The Prison Cell Block as a Terrorist Cell: Rep. Peter King Hearings

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Human Events:

Finding religion in prison brings comfort to many but can it lead to deadly consequences of mass proportions?

That’s what Rep. Peter King (R-NY) will examine when his House Homeland Security Committee convenes on Wednesday for the second in a series of hearings on the radicalization of Muslim Americans and homegrown terrorism.

“We have seen cases in which inmates have been radicalized at the hands of already locked-up terrorists or by extremist imam chaplains,” King said.

“We will focus on a number of the serious cases in which radicalized current and former inmates have planned and launched attacks or attempted to join overseas Islamic terrorist organizations,” King said.

Although the witness list has not been announced, King says it will include testimony from both U.S. and international experts, and individuals who are intimately involved in recent prison radicalization cases.

His first hearing in March drew criticism from the political left, and King was called a racist who was attacking the entire religion and unfairly singling out Muslims.

“This radicalization hearing, like the one in March, will be a deliberate and thoughtful examination of an issue that is too important for our security to ignore,” King said.