Via Think Progress, Rep. Keith Ellison has been denied a request to testify at a House Homeland Security hearing chaired by Rep. Peter King.
Ellison, a Democrat who is the first Muslim to be elected to Congress, sent King a letter Monday asking if he could testify at a hearing on the Al-Shabaab terrorist organization operating in Somalia. The hearing is the third in a series of controversial meetings on the matter of radical Islam in America.
King responded that Wednesday’s hearing is an extension of the first couple the committee has held, and since Ellison testified at the first hearing on the issue, in March, he would not be permitted to testify Wednesday.[...]
Minneapolis has the largest Somali community in the United States. A Minneapolis man pleaded guilty this month to helping Al-Shabaab recruit men to travel to Somalia and fight in various conflicts in the country.
King's excuse? Ellison already testified at one of his hearings, so even though he might have special insight into this issue, since the community involved is in his own state, he's had his say. It's enough to make one suspect King is more interested in fear-mongering than fact-finding in his hearing.
This, by the way, is the hearing King is having instead of focusing on right-wing domestic terror, a topic that would be much more timely and important in the wake of the Norway attacks.
Here's part of Ellison's powerful testimony at the previous hearing.