Why Is The Senate Doing This ?

On Tuesday the Washington Times' Inside Politics Blog posted a short piece stating that Senator Richard Durbin, an Illinois Democrat, is planning to hold hearings to examine Muslims' civil rights.  The Democrats are holding these hearings in response to the hearings held in the House of Representatives earlier this month by Representative Peter King of New York dealing with the radicalization of American Muslims.

The article reports:

""Our Constitution protects the free exercise of religion for all Americans," Mr. Durbin said.  "During the course of our history, many religions have faced intolerance. It is important for our generation to renew our founding charter's commitment to religious diversity and to protect the liberties guaranteed by our Bill of Rights."

"The hearing will be the first ever before the Judiciary Committee's new subcommittee on the Constitution, civil rights and human rights, which Democrats created this year. Mr. Durbin is the chairman of the subcommittee."

My first question at this point is, "What is the purpose of this new subcommittee?"  Why did we need a new subcommittee?  Don't we have courts that handle this sort of thing?  But even if there is a real need for a new subcommittee, why have they chosen to investigate the civil rights of Muslims? 

The article reports:

"In 2009, the latest FBi statistics available, anti-Islamic hate crimes accounted for 9.3 percent of the 1,376 religiously motivated hate crimes recorded. That's far less than the 70.1 percent that were anti-Jewish."

Where is the investigation of the Jewish civil rights that were violated?  Do Muslim civil rights include the use of Sharia Law in American courts?  If so, how does that impact the civil rights of women and Americans of other faiths (Sharia Law outlaws any religion other than Islam and severely limits the rights and freedom of women)?  Why is the subcommittee investigating less than 10 percent of hate crimes instead of investigating 90 percent?  Is that discrimination?

Which is more of a threat to America, radicalization of Muslim Americans or hate crimes against Muslims?  Where should Congress be focusing its attention?

Just asking.