WASHINGTON (AP) -
Top Democrats are defending their appointment of a Muslim congressman to the
House Intelligence Committee after protests erupted on social media, warning
the move is dangerous.
House Minority
Leader Nancy Pelosi this week appointed Rep. Andre Carson of Indiana to the
panel, which oversees the government’s intelligence departments and
activities. Much of the business that comes before the committee is
classified.
Anti-Muslim
protests erupted on Twitter and other social media with complaints that
exposing American secrets to Carson could be dangerous.
Democrats widely
rejected that view. Pelosi said Carson is the only member of Congress to
have served in a Department of Homeland Security Fusion Center, which
provides intelligence sharing and training across levels of government.
Carson also serves on the House Armed Services Committee.
Rep. Adam Schiff of
California, the senior Democrat on the panel, called the protests
un-American. He said including Muslim Americans in public policy issues is
“an essential element in preventing the kind of alienation that has made too
many young European Muslims vulnerable to extremism.”
Rep. Joseph Crowley
of New York, vice chairman of the Democratic Caucus, called on his
colleagues to renounce the attacks.
“We will never be
able to grow as a society if we allow this kind of hatred and division to go
unchecked,” Crowley wrote in a letter to his colleagues.