You can follow me here.
The Myth That White Supremacy is Bigger Threat to U.S. Than Jihadis
Over at PamelaGeller.com I take apart a common media myth:
This patently false claim is part of the ongoing Big Lie campaign to try to downplay and minimize the jihad threat. It first surfaced in June, and in wake of the Oregon murders, the media elites are dragging it back out again. But it is no more coherent or reasonable than it was in the summer.
The study is based on the number of those killed by each group since 9/11. It skews the results by leaving out 9/11: what possible justification can there be for leaving 9/11 out of what is supposed to be a calculation of the magnitude of various threats to the U.S. Adherents to the belief system that led to 9/11 are still very much around. This article says that 48 people have been killed by right-wing extremists, versus 26 by Islamic jihadists, but the results would look much different if one adds one more day to the period surveyed, September 11, 2001. Then you have 3,003 people killed by Islamic jihadists, versus 48 by supposed right-wing extremists. Which is the bigger threat again?
The study also ignores the many, many foiled jihad plots. If even a fraction of them had succeeded, no one would dare make this equivalence, for even without adding in 9/11, the number of casualties of the jihad would be much higher.
Also, this is really a comparison between the threat posed by Islamic jihadists and that presented by not actual right-wing extremists, but everyone else. For there is no ideological kinship between Dylann Roof, the murderer in Charleston, South Carolina, who really was a racist lunatic, and Oregon shooter Chris Harper Mercer (linked below at “yesterday’s tragic shooting”), who had none of the Confederate paraphernalia or race hatred that Roof had. The only thing they had in common was that they both targeted Christians; but that is not the group that the mainstream media wants you to think “right-wing extremists” and white supremacists are targeting.
In reality, people like Roof and Chris Harper Mercer kill because of the crazy voices inside their paranoid heads. They are not part of any movement with an articulated agenda or goal. Islamic jihadists, on the other hand, have a shared belief system with clearly defined goals. They are members of or ideologically aligned with groups that have declared their intention to destroy the U.S. and the free world. Islamic jihad groups are determined to kill as many Americans as possible and conquer free societies. There is no comparable “right-wing extremist” movement determined to subvert, destroy and replace the U.S. government.
“Statistics Show White Supremacy is a Bigger Threat to the U.S. Than Radical Muslims,” by Keisha Hatchett, Complex, Yahoo News, October 2, 2015:
Despite what Donald Trump and many other politicians have told you, the major threat to America isn’t Muslim extremism. In fact, statistics show that the real danger lies with domestic extremists who aren’t of the Muslim faith.In reality, it has been vastly overestimated. There are a few right-wing anti-government people out there, sure. Few, if any, have targeted or ever will target random civilians. Most of these random shooters are profoundly disturbed people who aren’t acting upon any coherent ideology at all. But this threat must be overestimated, as part of the ongoing campaign to force Americans to deny the evidence of their lying eyes and proclaim that Islam is a religion of peace after all.
The New York Times reported back in June that since Sept. 11, 2001, almost twice as many people have died at the hands of white supremacists and other non-Muslim extremists than by radical Muslims. Using data compiled by New America, a Washington Research center, a study found that 48 people have been killed by extremists who are not Muslim—including the mass killings in Charleston, S.C.—compared to the 26 by self-proclaimed jihadists. However, this does not factor in yesterday’s tragic shooting or less publicized incidents like the Las Vegas couple who murdered two police officers and left a Swastika on one of the bodies.These stats reveal a vast difference between public perception and the number of actual cases in which Muslim extremists have claimed American lives. So why aren’t more people outraged about domestic terrorists? Because then we’d have to admit that white supremacy is still a problem.
While the public hasn’t quite caught on yet, scholars say that the issue needs to be addressed. “There’s an acceptance now of the idea that the threat from jihadi terrorism in the United States has been overblown,” Dr. John G. Horgan, who studies terrorism at the University of Massachusetts said. “And there’s a belief that the threat of right-wing, antigovernment violence has been underestimated.”
That’s an understatement.
No comments:
Post a Comment