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New York Congressman Peter King, earlier this year started holding hearings on whether American Muslims were becoming radicalized. The House Homeland Security Committee, which King chairs, is holding yet another hearing next week on Thursday ahead of the 10th anniversary of the September 11th attacks. This hearing comes after a recent Pew survey that that states there is “no evidence of rising support for Islamic extremism among Muslim Americans.” Pew polled over a thousand Muslim Americans for the survey. Despite a lack of evidence for domestic extremism Senators Joe Liberman and Susan Collins released a joint statement affirming Peter King’s belief that the administration is not doing enough to “identify violent Islamist extremism” in America. The hysteria over Islamic radicalization is symbolized by a slew of state bills across the country, banning Islamic Sharia law – bills that inaccurately imply that a serious threat of Sharia law actually exists. Congressman Peter King and the anti-Sharia bills are among the subjects of a recent report from the Center for American Progress titled Fear, Inc. The report exposes how King uses “skewed studies and talking points” in his hearings that originate from a select group of think tank experts. Examining the origins of American Islamophobia, Fear Inc. reveal that those think tanks are in turn funded by seven right wing foundations including the Becker Foundation and the Richard Mellon Scaife foundations.

GUEST: Wajahat Ali, a researcher at the Center for American Progress and a researcher for the Center for American Progress Action Fund.

Read the report at www.americanprogress.org