White supremacy is the leading terrorist ideology in the USA now.
According to a recent survey, more terror attacks and plans are carried out by far-right groups than by radical Islamists in the USA.
Most of America’s Terrorists are Not Muslim, They’re White[/tweetthis]
The survey found that attacks from the far-right doubled that of Islamic terrorists between 2008 and 2006. The report was published by The Nation Institute’s Investigative Fund and The Center for Investigative Reporting’s Reveal.
For the study, researchers looked at 201 terrorist incidents in the US from January 2008 to December 2016. Around 115 of the attacks were believed to have been executed by far-right groups. This included White Supremacists to Sovereign Citizens.
In comparison, only 63 attacks were carried out by radical Muslims. The remaining attacks were executed by eco-terrorists and animal rights groups.
It was also found that only 35% of far-right attacks were prevented, while the number was 76% for Islamic Terrorism. Almost half of the Islamic Terror threats were prevented via sting operations.
However, when it came to far-right threats, law enforcement seems to have invested less of their time and resources. For example, the number of sting operations used to identify far-right threats was 4 times lower than the number of sting operations used to identify Islamic threats.
But, the number of deaths associated with Islamic terror attacks was found to be higher. Around 90 people were reported to have been killed as a result of such attacks.
The report also comes out against Trump’s fear of radical Islam, calling it “irrational”. The report supported this by mentioning the fact that only 1% of Islamic terrorists were from the countries listed in Trump’s ban.
Shirin Shinnar, Professor of Law at Stanford University, stated that Trump’s rhetoric against Muslims would actually fuel more far-right attacks because it legitimizes hatred. Shinnar added that by pushing the threat of far-right terrorism aside, law enforcement is failing to combat the issue.
As a result, America could see a growth spurt in far-right extremism and lead to more incidents such as the ones in Kansas and Oregon that took place recently.
The report also found that Islamic terrorists were dealt with differently than far-right terrorists by the US Judicial System. For instance, Muslims were more likely to be seen as perpetrators than as victims. Most of them are sentenced to an average of 14 years in prison. There have also been 7 death sentences so far.
In comparison, the average prison sentence for far-right terrorists is 9 years. None of them have received life or death sentences.