Emotional hearing focuses on U.S. Muslims

Amid tears and histrionics, a House committee Thursday delved deeply into a question that many lawmakers and Muslim leaders did not want asked: Are American mosques producing American terrorists?

But rather than producing a clear answer, the four-hour session before the House Homeland Security Committee presented a wide-ranging and heartfelt human portrait of what's happening among American Muslims in the age of al-Qaida.

Though filled with sound bites from Rep. Peter King -- the Long Island Republican who, as chairman of the committee, called the hearing -- and other lawmakers, the hearing produced indelible images from two witnesses: a Muslim congressman and the father of a terrorism suspect.

Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., accused King of "stereotyping and scapegoating" Muslims by calling the hearing.

The Muslim lawmaker went on to tell the story of Mohammad Salman Hamdani, a Muslim paramedic from New York who died on the job at the World Trade Center during the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

Describing Hamdani as an all-American 23-year-old kid who loved "Star Wars" and went by the name of Sal, Ellison then noted that after 9/11, rumors quickly surfaced that Hamdani was "in league with the attackers."

Collapsing into tears, Ellison said: "Mohammad Salman Hamdani was a fellow American, who gave his life for other Americans.

"He should not be identified as just another member of an ethnic group or just another religion, but as an American who gave everything to his fellow Americans."

Just as powerful was the testimony later of Marvin Bledsoe, whose son, Carlos, converted to Islam, changed his name to Abdul Hakim Mujahid Muhammad and traveled to Yemen to learn Arabic.

After returning to the United States in 2009, Muhammad went to a military recruiting center in Little Rock, Ark., and, according to authorities, opened fire, killing a soldier and wounding one other.

Bledsoe somberly told the committee that his son's story should serve as a warning to Americans.

"It seems to me that the American people are sitting around and doing nothing about Islamic extremism, as if Carlos' story and the other stories told at these hearings aren't true," Melvin Bledsoe said.

"There is a big elephant in the room, but our society continues not to see it. This wrong is caused by political correctness."

Those deeply personal accounts were delivered during proceedings that, in some ways, resembled a typical Washington circus, with a huge crowd in the hearing room, others gathered outside and lawmakers anxious to talk over each other during the session.