Terrorists and Bigots

Dear Friends,

The terrible terrorist attacks in Paris last week have brought back into the front of our consciousness the fact that terrorism is alive and well in the world.  My heart goes out to all of those who suffer as the result of terrorist acts whether they take place in Paris or Beirut or Charleston.  We need to do all that we can to end terrorism, but to do that we need to understand and admit the facts surrounding terrorism today.

There is a very common misconception that terrorist attacks are most often perpetrated by those claiming to be acting on their Islamic beliefs.  This misconception is reinforced by politicians who are using fear and hatred of "others" for their own selfish political gain.  Here are some facts which clearly counter the common wisdom.

The chart below, courtesy of ThinkProgress (here) is based on information from Europol, the EU's law enforcement agency.

Most of the terrorist attacks in the EU have been by separatist organizations.

The ThinkProgress article goes on to discuss the statistics in the United States.

Religious motivations makes up just a slightly larger portion of terrorist attacks in the U.S.
Islamist militants lag far behind other groups when it comes to carrying out terrorist attacks in the U.S. too. According to FBI data compiled by the Princeton University’s Loon Watch, Islamist extremists were responsible for just 6 percent of terrorist attacks between 1980 and 2005 — falling behind Latino groups, Extreme left-wing groups, and Jewish extremists.

While the coverage by the media in the United States has helped to perpetuate the myth that most terrorist attacks are related to Islam, an article in The New York Times (here) from June 24, 2015 actually does a good job of summarizing the facts.

But the breakdown of extremist ideologies behind those attacks may come as a surprise. Since Sept. 11, 2001, nearly twice as many people have been killed by white supremacists, antigovernment fanatics and other non-Muslim extremists than by radical Muslims: 48 have been killed by extremists who are not Muslim, including the recent mass killing in Charleston, S.C., compared with 26 by self-proclaimed jihadists, according to a count by New America, a Washington research center.

Here is the table from New America showing the incidents that is cited by The New York Times.

The tables below show the lethal terrorist incidents in the United States since 9/11.

Deadly Jihadist Attacks
Total number of people killed:
26
Plot name Persons killed2014 Washington and New Jersey Killing Spree 4
2014 Oklahoma Beheading 1
2013 Boston Marathon Bombing 4
2009 Little Rock Shooting 1
2009 Fort Hood Shooting 13
2006 Seattle Jewish Federation Shooting 1
2002 Los Angeles Airport Shooting 2

Deadly Right Wing Attacks
Total number of people killed:
48
Plot name Persons killed
2015 Charleston Church Shooting 9
2014 Tallahassee Police Ambush 1
2014 Las Vegas Police Ambush 3
2014 Kansas Jewish Center Shooting 3
2014 Blooming Grove Police Shooting 1
2012 Tri-State Killing Spree 4
2012 St. John's Parish Police Ambush 2
2012 Sikh Temple Shooting 6
2011 FEAR Militia 3
2010 Carlisle, PA Murder 1
2010 Austin, TX Plane Attack 1
2009 Pittsburgh Police Shootings 3
2009 Holocaust Museum Shooting 1
2009 George Tiller Assassination 1
2009 Ft. Walton, FL Shooting 2
2009 Flores Murders, Pima County, AZ 2
2009 Brockton, MA Murders 2
2008 Knoxville, TN Church Shooting 2
2004 Tulsa OK, Bank Robbery 1

An article on the Huffington Post website (here) entitled "White Supremacists More Dangerous To America Than Foreign Terrorists, Study Says" describes very clearly the misconception itself as well as a view on it based on the history of the United States.  I recommend the article to you.

The politicians and the press do not call terrorist groups that claim to have Christian views, Christian terrorists, but they should if they are going to call terrorist groups that claim to have Islamic views, Islamic terrorists.  Salon, reprinting an article from AlterNet, has a great article entitled "6 modern-day Christian terrorist groups our media conveniently ignores" (here).  Below is the first paragraph of that article.

The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) recently released an in-depth report on terrorism in the United States. Covering April 2009 to February 2015, the report (titled “The Age of the Wolf”) found that during that period, “more people have been killed in America by non-Islamic domestic terrorists than jihadists.” The SPLC asserted that “the jihadist threat is a tremendous one,” pointing out that al-Qaeda’s attacks of September 11, 2001 remain the deadliest in U.S. history. But the study also noted that the second deadliest was carried out not by Islamists, but by Timothy McVeigh in Oklahoma City on April 19, 1995—and law enforcement, the SPLC stressed, are doing the public a huge disservice if they view terrorism as an exclusively Islamist phenomenon.

You will note that while the time frame for the data from the Southern Poverty Law Center is different from the New America report that the conclusion is the same - non-Islamic related domestic terrorists are a greater threat.  The article then goes on to discuss six terrorist groups that claim to have Christian views.  You can find another list of eight terrorist groups that claim to have Christian views here.

In the last two days the Republican Presidential candidates and the media have given us many perfect examples of our unwillingness to accept the fact that Christian extremists are just as bad as Islamic extremists.  Yesterday, The Washington Post published an article entitled "Cruz: 'No meaningful risk' of Christians committing terrorism" (here).  Cruz's comment is patently false and provided the perfect opportunity for the media to expose the false narrative that we only need to be concerned about terrorists who claim to believe in Islam.  However, the author of the article, Katie Zezima, never once mentions the fact that Cruz's comment is factually incorrect.  Cruz was making the point that the United States should only take Christian refugees from Syria. Cruz was using fear of the "others" and the terrible attacks on Paris for his own selfish political gain, and Ms. Zezima and The Washington Post let him do it.  Jeb Bush has taken a similar position without coming out and saying that Christians are safe and Muslims are not.

The Washington Post is not alone in missing the opportunity.  Time and President Obama both missed today.  Time published an article (here) about President Obama's reaction to Ted Cruz and Jeb Bush.  Neither President Obama nor Time mentioned that the premise for the Bush/Cruz position was blatantly false.  President Obama focused only on not having a religious test for refugees.

The Republican governors are now lining up to declare that their states will not take any Syrian refugees because they do not want to put their populations at risk for terrorist attacks.  While they do not say out loud what Bush and Cruz have said about accepting Christians only, it is clear that they are focusing on creating fear and hatred of "others".

We must stand up to bigotry in all its forms, just as we must have compassion for those who feel the pain of terrorism.  We must not permit people to fuel hatred and fear for their own selfish political gain, just as we must not give into the fear that terrorists strive to create.

Thank you for reading and please comment,
The Unabashed Liberal