The chairman of the US House of Representatives Homeland Security Committee said on Sunday he saw a security threat from organised al Qaeda efforts to radicalise American Muslims.
"The overwhelming majority of Muslims are outstanding Americans, but at this stage in our history there is an effort to radicalise efforts within the Muslim community," Representative Peter King said on CNN's "State of the Union" program.
The New York Republican, who plans to address the matter in a congressional hearing on Thursday, cited recent foiled US security threats from individuals trained by al Qaeda, including Afghan national Najibullah Zazi, who pleaded guilty in 2010 to plotting to bomb New York's subway system. "We're talking about al Qaeda," King said. "We're talking about the affiliates of al Qaeda who have been radicalising, and there's been self-radicalisation going on within the Muslim community, within a very small minority, but it's there. And that's where the threat is coming from at this time."
Representative Keith Ellison, a Minnesota Democrat who is the first Muslim elected to the US Congress, said he was worried the hearings unfairly singled out Muslim Americans.
"I worry about it. Everybody I talk to worries about it," Ellison, who plans to testify at the hearing, said on the same program.
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