MSNBC’s Ed Schultz, who called communist Van Jones a “great patriot” during the “One Nation Working Together” rally, has now decided it is his job to protect Islamic terrorists from being investigated by Rep. Peter King, the incoming chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee. The ink was barely dry on a King op-ed calling for scrutiny into those  networks when Schultz featured Muslim Democratic Rep Keith Ellison on his show, complaining in advance that the probe would be a “witch hunt.”

The choice of guests was no accident. Reporter Kevin Diaz of the Minneapolis Star Tribune notes that Ellison’s Minneapolis, Minnesota district “has been fertile recruitment ground for Al-Shabab insurgents in Somalia” who are under the influence of al Qaeda. So the witches apparently do exist.

The Investigative Project on Terrorism found that Ellison, the first Muslim elected to Congress who was just elected co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, has been financially supported by members of the Muslim Brotherhood, who favor imposition of Islamic law on society.

King declared, “I believe it’s important to have this investigation on radicalization of the Muslim community. We’ve seen what happened in England. We know that al Qaeda is trying to recruit people over here, such as they did with the subway bombing in New York last year, the attempted subway bombing, the Times Square bombing. These were all people living legally in the United States…”

He also accused some of the leaders of the Muslim community in the U.S. of resisting cooperation with law enforcement.

Apparently eager to side with America’s enemies, Schultz saw it differently: “Some American-Muslims think King’s proposal has bigoted intentions. I think they’re spot on. This guy has a track record of hate against Muslims. I think he’s trying to demonize an entire religion and trying to make President Obama look bad when it comes to their war on terror.”

The problem is so serious that, back in 2009, the Senate Homeland Security Committee conducted a hearing, “Violent Islamist Extremism: Al-Shabaab Recruitment in America,” on terror recruitment of young Somalis in the United States, including Minnesota.

As noted by local television reporter Tom Lyden, federal officials were “laying out their concerns that young Somalis who have left Minnesota are being trained by al-Shabab insurgents. Many of the missing men attended the Abubakar Islamic Center in south Minneapolis, but the mosque says it does not recruit, finance, or condone any act of terrorism.”

One of those federal officials, Philip Mudd, associate executive assistant director of the National Security Branch of the FBI, said, “In Minneapolis, we believe there has been an active and deliberate attempt to recruit individuals—all of whom are young men, some only in their late teens—to travel to Somalia to fight or train on behalf of al-Shabaab.”

The hearings resulted in a report, “Violent Islamist Extremism, the Internet, and the Home Grown Terrorist Threat.”

A report into the Minneapolis problem by the cable channel HDNet described it as “a chilling threat to national security that has sparked one of the largest anti-terror investigations since 9/11.” It quoted FBI Special Agent Timothy Gossfeld as saying, “We have a principal, potential threat to national security right here on U.S. soil, actually, even within the state of Minnesota. So our director has already acknowledged the potential for individuals trained by al-Shabaab, under the influence of al-Qaeda, potentially being used to target the United States.”

Incredibly, Ellison told Schultz on MSNBC on Monday that further investigations of the problem might somehow make the problem worse. He said, “…I can‘t afford for some alienated, isolated youth who‘s been drinking on the milk of some al Qaeda types to feel, well, King is after me, everybody’s after me, I might as well do something sick and crazy.”

So King, rather than Islamic ideology, might inspire Muslims to join the Jihad.

Ignoring what the Senate hearings turned up and the need for further inquiry, Schultz concluded, “I think the guy [King] is out of bounds and going overboard and playing the fear card.”

The bombastic left-wing bias and overheated rhetoric of Ed Schultz can be obnoxious at times, but this kind of rhetoric is designed to prevent government authorities from taking the measures that are required to protect the American people from terrorist attack. His irresponsible rant comes at a time when terrorist threats are on the rise.

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