Thanks for your thoughtful response. I think we both stand united to fighting radicalism both within and outside the Muslim community and preventing violent attacks of any sort in our communities.

The difference I think is in our approaches. I think that when it comes to national security threats of this seriousness, we can’t afford to let anecdotes, biases or assumptions get in the way of facts and evidence.

The reality is that Rep. King has consistently chosen to take up with some very worst proponents of anti-Muslim bigotry in this country and used his hearings to propagate wild conspiracy theories, all while ignoring the findings of actual research that disputes his central claims.

This latest hearing was his chance to continue his story of victimization and try to demonstrate political support for his rejected theories. Your views about the merits of the hearings may not be your actual qualifications, but they were the reason he invited you to testify.

I do think there are important conversations happening within the Muslim community about theology, social issues and other important questions — as they are in many different faith traditions right now.

I think, however, that national security and law enforcement personnel need to respond to threat indicators that are backed by comprehensive, evidence-based analysis, not assumptions — no matter how true they feel to us.

Thanks again for your comment.

For example, you state that my views in the Guardian article are “extreme,” when the most extreme notion I suggest is that Muslims are “wound collectors,” more intent on arguing their grievances than owning up to their internal problems, just as many communities fixated on their wounds tend to do.

And then, indeed, you state about myself and the two other witnesses that our “primary qualifications appear to be their willingness to confirm King’s conspiracy theories and falsely implicate their fellow Muslim Americans as contributing to radicalism.”

In fact, for 10 year, as a journalist and an academic, I have been researching the issue of terrorism and militancy in our Muslim communities. I know that Dr. Jasser had done the same in his work, and Dr. Ahmed has separately done her own research, each of us separately coming to the conclusion that we have a radicalization problem in our communities.

Our agreement with the merits of the hearings does not, thus, become our qualifications.

Nonetheless, thank you for commenting. One of my laments, as a liberal, is that liberals in the world don’t recognize the dangerous implications of extremist Muslim principles to liberal values, such as women’s rights, gay rights, civil rights and other values.

The battle of many Catholic nuns and Catholic feminism against the Vatican is not much unlike our battle within our faith against extremism in Islam.

Best, Asra