Asra Nomani explains why she decided to testify at the latest in Republican Congressman Peter King’s series of hearings on the supposed radicalisation of American Muslims: “To me, the hearings do not represent a witchhunt and Congressman King is no Joe McCarthy.”

Nomani summarises the evidence she intends to give:

I will argue that many in our Muslim society have adopted a culture as “wound collectors”, a term coined by former FBI agent Joe Navarro to describe terrorists of all identities, holding onto grievances and responding to scrutiny with a strategy characterized by four distinct elements: denial, deflection, demonization, and defensiveness.

So, not only is the US Muslim community in denial about the presence of dangerous radicals in their midst, but in taking this position they themselves are adopting a terrorist world-view.

And, would you believe it, some Muslim critics have the nerve to claim that Nomani, along with her fellow collaborators Zuhdi Jasser and Qanta Ahmed, “are not representative of any mainstream sentiment in the American Muslim community”. Sheila Musaji has gone so far as to describe them as “astroturf” Muslims.

Now, that’s a phrase I must file for future use.

Cf. Nathan Lean, “King: Time to investigate Muslims, again”, Salon, 19 June 2012

Update:  See Sheila Musaji, “How reliable were Rep. King’s Muslim witnesses?”, The American Muslim, 21 June 2012