“Extremism” is one of those politically correct words used to protect Islam by the left.

Michael McCaul

Remember when the Justice Department announced last year that it would be launching some pilot programs devoted to “countering violent extremism”? Now Rep. Michael McCaul wants to create a federal Office of Coordination for Countering Violent Extremism and house it at the Department of Homeland Security. Under the Texas Republican’s Countering Violent Extremism Act, introduced late last week, the new bureau would be responsible for a range of activities, including “identifying risk factors that contribute to violent extremism in communities in the United States,” “assessing the methods used by violent extremists to disseminate propaganda and messaging to communities at risk for radicalization and recruitment,” and “establishing a counter-messaging program” to push back against extremist ideas. The office would receive $10 million a year for the next five years, and a new post—the “assistant secretary for countering violent extremism”—would be created to run it.

…

The McCaul bill includes a pro forma requirement that “all activities related to countering violent extremism fully respect the privacy, civil rights, and civil liberties of all Americans,” but not everyone finds that language reassuring. “That’s scant protection when the clear purpose of a CVE [countering violent extremism] program is to focus on what it deems ‘extreme’ beliefs,” says Michael German, a former FBI agent, now based at the Brennan Center for Justice, who has written frequently about the problems with this approach to counterterrorism. German is also unmoved by the bill’s requirement that an annual report to Congress evaluate how successful the office’s efforts have been. Given how many projects along these lines have already been tried around the world, German suggests that the government “investigate those programs before we invest this money and create this infrastructure.” After all, he asks, “once this infrastructure is created, how easy will it be to take it down?”

http://reason.com/blog/2015/07/01/bill-would-create-new-homeland-security