Transcripts For CSPAN Hearing Focuses On Violent Extremism 2

To enhance the economic and National Security of america and to promote more efficient effective and accountable government. The Committee Really is in many respects to committees and one. We have Homeland Security and we have governmental affairs. This hearing is really focusing on the Homeland Security side of the Committee Structure and within that structure we have four priorities. Border security, Cyber Security infrastructure and countering extremism and violence in any form, including islamist terrorism. Chairman johnson what we try tried to do in this committee is through this hearing process layout a reality. I come from a manufacturing background. Solved a lot of problems. The only way to solve a problem is first admit you have one, properly define it, properly describe it, gather the information and admit to the reality. There is no way anybody can deny we have a problem worldwide in terms of extremism and violence. We witnessed it just a few hours ago on a practice field for a Charity Baseball event. Let me acknowledge first of all our prayers are with those victims, congressman scalise, the staff member and the two members of the capitol Hill Security team that were wounded, and even having been wounded they continued to return fire and prevented a far greater tragedy. The appreciation we owe to the men and women in Public Safety that every day, they step out of the threshold of their door, they literally put their lives on the line. And that was demonstrated again this morning, so i appreciate anybody who is willing to step up to the plate to defend our freedom, protect Public Safety, but also stand up and tell the truth and describe reality in a world that is very dangerous, in a world that does not want to hear the truth and reality. Now in previous hearings on the subject we talked about the way radical islamist terrorists are using social media, particularly isis and have become incredibly effective at poisoning the minds of young people around the world to engage in these acts of terror and depravity. We have held hearings on trying to understand what motivates , this . What are they trying to accomplish . We have learned that in america what has been incredibly important throughout our history. We are a nation of immigrants. We welcome them. They have made this nation great but what has made this nation great is people who have come to this country who have come embracing the idea and promise of america, to become american, not rejecting their past culture. We never asked that but we do ask them to come and accept the constitutional law to be able to take advantage of this wonder and marvel we call america and the american economy. We have certainly learned how important it is for us in government and other Public Safety officials to positively engage in communities, every community to make sure that people are welcome and they will assimilate. Its not perfect. It has not completely worked. I think we probably could have done a better job as we witnessed recently whether its brussels or paris or places in europe where the assimilation has not been as effective but its far from perfect here in america and we will be talking about that. So again i just want to say again i appreciate the courage , of our witnesses and their willingness to step up to the plate and just implore everyone to have an open mind. We need to understand the truth. We need to understand the reality if we have any hope of solving this problem. We have got to get to a point where people feel free and safe to go practice in the morning at a baseball field or walk a street or raise their family. Thats what we are trying to accomplish. Its not going to be easy but the only way we do it is if we are willing to have the courage to face these truths and have the courage to actually tell them so again thank you for , having that courage and with that i will send it over to senator mccaskill and i would like to enter my statement into the record. Sen. Mccaskill i think all of us are waiting to exhale until we learn more details about our colleagues and our Staff Members and our police officers, but make no mistake about it, what we saw this morning was evil and i hope that this hearing doesnt stray from the fact that we should be focusing on evil. We should be focusing on violence. We should be focusing on enforcing our criminal law against evil and violence. We should be focusing on those people who twist and distort any religion be it muslim or christianity or buddhism. Anyone who twists and distorts that religion to a place of evil is an exception to the rule. It is not the rule. We should not focus on religion and the freedoms our country embraces. Our country was founded on many important premises but perhaps paramount among those premises was the freedom of religion. The earliest americans aside from our native americans came here because they were fleeing from persecution based on their religion. Our freedoms like freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, freedom of religion define us as a nation and no evil should ever be allowed to distort those premises. Premises. Ever. And im hoping although im worried honestly that this , hearing will undermine that. Underline that. I am concerned the president s Budget Proposal has taken its eye off the ball in terms of our fight against this evil extremism and the violence that it foments. Im worried that it has slashed homeland counterterrorism measures, like the viper team that has provided an extra layer of security at our airports. It also calls for the complete elimination of the Law Enforcement Reimbursement Program which provides financial , assistance to local Law Enforcement agencies to help secure our airports. It would reduce the Port Security Grant Program to transit Security Grant Program by more than 50 all soft , targets for these evil criminals. The urban Area Security Grant Initiative which helps prepare high density urban areas on how to respond would be cut by 150 million. The president s proposal would zero out complex coordinate it coordinated terror attack Grant Programs which are so essential. As we face violent evil criminals. While it is critical that we enhance our physical security and Law Enforcement with the resources they need to keep us safe we also have to improve our , efforts to stop americans from being radicalized. Our danger, at least to date has not been from those who try to slip into this country unnoticed or try to illegally cross our border who are seeking refuge a humanitarian crisis. Thats not where the danger has come from. It has come from people who are americans or people who are legally in this country who have been radicalized. We face a threat from a variety of sources on radicalization including white supremacist, ecoterrorists, isis, al qaeda. There is a long list. In the context of sunni and inspired violent extremism this hearing focused on the witnesses , it is absolutely vital that any effort our government takes to counter act extremism is done in partnership. In an full engagement with the peaceloving Muslim Community. In order to combat isis and other extremist propaganda we must have a healthy dialogue with muslim and other Community Leaders to ensure the resources are available to family and friends that may have concerns about loved ones. Unfortunately some of the , rhetoric we hear including , from some of the witnesses with this, is at odds approach and in conflict with the american principles and values. Most importantly its actually making the United States of america laissez. We need to spend less time stirring up antimuslim rhetoric and more time working on these issues and working with the majority of muslims both in this country and around the world who are peaceful and lawabiding. We are lucky to have michael testifying with us today the with us today. The former director of the National Counterterrorism administration or the bush administration. Is it leiter or leiter . Leiter. He understands the threat we are facing and has Extensive Knowledge and expertise crafting policies. Im eager to hear his analysis of the lessons we can learn from the recent attacks and uk and elsewhere. I would appreciate his thoughts on the present funding and a mentor student recommendations to bolster the nations safety and resilience without compromising our constitutional principles. We can do better to combat and prevent radicalism and extremism as long as we Work Together under the umbrella of those important protections. Thank you mr. Chairman. Chairman johnson thank you senator mccaskill. It is the tradition of this committee to swear in witnesses so if you all stand and raise , your right hand. Do you swear the testimony you will give before this committee will be the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth so help you god . I do. Chairman johnson you may be seated. Our first witness is ms. Ayaan hirsi ali. Ms. Ali was born in somalia in and migrated to the netherlands to avoid a forced marriage. She served on the parliament in 2004 with a short found submission critical of islams treatment of women. After the film was released the director of the film was assassinated. Ayaan hirsi ali is the author of several books. She currently is a Research Fellow from the institution that founded this Ayaan Hirsi Ali foundation. Ms. Ali. Chairman johnson, member mccaskill, Ranking Member mccaskill senators, ladies and gentlemen i join you both in condemning the violence this morning and i pushed the congressman a swift recovery. Thank you for this opportunity to talk to you about endangering our constitutions are freedoms and our way of life. Clearly not all muslims pose a threat but some do. How can we tell the difference . We can by understanding the nature of islam. Islam is part religion and part political military doctrine. It is a political doctrine consisting of a system of laws and a moral code that is totally incompatible with our constitution, our laws and our way of life. In 2017 there were two major governments that apply islamic law or sharia. Saudi arabia and iran. As we sit here we are also fighting a rogue entity that goes by the name of the Islamic State of iraq and syria or isis. Isis implements sharia influenced extreme in its purest form to islamic law as practiced in these cases negates secular law and demand submission without question. Women are subordinate to men and are denied such basic rights as owning their own bodies and sexuality. They face discrimination in marriage, inheritance and custody. Victims of rape must produce four witnesses and if they dont they are often stoned to death. There are no checks and balances and no free and impartial courts. There is no rule of law to defend the brutally suppressed. Not all muslims, not even those who live in the spirit proceeds support sharia. I call those who do medina muslims because they invoke hamed the founder of islam and medina. I believe that the vast majority of muslims accentuate the spiritual aspect of islam. I call the mac of muslims because they cite from mohammed and his legacy of mecca. The military at all of islam to call him the reformists. They are different from the mecca muslims because they stand up to the medina muslims by openly rejecting sharia. Most muslims live in secular states or states with some form of they are also millions of muslims today who live as considerable minorities. The medina muslims are not satisfied with the status quo. Their goal is to transform all muslim majority countries into islamic theocracy is and to use muslim immigrant minorities as a beachhead to transform nonmuslim societies, even free ones. They have a long time horizon and already have a foothold. Medina muslims use a combination of force or jihad along with the dissemination of their ideology through a mechanism known as doha. In theory doha is consistent proselytizing. Its a process of radical indoctrination. Doha advocates use the cover of missionary efforts education and cultural activities. They target the individual families the Education System the workspace the broader Economic Society as a whole. Its totalitarian like communism and fascism because different. This quest by the medina muslims to establish sharia across the globe by all means has led to weak and failed states to civil wars and the exodus of people from their homes and free society to the breakdown of social cohesion. We must solve not only the violent entities like isis ill qaeda boko haram and others but also dismantle the network up dawa. Above all we need to challenge the principles of sharia law. I look forward to your questions. Thank you. Thank you ms. Ali prepare next witness is ms. Noz run the bonnie. Ms. Novotny is the cofounder of Muslim Reform Movement the author of standing alone American Woman and the struggle for islam. She rents a student faculty investigation into the murder of her friend danny pearl who was executed by members of al qaeda. Thank you so much. Thank you chairman johnson and vice chairman cass colin thank you senators for this invitation to be here today. Our hearts are indeed gripped with war from this morning shooting. I feel empathy and compassion for you because this day takes me back to a day 15 years ago when i felt the same grouping on my heart. I learned that day that my colleague and friend daniel pearl from the wall street journal had been kidnapped. We learned in the weeks that followed that he had been kidnapped by militants and it was 15 years ago almost to this day that we learned that he was buried in a plot outside of karachi, his body cut into pieces by the men who believed that their interpretation justified this brutal murder. I sit before you because on that day i developed a passion that i would expect you all would also feel committed to after you learn the intentions and motivations of the shooter this morning. I lost a friend. On that day i made it my duty as a muslim to stand up against the ideology of extremist islam that motivated the men that took my friend from this earth. There was one value that connected the 27 men that were involved in dannys kidnapping and murder and that was that they had all absorbed the dua are the evangelism of an ideological interpretation of islam that is of the nature that ion is speaking about. I want is to be really clear. This is not the islam that my parents taught me. The led me this morning to stand shouldertoshoulder with my father and open my hands and pray for peace of mind for everyone in this world. What senator mccaskill talks about is really important. We must make this distinction and i think at the same time that means that we are clear that senator johnson is talking about related to the enemy that we face. The ideology of islamism or political islam contradicts the Constitutional Values of this country. The elements of islamism for political islam are very clear. It demands that we have political government according to the laws of sharia or islamic law. Those standards are in complete contradiction with the laws of our country. I want to tell you from the trenches that this is a reality that we face in our country. In Northern California facebook promotes the page of an organization whose meeting i attended in Northern Virginia last summer. Behind the speaker was a flag for the Islamic State. In michigan a man is preaching to advocate for child marriages in the name of islam. In Northern Virginia and imam just preached that it is okay to cut the of girls because it leads to the ability to keep hypersexuality from expressing itself in the world. What is it that we must do . We must be clear as chairman johnson was saying, we must have moral courage and intellectual courage. We must absolutely separate the reference you do not try this islamism from those who do and in that way the objective that we have to protect muslims and to be able to differentiate extremism from the large swaths that my family and others practice will be realized. We will protect muslims if we take the strategy of marginalizing the extremists. We as a nation must be committed to shut down the ideology of islamism just as we defeated fascism just with swede defeated communism. The ideology of islam is some denies us the right as men and women to sit in a room together as we are sitting today. Its a nice girls a right to go to a concert and calls them dangerous women. Denies a woman like myself are right to sit in a bakery in daca bangladesh without being separated and then killed. We have to understand that the future of our world depends on our Clear Thinking and our wisdom. I came here with fear in my heart because we also face a network that i call the on her brigade at once to stop this conversation. Ayaan and i are under threat constantly put between us and the haunted Death Threats we facebook we said before you with our backs to our friends and our enemies because it is our duty. It is our duty to stand up for them and for humanity in which we believe. When i had dinner last night my mother was beside me she took my hand and she said, do this for humanity. I urge all of you to remain committed, remain committed to all the values in which we believe and freedom and the beauty of this world that we want to see in the next generation inherit. Thank you so much. Thank you ms. Nomani. Dr. Lankowski is the founde