Chris: House Homeland Security Committee chairman Peter King (R-NY) says there is “nothing un-American in holding these hearings” into the political activities of Muslims. He is quite correct. Ferreting out groups who can serve as scapegoats for the  turbulence in society is as American as, say, the Salem witch trials, the Alien and Sedition laws, the Palmer raids,  the Ku Klux Klan, House Un-American Activities hearings, McCarthyism, et al.  Whenever the  state finds itself in a condition of political, economic, or social instability, it will dredge up bogeymen as fear-objects with which to reinforce the herd mentality.