Washington ( CNN ) -- Walk into Rep. Peter King 's Capitol Hill office , and you are overwhelmed with how much the New York Republican is consumed by the September 11 , 2001 , attacks . There are photos on the walls of funerals he attended , images of a smoky Brooklyn Bridge , and baseball caps with sayings including `` USS New York , Never Forget . '' King says he does n't have a monopoly on grief -- but it is what drives him . `` If you ask me what I think about going to work every day , it 's 9/11 and preventing another 9/11 . There were too many people I knew , '' he told CNN in an interview in his office . That 's why he says he is determined to use his powerful post as House Homeland Security Committee chairman to hold a series of highly controversial hearings on what he has dubbed radicalization of Muslims in the United States . `` I have no choice , I have to hold these hearings , these hearings are absolutely essential , '' King said before the first hearing in March . `` There are elements in that community that are being radicalized , and I believe that the leadership , the leaders of that community , do not face up to that reality . Too many cases are not cooperative , not willing to speak out and condemn this type of radicalization that is going on , '' he insisted . The fact that he is singling out the Muslim-American community has ignited protests and anger against him , and accusations of bigotry . He has even been compared to Sen. Joseph McCarthy , who used a congressional gavel he wielded in the 1950s to go on a Communist witch hunt . King said there is `` no basis '' for that . `` I tell people wait and watch and listen to the hearing and they will see it will be a thoughtful , meaningful , very fair hearing , '' he said . King once had a close bond with leaders in the Muslim-American community . In the 1990s , he broke with fellow Republicans and backed President Bill Clinton 's military efforts in the Balkans to defend Muslims there . `` That was not popular in my district , but I did it because it was the right thing to do . I thought the Muslim populations in those countries were being victimized , '' said King . Though the Muslim community in his mostly blue-collar Long Island district is small , King had close relationships with Muslim leaders -- he even attended a ribbon-cutting at a local mosque . But King said after 9/11 a switch flipped . `` I saw the Muslim-American community not responding the way that they should have , covering up for al Qaeda , when they tried to blame it on Jews or the FBI -- I could n't believe what I was hearing . These people -- I had known them for years , I had their relatives interning in my office , I had gone to weddings and dinners of leaders in the Muslim-American community -- and the same people that I had known , I hear them saying its not al Qaeda , it 's the FBI . I could n't believe it , '' recalled King . One of those leaders was Ghazi Khankan with the Islamic Center of Long Island . `` I said we should also investigate the possibility of Israel being involved . That changed his opinion 100 % , '' said Khankan . King said he was furious that no Muslim leaders denounced those post-9/11 comments . But even worse , he insisted , was what he started hearing from law enforcement -- that the Muslim-American community was not cooperating with efforts to rein in radicalization and prevent terror threats . `` That would be psychobabble , to say that because of what was said after 9/11 , I 'm holding these hearings . That 's when I first began to look more carefully , '' he said . `` Since then , it 's dealing with police at all levels , in New York and around the country . ... Privately , I am told time and again that they 're not getting the cooperation they need . '' he said . King , the son of a New York police academy instructor and a self-described close friend of New York cops and firefighters , insists he gets the real story from his buddies about what they call lack of cooperation in the Muslim community in rooting out radicalism . But other law enforcement officials say they get valuable assistance from Muslim-Americans . And academic studies , like one conducted by Duke University and the University of North Carolina , show fellow American Muslims turned in 48 of the 120 Muslims suspected of plotting terror attacks on the U.S. since 9/11 . King insists that does n't jibe with what he hears on the ground . `` I can tell you that in New York , we 're in the epicenter , we 're in the eye of the storm . There has been no virtually no real cooperation coming from the Muslim-American community . The police commissioner 's office in ( Suffolk County ) has said that they have not gotten one tip from the Muslim-American community , '' he said . Still , King invited no law enforcement officials to be witnesses at the March hearing -- neither the FBI director , nor the attorney general , nor any of the New York officials who he says tell him they 're concerned . The only one who attended was Los Angeles Sheriff Leroy Baca because he was invited by Democrats on the panel . Some call King 's efforts against American Muslim terrorism hypocritical . In the 1980s , King , an Irish-American , was an active supporter of Gerry Adams and the Irish Republican Army , an organization the State Department then deemed terrorists , which was responsible for hundreds of civilian deaths in terror attacks . King defends his efforts . `` I knew what was happening in Northern Ireland , and with the IRA . The IRA was a legitimate force , they 'd been there for 40 years , 60 years , any way you want to look at it , '' said King . He insists he only got involved so heavily with Adams because he knew he would be willing to broker peace with the British government . `` I was one of those helped bring ( peace ) about . This is n't me saying it , it 's Tony Blair and Bill Clinton saying that , among others , '' said King , who later pointed to a photo on his wall of Blair , the former British prime minister , with an inscription praising King for his role in the Northern Ireland Peace Accord . The New York Times editorialized before the March hearing that King is a man `` obsessed '' with Muslim radicalism . Is he obsessed ? `` I 'm very focused , '' he replied . `` I lost many people from my ( congressional ) district on 9/11 , and within a 30-mile radius of my home , probably about a thousand people murdered on 9/11 . '' Another answer to that question may be in what King writes about . He is a part-time novelist , and in 2004 published a book called `` Vale of Tears , '' about an Irish-American congressman from New York who traces a terrorist attack to Muslim radicals in his own district . `` You write about what you know , '' shrugged King . If the negative publicity and protests about his hearing are getting to King , he 's hiding it well . `` Hey , I would love to be loved , you know , I 'm not a masochist . But on the other hand , I have a job to do . And I would not want to wake up the day after an attack and say , ' I should 've done something differently , ' '' he said . `` My goal , if I could have an ultimate goal , is to have new leaders emerge from within the Muslim community , who are not defensive , who day in , day out , are willing to denounce radicalizations , denounce the attempts by al Qaeda to go into their communities . '' CNN 's Rachel Streitfeld contributed to this report .
Rep. Peter King is chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee . He is holding controversial hearings regarding Muslims in the United States . The hearings focus on what King calls the radicalization of Muslims in the U.S. `` These hearings are absolutely essential , '' King says .