Rep. Peter King, R-NY, is seen in an undated photo provided by the website of the House Committee on Homeland Security.
U.S. Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y. U.S. House of Representatives

The House Committee on Homeland Security has begun the first of a series of hearings, with the first on Thursday on The Extent of Radicalization in the American Muslim Community and that Community's Response.

(See video below)

There will be three panel of witnesses in the hearings which started at 9:30 a.m.

The testimony will first include three congressional representatives from Michigan, Minnesota and Virginia: Rep. John D. Dingell, Rep. Keith Ellison, and Rep. Frank Wolf.

Later witnesses will include, Melvin Bledsoe, the father of a son who was radicalized.

Also tetifying is Zuhdi Jasser, the Muslim head of an organization which is dedicated to shake the hold that the Muslim Brotherhood and their Network of American Islamist organizations and mosques have on organized Islam in America. Another witness includes Sherriff Leroy Baca, of the Los angeles County Sherriff's Department, which has started a Muslim Community Affairs unit which takes a public trust policing approach and initiated a Muslim Outreach program to better address current issues facing the Muslim community such as hate crimes, discrimination, etc.

Another is Abdirizak Bihi, who heads the Somili Education and Social Advocacy Center, a group that began when Bihi encountered poverty and issues of injustice related to the Somali community in the Ceder-Riversaide Neighborhood of Minneapolis, Minnesota.

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