[Vision2020] The Three Faces of Domestic Terrorism

[Nicholas Gier]

Good Morning Visionaries:

For those who do not take the Daily News, here is my column from today.
Attached is the long version, which will be published in the Idaho State
Journal and the gringo Los Cabos Daily News.  In it I discuss the San
Bernardino shooters and my suspicions that, once again, the FBI failed us
in identifying potential terrorists.

nfg

*Three Faces of Domestic Terrorism*

By Nick Gier, the Palouse Pundit

            Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings, speaking about his decision to open
his city to Syrian refugees, said that he was more afraid of domestic
attacks rather than those inspired by Islamic militants.

A mass shooting data base (limited to a minimum of four deaths) gathered by
the journal* Mother Jones* supports Rawlings’ position.  In 73 mass
shootings since 1982, Islamic militants were involved in only three.

Professors Charles Kurzman and David Schanzer have published a broader
study that identified Islamic terrorists as responsible for 50 deaths since
9/11.  In stark contrast they found that “right-wing extremists averaged
337 attacks per year in the decade after 9/11, causing a total of 254
fatalities
<http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/16/opinion/the-other-terror-threat.html>.”
Americans are five times more likely to be killed by a right-wing terrorist
than a jihadist.

Kurzman and Schanzer contacted 382 law enforcement agencies and found that
“74 percent reported anti-government extremism as one of the top three
terrorist threats in their jurisdiction,” while only “39 percent listed
extremism connected with Al Qaeda or like-minded terrorist organizations.”

The federal government defines domestic terrorism as acts “intended to
intimidate or coerce a civilian population; to influence the policy of a
government by intimidation or coercion; or to affect the conduct of a
government by mass destruction, assassination, or kidnapping.” Please note
the significant “or” in this definition.

 Anti-abortion extremists definitely come under this definition, and since
1977 they have been responsible for 11 murders, 17 attempted murders, 42
bombings, and 182 arsons.

The three killed in Colorado Springs by Robert Lewis Dear have been added
to this list, because his anti-abortion views have now be verified.  This
was evident from his cry “no more baby parts” as he entered the Planned
Parenthood office, and the fact that he had previously vandalized a similar
facility in South Carolina.

To those who say that doctors who perform abortions are the real
terrorists, I simply remind them that abortions until fetal viability are
legal in the U. S.  I would also point out that our moral, legal, and
religious traditions have not considered the fetus a person at conception.
For more see www.webpages.uidaho.edu/ngier/abortion.htm.

Since 9/11 there have been almost weekly attacks on American Muslims and
their mosques.  These assaults can be categorized as acts of domestic
terrorism “to intimidate or coerce a civilian population.” Hundreds of
mosques have been either vandalized or burned down. Copies of the Qur’an
have been either burned or shot through with bullets.  Pigs’ heads have
been thrown into mosques or onto Muslim property.

The third face of domestic terrorism in America is seen in race-based
attacks. On October 22, 2015, St. Louis police reported arson at seven
African-American churches, presumably as retaliation for protests about the
police shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson.  The Council on American
Islamic Relations immediately responded with a statement: “Whenever a house
of worship is targeted in this manner, Americans of all faiths should feel
the spiritual injury and stand with those under attack.”

The largest Christian terror organization in U. S. history is the Klu Klux
Klan. Using data from Tuskegee University's Records and Research Division,
it has been determined that 3,446 African Americans were lynched over 86
years.

The most recent racially motivated mass shooting occurred on June 17, 2015
at a black church in Charleston, South Carolina. After sitting with
congregants in a prayer meeting, Dylan Roof opened fire and killed nine.
His website contained typical white supremacist propaganda and a picture
showed Roof wrapped in the Confederate flag.

Reverting to the horrors of Germany’s dark past, Donald Trump is calling
for the registration of all American Muslims and the closing of their
mosques.  Given the violence actions against Muslims and Planned
Parenthood, the same perverted logic could be used to shut down churches
that preach hate against Muslims, gays, and lesbians.

Nick Gier of Moscow taught religion and philosophy at the University of
Idaho for 31 years.

 A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they
shall never sit in.

-Greek proverb

“Enlightenment is man’s emergence from his self-imposed immaturity.
Immaturity is the inability to use one’s understanding without guidance
from another. This immaturity is self- imposed when its cause lies not in
lack of understanding, but in lack of resolve and courage to use it without
guidance from another. Sapere Aude! ‘Have courage to use your own
understand-ing!—that is the motto of enlightenment.

--Immanuel Kant
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