Peter King: Stop Being Politically Correct, Let's Focus on Muslim Communities

Rep. Peter King, a Republican from New York, has had enough of anyone who doesn’t think profiling Muslims is a good idea when it comes to combating terrorism. On Saturday, King said it’s time to stop being so “politically correct” and recognize the real threat to the United States comes from Islamic terrorism, which means law enforcement must put a heightened focus on Muslim communities.

 “Obviously the main international base, the terrorist threats are coming from the Muslim community,” King told Politico. "There have been 16 terror plots against New York [since Sept. 11, 2001], all Islamist-based. We’re at war with Islamic terrorism. It’s coming from people within the Muslim community by the terrorists coming from that community, just like the mafia comes from Italian communities.”

Although it isn’t even clear whether law enforcement officials have been able to question Dzhokar Tsarnaev, for King the suspects' motivation is quite clear. “I think these two obviously were Islamic terrorists motivated by Islamist views,” said King. Politico points out that during the interview King was also sure to point out “that he thinks the bulk of Muslim Americans are good people.”

“We should be focused on gathering intelligence from this suspect right now that can help our nation understand how this attack occurred and what may follow in the future. That should be our focus, not a future domestic criminal trial that may take years to complete,” reads the statement signed by King and Sens. Lindsey Graham, John McCain, and Kelly Ayotte.

Although the lawmakers celebrate that the bombing suspect was not read Miranda rights, “we have concerns that limiting this investigation to 48 hours and exclusively relying on the public safety exception to Miranda, could very well be a national security mistake.”