The Immediate Threat
At some point in the last century, we lost our ability to call a spade a spade. Rather than acknowledging and confronting extremism and terror in all of its forms, from white supremacist ideologues to black separatist ideologies, we have decided that extremism and terror has only one shape and form: Muslim and brown.
Extremism and terror have to be narrowly defined these days for a few reasons. For starters, a credible argument could be made that the U.S. government is a terror organization. If we define terrorism broadly as “the unlawful use of violence and intimidation, especially against civilians, in the pursuit of political aims,” then certainly our dealings in the Middle East over the past century could be understood and interpreted as terrorism, especially by the victims. President Obama dropped over 26,000 bombs throughout the Middle East and North Africa in 2016 alone. Are Yemenis or Somalis or Syrians or Iraqis terrified of drone attacks? Are these attacks made for a political gain? Are civilians killed?
Yes.
Yes.
And yes.
Since we don’t see ourselves or our government as terrorists, we have to narrow our definition. The Southern Poverty Law Center currently is tracking 917 hate/terror groups in the United States. These groups range from anti-semites to Islamophobes, and are largely led by people with white skin (here’s a list of individuals SPLC identifies as ‘extremists’). Many people would say that these extremists are largely irrelevant in mainstream culture. Others, including our President, would balk at the very first person profiled on the list (Alex Jones).
When the acts of terror are made by people with white skin against people with more melanin, the terrorists are called ‘lone wolves’ in the media. Almost across the board. If you search for statistics, however, you will find that ‘lone wolf’ terrorism is not on the rise, with only 98 cases in the U.S. since 1940. That statistic could be used and interpreted in many ways, however. Either the media is blowing the ‘lone wolf’ thing way out of proportion, or the definition of a ‘lone wolf’ is extremely narrow. Here is the government’s definition:
Lone wolf terrorism is political violence perpetrated by individuals who act alone; who do not belong to an organized terrorist group or network; who act without the direct influence of a leader or hierarchy; and whose tactics and methods are conceived and directed by the individual without any direct outside command or direction.
The problem with labeling white terrorism as ‘lone wolf’ terrorism is that most white terrorism isn’t done by individuals acting alone without the influence of a group or ideology. This list, again from the SPLC, details the number of far-right acts of terror since the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995. It is hard to read through that brief history and still use the term ‘lone wolf’.
Rather than focus our attention and resources at dismantling those 917 hate groups in the United States, we have decided instead to focus on keeping people from Syria, Yemen, Somalia, Libya, Iran, and Sudan from being able to travel to America, at least for 90 days. The reason? There is an ‘immediate threat’ to national security from these impoverished and war torn nations.
Aside from the fact that we have used drones to drop bombs in most of these six nations and have only recently lifted decades of economic sanctions on Iran, it is hard to find reason to restrict travel from these countries. Somalia is experiencing famine, Libya has three factions vying for power (including ISIS) and is in ruins, Sudan has been a desperately violent and dark place for decades, Yemen is in the midst of a civil war and people are literally starving to death, Iran uses intimidation, imprisonment, and torture to stifle anti-government voices, and then there’s Syria.
While we have been arguing about whether or not this travel ban is legal, over the past two weeks a Sikh man was shot in the arm by a terrorist in the state of Washington, three Indian men were shot and one killed by a terrorist in a bar in Kansas, tombstones were toppled and destroyed in two Jewish cemeteries by terrorists, and 68 Jewish Community Centers received terrorist bomb threats.
Yes, we do have an immediate threat to our nation. That immediate threat doesn’t fit our typical description of terrorism, but it is terrorism nonetheless. As I see it, one of those ‘immediate threats’ is our actions in the world that destabilize, demoralize, and destroy the lives of many innocent people. The other ‘immediate threat’ is hatred of difference leading to violent extremism, motivated by hundreds of hate groups throughout our country and bolstered, wittingly or not, by our President.
As long as we continue to live and believe a lie about terrorism, we are all complicit. As long as we continue to vilify Muslims in general while ignoring the vile actions of true homegrown terrorists, we are all complicit. If anything, lets just start calling a spade a spade, and address the real ‘immediate threats’ we have as a nation.
