NYC rally planned against hearing on US Muslims
Published: Mar 6, 2011 23:44 Updated: Mar 6, 2011 23:44
NEW YORK: A coalition of over 100 interfaith, nonprofit and governmental organizations has planned to rally in New York City against a planned congressional hearing on Muslims’ role in homegrown terrorism.
The coalition said that Thursday’s hearing will send the wrong message to US Muslims by “demonizing” them.
The chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee said affiliates of Al-Qaeda are radicalizing some American Muslims and that he plans to hold hearings on the threat they pose to the United States.
US Rep. Peter King, a New York Republican, told CNN’s “State of the Union” that he sees an international movement with elements in the US of Muslims becoming more radical and identifying with terrorists.
A Minnesota Democrat, Rep. Keith Ellison, the first Muslim elected to the House, said that while it’s proper to investigate radicalization, it is wrong to single out a religious minority.
Civil rights activist, the Rev. Al Sharpton, entertainment promoter Russell Simmons and the imam who was an initial key supporter of plans to develop a mosque near ground zero are expected to speak at Sunday’s rally in Times Square.
A group calling itself the Liberty Alliance plans to hold a counter-rally in support of the hearing.
Later Sunday, President Barack Obama’s deputy national security adviser was to speak at an Islamic center in northern Virginia on the administration’s approach to countering domestic radicalization.
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