Tuesday, as the Iran Times went to press, Senator Durbin was set to hold his first hearing.
Durbin said he was responding to the “spike in anti-Muslim bigotry in the last year, including Qoran burnings, restrictions on mosque construction, hate crimes, hate speech, and other forms of discrimination.” Durbin did not reference King’s hearings.
“During the course of our history, many religions have faced intolerance,” Durbin said in a written statement. “It is important for our generation to renew our founding charter’s commitment to religious diversity and to protect the liberties guaranteed by our Bill of Rights.”
The scheduled hearings garnered praise from Muslim Americans who see them as a response to King’s radicalization hearings, which began March 10. King has accused the Muslim American community of failing to cooperate with law enforcement and charged that preaching in many US mosques was leading to radicalization.
Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), said, “We view the upcoming hearing as a very positive development and a counterweight to the very biased hearing put on by Representative King recently.”