Japanese Americans: King's Muslim Hearings 'Sinister'

Congressman Peter King begins his controversial hearings Thursday into radical Islam, and one group in particular is taking exception, reports the Washington Post: Japanese Americans. They see a parallel between the way they were demonized during World War II and how American Muslims are being treated today. "I'll be damned if I'm going to stay quiet and not say something," said Democratic Rep. Michael Honda, who spent years as a child in an internment camp in Colorado.

What King is doing is "similarly sinister," he says, and "we have to show people that as Americans, we're not going to put up with this kind of nonsense." In King's defense, Majority Leader Eric Cantor today cited the Fort Hood shooting in declaring the hearings a "relevant topic," notes Politico. But Speaker John Boehner remained perfectly neutral: “Chairman King is chairman of the Homeland Security Committee” is all a spokesman would say.