Are White Americans the biggest terror threat in the United States? Well, a new study conducted by the New America Foundation seems to think so.
When conducting a review, of “terror” attacks on American soil since September 11, 2001, the Washington-based research organization found that most were carried out by radical anti-government groups or white supremacists.
Per the International Security site, almost twice as many people have died in attacks by right-wing groups in the United States, than by the hand of Muslim extremists. Of the 26 attacks since 9/11 that the group defined as terror, 19 were carried out by non-Muslims.
Yes, it’s true that terrorism is hard to define. But its basic meaning is defined as ideological violence. In other words, violence committed by a group of people with a similar ideology or body of ideas, all agreeing with the main idea.
According to the Global Post, “attacks by right-wing groups get comparatively little coverage in the news media. Most people will struggle to remember the shooting at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin that killed six people in 2012. A man who associated with neo-Nazi groups carried out that shooting. There was also the married couple in Las Vegas who walked into a pizza shop and murdered two police officers. They left a swastika on one of the bodies before killing a third person in a Wal-Mart parking lot. Such attacks are not limited to one part of the country. In 2011, two white supremacists went on a shooting spree in the Pacific Northwest, killing four people.”
In the study, the NAF took a narrow view of what could be considered an act of terror. Most mass shootings, for example, the Sandy Hook or the Aurora, Colorado movie theater shooting — both in 2012 — weren’t included. Also omitted from the list was the killing of three Muslim students in North Carolina earlier this year. The shooter was a neighbor who had strong opinions about religion as well as parking spaces and a history of anger issues — hence why the attack was omitted.
However, the killing of nine people at Charleston’s Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church last week was included. The shooter, 21-year-old Dylann Roof, made it clear that his motivation was an ideological belief that white people are superior to black people. The masacre has definitely cast a new light on the issue of right-wing terrorism in the United States.
In summary, since these attacks are being carried out by those residing in our “land of the free,” the States can’t enforce the use of special forces or predator drones. Which leads us to wonder, how will the government respond? After all, the numbers don’t lie and it seems like every month now, an incident similar to the Charleston shooting rocks our nation.
