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Politics

Local Muslim Group Decries Lawmaker's Remarks

President and Founder of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy (AIFD) Zuhdi Jasser, Melvin Bledsoe of Memphis, Tennessee and Director of the Somali Education and Social Advocacy Center Abdirizak Bihi, testify during a hearing before the House Homeland Security Committee March 10, 2011 on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC.
Alex Wong
President and Founder of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy (AIFD) Zuhdi Jasser, Melvin Bledsoe of Memphis, Tennessee and Director of the Somali Education and Social Advocacy Center Abdirizak Bihi, testify during a hearing before the House Homeland Security Committee March 10, 2011 on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC.

GOP Congressman Peter King’s hearing today on the radicalization of American Muslims included a charge that the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) is a terrorist group.

During the hearing conducted by the representative from New York, Sheriff lee Baca of Orange County, California, mentioned that he had had dealt with CAIR in the past. To that, Minnesota Republican Representative Chip Cravaack said, “You’re dealing with a terrorist organization.”

Hanif Mohebi, the executive director of CAIR in San Diego said that characterization reveals the motive of the hearing.

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“That proves the witch-hunt, the demonization of a whole community and the organizations that represent it,” Mohebi said.

Baca told Cravaack he had seen no evidence the group was linked to terrorism.