NY Rep: FBI Should Be Able to Question Muslims About Radicals in Their Mosques

Congressman Peter King (R-NY) told CNN’s Candy Crowley Sunday that the FBI should be able to speak directly to Muslim clerics who operate mosques which may be attended by radicalized Islamists. 

“My concern,” King told Crowley, “is that when the FBI was told by the Russians to look into the older brother they may have done the best they could under the guidelines they had available to them but how can you determine, effectively determine, whether or not a person has become radicalized if you don’t talk to people in his mosque, talk to his imam?”

King stated that Islamist radicalization stems “from the perversion of religion,” but political correctness has prohibited the FBI from identifying potential terrorists who may be known as radicals to fellow Muslims who attend the same mosques. “Because of political correctness I understand the FBI was not able to talk to anyone in the mosque to find out whether or not there were any conditions that would lead them to believe that he was radicalized.”

King also wondered if the FBI had fully used the information resources available to the local police in their investigation of the Tsarnaev brothers and their role in the Boston Marathon bombings. “Also, did they discuss it with the Boston police? Who would have better knowledge of what’s going on on the ground than the local police force?”

King pointed to his own New York experience as an example of local police effectively gathering information about potential terrorists. “That’s why in New York we have a thousand police officers working on counter-terrorism. . . [New York City] Commissioner Kelly is not afraid to be politically correct.He does what has to be done to find out what’s going on in the community.”