Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN) — one of two Muslims currently serving in Congress — went on Sean Hannity’s show Wednesday night to discuss the controversy surrounding last month’s Muslim “radicalization” hearings by Rep. Peter King, and the results were predictably charged.
Hannity began by asking Ellison if he thinks the government should “investigate” groups like the Nation Of Islam. Ellison replied: “I think we should investigate people where there’s probable cause to believe they have committed a crime.”
“I don’t think,” he continued, “even if you don’t like what people are saying, that you should call the instrumentality of the criminal justice down on them. You need evidence of a crime.”
Hannity then argued: “The problem that is if we have radical Islamists that believe in jihad as a means to achieving their goals, and they’re in America, and our Homeland Security Secretary says so, and Peter King wants to investigate, to check into it, it seems like a reasonable thing in light of three thousand Americans killed on 9/11.”
The back-and-forth culminated when Hannity told Ellison: “You seem unwilling to identify radical Islam as being at war with America.”
Ellison countered: “Al Qaeda is at war with America, but Al Qaeda is not the only enemy of America. They’re not the only violent extremists. And I would ask you to stop making it like only Muslims are the problem.”
Watch:
h/t Mediaite.
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