist activity? Doesn’t change the act. What defines a terrorist activity vs. one that is not? The weapon used? The number of Victims? The nationality of the attacker?
Sugapea
Apr. 29th, 2013 at 11:19 am
Spot-On, John!
Republican’s wonder…”Why are Muslims attacking us”?????
It is we, America, who has been and is attacking and killing those in the Muslim countries! For their precious OIL! We are creating these monsters.
Bush/Cheney disturbed a hornets nest…and we are seeing the result of those actions!
Kevin Shinn
Apr. 29th, 2013 at 10:23 am
The old ways are best. We should be profiling sour-pussed surly teenagers, exclusively.
Nancy Alborell
Apr. 29th, 2013 at 10:33 am
The vast proportion of Muslims have come to America to escape the chaos in their former countries. They are predominately moderate in their religious views and are just as horrified as other Americans by the terrorism that stains their religion.
People who condemn Muslim Americans and immigrants are ignorant of the fact that Muslims have been here for generations, living quietly, contributing to our communities and fighting in our wars. Just visit Arlington if you don’t believe it. The only truth to the religious factor in terrorism is that it sometimes comes from the small percentage who follow a warped version of Islam. Of course, that also applies to people who follow a warped, hateful version of Christianity.
knight4444
Apr. 29th, 2013 at 2:11 pm
It’s the 21st century and the GOP is doing it’s damnist to keep us segregated and fearful of anything other than WHITE- REPUBLICAN- MALES!!! Pete King is the mouth piece of the kkk and other white hate groups!! But tell the typical republican their leadership is a racist nest of angry white guys and they get upset at you!! How can these people listen to King and ignore his racism????
majii
Apr. 29th, 2013 at 9:35 pm
Easy, knight4444, they always think he’s talking about “those other people.” This allows them to feel justified in targeting others, whom they view as “not one of us.” The biggest scam Romney ran on republican voters in 2012 was making them believe that large numbers of them weren’t among the 47% of Americans he identified as “takers,” when they are. Go to any grocery store in the country and notice who uses an EBT card to purchase groceries. It’s not only People of Color whipping out those cards, not based on what I’ve seen, and it’s not only POC who use WIC, either.
knight4444
Apr. 30th, 2013 at 9:03 am
Thanks you my brother! I jokingly call republicans ”idiots” but in all honesty most of them can’t think outside the box to save their souls!! Their brains are wired for knee jerk, fear based, black and white solutions! theres no shades of gray or nuance with these people.