I have to admit that when I read today’s NAIEW Words Matter Blog Challenge topic, I had to go to may quote book and look for one. I don’t usually remember quotes, except from movies, a few books, and things my mother repeated over and over in my childhood. So I looked under some of the people I admire — Mark Twain, whose use of language is still bright and fresh 100 years after his death; Ghandi; MLK; and Jefferson.

The latter is where I found this: “I never will, by any word or act, bow to the shrine of intolerance or admit a right of inquiry into the religious opinions of others.” –Thomas Jefferson

I wonder how Rep. Peter King would respond to that statement from one of the beloved Founding Fathers as he prepares to start Congressional hearings into Muslims living in the United States and how far radicalization has penetrated.

Newsflash: you don’t have to be Muslim to be a radical. Think Tim McVeigh, neo-Nazis, that Minute Men member just convicted in Arizona of killing a father and his 9-year-old that she suspected of being illegals with drugs she could steal. There are more radicals of other stripes, and if they couch their hate in religious terms, they are probably perverting the values of that very religion. Don’t ask about their religious beliefs. Ask instead how they feel about people who oppose their beliefs and what they think should happen to them. That will tell you more about whether they are radicals than what brand of religion they say they espouse.