White House defends Muslims against Pete King's circus show

[babylonsister]

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/plum-line/2011/03/the_morning_plum_200.html

* White House defends Muslims against Pete King's circus show: With Pete King's hearings into Muslim radicalization set for this week, White House deputy national security adviser Denis McDonough takes direct aim at their premise:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2011/03/06/remarks-denis-mcdonough-deputy-national-security-advisor-president-prepa

Remarks of Denis McDonough Deputy National Security Advisor to the President--As Prepared for Delivery

ADAMS Center
Sterling, Virginia

Partnering with Communities to Prevent Violent Extremism in America

snip//


We have a choice. We can choose to send a message to certain Americans that they are somehow “less American” because of their faith or how they look; that we see their entire community as a potential threat—as we’ve seen in several inexcusable incidents in recent weeks across the country that were captured on video. Well, those incidents do not represent America. And if we make that choice, we risk feeding the very feelings of disenchantment that may push some members of that community to violent extremism.

Or, we can make another choice. We can send the message that we’re all Americans. That’s the message that the President conveyed last summer when he was discussing Muslim Americans serving in our military and the need to honor their service. “Part of honoring their service, he said, “is making sure that they understand that we don’t differentiate between them and us. It’s just us.”

Informed by what we know, several basic principles must guide us in what we do—as individuals, as communities and as a country. We must resolve not to label someone as an extremist simply because of their opposition to the policies of the U.S. government or their strong religious beliefs. Under our Constitution, we have the freedom to speak our minds. And we have the right to practice our faiths freely knowing that the government should neither promote nor hinder any one religion over the other.

As such, we must resolve to protect the rights and civil liberties of every American. That’s why, under President Obama, the civil rights division at the Justice Department is devoting new energy and effort to its founding mission—protecting civil rights. It’s why we are vigorously enforcing new hate crimes laws. And it’s why even as we do everything in our power to protect the American people from terrorist attacks, we’re also doing everything in our power to uphold civil liberties.

We must resolve that, in our determination to protect our nation, we will not stigmatize or demonize entire communities because of the actions of a few. In the United States of America, we don’t practice guilt by association. And let’s remember that just as violence and extremism are not unique to any one faith, the responsibility to oppose ignorance and violence rests with us all.

more...

http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2011/03/06/remarks-denis-mcdonough-deputy-national-security-advisor-president-prepa

[jaxx]

1. I'm glad they are speaking out on the witch hunt.

King is a rabble rouser and is doing nothing but ramping up the hate...and fear. Fear the Muslims, fear them being 'different'. People ought to fear King and his McCarthyism circa 2011.

K&R

[pinto]

2. Yeah, it is McCarthyism revisited.

I'm glad the White House commented on the hate rhetoric. :kick: