Why Do We Need A Congressional Hearing On Radical Islam?

Chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, Republican Rep. Peter King will hold a hearing Thursday that will examine the threat of radical Islam in the United States:

But King said Wednesday he's moving ahead with the hearing on the basis of "where the evidence is."

"That's where the danger is coming from," he told Fox News. "It's a small percentage. The overwhelming majority of Muslims are outstanding Americans. But the reality is that the threat is coming from within that community."

Is the threat coming from within the US Islamic community? Let's take a look at the evidence Rep. King may be referring to...

From The Congressional Research Service report, American Jihadist Terrorism: Combating a Complex Threat

There have been 43 homegrown violent jihadist plots or attacks in the United States since September 11, 2001 (9/11).

As part of a much-discussed apparent expansion of terrorist activity in the United States, between May 2009 and November 2010, arrests were made for 22 “homegrown,” jihadist-inspired terrorist plots by American citizens or legal permanent residents of the United States.

Two of these resulted in attacks. Most of the 2009-2010 homegrown plots likely reflect a trend in jihadist terrorist activity away from schemes directed by core members of significant terrorist groups such as Al Qaeda.

...The term “jihadist” describes radicalized individuals using Islam as an
ideological and/or religious justification for their belief in the establishment of a global caliphate, or jurisdiction governed by a Muslim civil and religious leader known as a caliph.

...Following the 9/11 attacks, law enforcement agencies came to realize that the prevention of terrorist attacks would require the cooperation and assistance of American Muslim, Arab, and Sikh communities. At the same time, Muslim, Arab, and Sikh Americans recognized the need to define themselves as distinctly American communities who, like other Americans, desire to help prevent another terrorist attack.

...The apparent spike in such activity after May 2009 suggests that at least some Americans—even if a tiny minority—are susceptible to ideologies supporting a violent form of jihad.

...Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano has said that authorities are “just beginning to confront the reality that we have this issue … and that we really don’t have a very good handle on how you prevent someone from becoming a violent extremist.

...The bulk of the 2009-2010 homegrown plots likely reflect a trend in jihadist terrorist activity away from schemes directed by the core leaders of Al Qaeda or other significant terrorist groups. Marc Sageman, a forensic psychiatrist and former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) operations officer who writes about terrorism, has noted a global shift in terrorism toward decentralized, autonomously radicalized, violent jihadist individuals or groups who strike in their home countries.

...Homegrown violent jihadists potentially either come from Muslim immigrant communities or are converts to Islam.