Durbin hearing decries anti-Muslim acts

WASHINGTON, March 29 (UPI) -- U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., held a hearing on civil rights of American Muslims Tuesday, saying he wanted to address "anti-Muslim discrimination."

"Many of our nation's founders fled religious persecution, which is why our Constitution puts great importance on religious freedom." Durbin, assistant majority leader in the Senate, said in a statement. "Today, addressing anti-Muslim discrimination is an important civil rights issue of our time."

Durbin's hearing comes about three weeks after Rep. Pete King, R-N.Y., lead a controversial House Homeland Security Committee hearing on Islamic radicalization and terrorism in America.

Durbin opened the first-ever hearing of the new Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Human Rights, which was formed by merging the Constitution Subcommittee with the Human Rights and the Law Subcommittee.

"Some have even questioned the premise of today's hearing: that we should protect the civil rights of American Muslims," Durbin said. "Such inflammatory speech from prominent public figures creates a fertile climate for discrimination."

Since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States, leaders have been receiving support of many American Muslims who want to work with the U.S. government to protect it even as "many law-abiding Muslim Americans face discrimination and charges that they are not real Americans simply because of their religion," Durbin said.

"We should all agree that it is wrong to blame an entire community for the wrongdoing of a few," he said. "Guilt by association is not the American way. And American Muslims are entitled to the same constitutional protections as every other American."

He cited as inflammatory comments from a congressional member that "there are too many mosques in this country"; a former House speaker saying that the United States is experiencing an "Islamic cultural-political offensive designed to undermine and destroy our civilization"; and a religious leader who called Islam "wicked" and "evil."

"Those who use this type of rhetoric, who burn Korans and who engage in other forms of bigotry and discrimination may be few in number, but their bigoted conduct and remarks violate the spirit of our Bill of Rights," Durbin said.