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June 21, 2015
Why African-American church massacre is not terrorism?
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali
The massacre of nine African Americans in Charleston has been classified as a possible hate crime, apparently carried out by a 21 year old white man who once wore an apartheid badge and other symbols of white supremacy, Rick Gladstone of New York Times reported on June 18, 2015.
But many civil rights advocates are asking why the attack has not officially been called terrorism, he said adding: Against the backdrop of rising worries about violent Muslim extremism in the United States, advocates see hypocrisy in the way the attack and the man under arrest in the shooting have been described by law enforcement officials and the news media.
On June 17 night, Dylann Roof walked into a Bible study in the oldest historically black church in the American South. For an hour, he sat with the assembled church-goers. Roof read with them. He prayed with them. And then he unloaded his gun on them, reloading it not just once, but five times. Roof killed nine black people, including the church's pastor -- State Senator Clementa Pinckney.
Police captured Roof in Shelby, North Carolina, the next day. According to police sources he is charged with nine counts of murder and possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime. He was not charged with terrorism like Robert R. Doggart who was arrested on April 10, 2015 for plotting to kill Muslims and destroy a mosque in Islamberg, a Muslim area in the state of New York. And despite his murderous threats and the fact the he was armed, he is currently out on bail, awaiting sentencing.
To borrow Charles Chamberlain, Executive Director of Democracy for America, shooting at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church was not an isolated incident. While it was sickening, it shouldn't be shocking to anyone familiar with American history or anti-black terrorism -- a plague that has been with us from our country's earliest days and has destroyed more black lives than we could ever begin to count.
The FBI defines domestic terrorism as a violent act "intended to intimidate or coerce a civilian population." One of the few survivors of the shooting described hearing Roof make a statement before he began to fire his gun: "You rape our women and you're taking over our country. And you have to go."
The collective "you" Roof was referring to wasn't limited to the black men, women and children worshipping together in that room. He was sending a message of fear and intimidation -- loaded with white supremacy, dripping with the worst kind of historical precedent -- to every single black person in our country.
The Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church is one that has been attacked, burned, and rebuilt throughout its 200 year history. As the South Carolina Progressive Network pointed out in the aftermath of the attack:
"The church, one of the oldest black congregations in the nation, has a history that reflects the violence of our state's racist heritage. Denmark Vesey was one of the founders of the church in 1818 and the leader of a Charleston slave rebellion in 1822. Vesey and 34 others were hung for their role in the rebellion in which no white people were injured. The church was burned during the Vesey trial, and in 1834 the state outlawed all black churches."
Why are white shooters called ‘mentally ill’?
Anthea Butler, an associate professor of religion and Africana studies at the University of Pennsylvania, commenting on the massacre at the Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina, asks why white shooters called ‘mentally ill’ while African American or Muslim shooters are called terrorists. He says that this racist media narrative around mass violence falls apart with the Charleston church shooting.
The Charleston shooting is a result of an ingrained culture of racism and a history of terrorism in America, Butler said adding: It should be covered as such. On Friday, Department of Justice spokeswoman Emily Pierce acknowledged that the Charleston shooting “was undoubtedly designed to strike fear and terror into this community” (though terrorism is not among the nine murder charges brought against Roof, so far).
Writing in Washington Post, Anthea Butler argued:
"U.S. media outlets practice a different policy when covering crimes involving African Americans or Muslims. As suspects, they are quickly characterized as terrorists and thugs (if not always explicitly using the terms), motivated purely by evil intent instead of external injustices. While white suspects are lone wolves — Charleston Mayor Joseph Riley has emphasized that this shooting was an act of just “one hateful person” — violence by black and Muslim people is systemic, demanding response and action from all who share their race or religion. Even black victims are vilified. Their lives are combed for any infraction or hint of justification for the murders or attacks that befall them: Trayvon Martin was wearing a hoodie, which was “as much responsible for [his] death as George Zimmerman,” Fox News’s Geraldo Rivera concluded.....
"In public discussions, black children often morph into potentially menacing adults after they’ve been victimized, while white mass shooters are portrayed as children, even if they’re well into their 20s. Media reports and police statements repeatedly referred to Tamir Rice, a 12-year-old boy shot by police in Cleveland while playing with a toy gun last year, as a “young man.” But James Holmes, who was 25 when he shot dozens at an Aurora, Colo., movie theater, was frequently defined by his youth in media profiles, which described him as “a normal kid,” a “typical American kid” and “a smart kid.”
" Roof is getting the same treatment. In an interview with CNN on Thursday, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) insisted that the 21-year-old is just “one of these whacked-out kids.” Since Roof’s arrest on nine counts of murder, the Wall Street Journal and other major news outlets have called him “a loner” in headlines."
And now that Roof ﾠhas admitted to killing those people to start a “race war,” we should be calling him what he is: a terrorist, Butler concludes. CNN Friday quoted two law enforcement officials as saying that Roof has confessed he shot and killed the people at the black church to start a race war.
NY Times: Many ask, why not call church shooting terrorism?
The massacre of nine African Americans in Charleston has been classified as a possible hate crime, apparently carried out by a 21 year old white man who once wore an apartheid badge and other symbols of white supremacy, Rick Gladstone of New York Times reported on June 18, 2015.
But many civil rights advocates are asking why the attack has not officially been called terrorism, he said adding: Against the backdrop of rising worries about violent Muslim extremism in the United States, advocates see hypocrisy in the way the attack and the man under arrest in the shooting have been described by law enforcement officials and the news media.
Rick Gladstone went on to say:
"Assaults like the Boston Marathon bombing in 2013 and the attack on an anti Islamic gathering in Garland, Tex., last month have been widely portrayed as acts of terrorism carried out by Islamic extremists. Critics say, however, that assaults against African Americans and Muslim Americans are rarely if ever called terrorism. Moreover, they argue, assailants who are white are far less likely to be described by the authorities as terrorists. “We have been conditioned to accept that if the violence is committed by a Muslim, then it is terrorism,” Nihad Awad, executive director of the Council on American Islamic Relations, a civil rights advocacy group in Washington, said in a telephone interview.
“If the same violence is committed by a white supremacist or apartheid sympathizer and is not a Muslim, we start to look for excuses — he might be insane, maybe he was pushed too hard,” Mr. Awad said.
"Dean Obeidallah, a Muslim American radio show host and commentator, said it should be obvious that the Charleston killer was a terrorist. “We have a man who intentionally went to a black church, had animus toward black people and assassinated an elected official and eight other people,” he said. “It seems he was motivated by a desire to terrorize and kill black people.” While Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch and South Carolina officials said the shooting on Wednesday night was under investigation as a hate crime, much of the reaction on social media Thursday was caustic, with commentators saying they saw a double standard in such terminology.....
"Webster’s New World College Dictionary defines terrorism as “the use of force or threats to demoralize, intimidate and subjugate, especially such use as a political weapon or policy.” Civil rights advocates said the Charleston attack not only fit the dictionary definition of terrorism but reflected a history of attempts by the Ku Klux Klan and other white supremacist groups to terrorize African Americans."
Top ten differences between white terrorists and others
It may be recalled that in August 2012, a white supremacist Wade Michael Page shot and killed six Sikh-Americans at a Wisconsin gurdwara, a place of worship for Sikhs. Page was referred as gunmen and not a terrorist. Juan Cole commenting on the Sikh Temple massacre pointed out that there are ten differences between white terrorists and others.
1. White terrorists are called “gunmen.” What does that even mean? A person with a gun? Wouldn’t that be, like, everyone in the US? Other terrorists are called, like, “terrorists.”
2. White terrorists are “troubled loners.” Other terrorists are always suspected of being part of a global plot, even when they are obviously troubled loners.
3. Doing a study on the danger of white terrorists at the Department of Homeland Security will get you sidelined by angry white Congressmen. Doing studies on other kinds of terrorists is a guaranteed promotion.
4. The family of a white terrorist is interviewed, weeping as they wonder where he went wrong. The families of other terrorists are almost never interviewed.
5. White terrorists are part of a “fringe.” Other terrorists are apparently mainstream.
6. White terrorists are random events, like tornadoes. Other terrorists are long-running conspiracies.
7. White terrorists are never called “white.” But other terrorists are given ethnic affiliations.
8. Nobody thinks white terrorists are typical of white people. But other terrorists are considered paragons of their societies.
9. White terrorists are alcoholics, addicts or mentally ill. Other terrorists are apparently clean-living and perfectly sane.
10. There is nothing you can do about white terrorists. Gun control won’t stop them. No policy you could make, no government program, could possibly have an impact on them. But hundreds of billions of dollars must be spent on police and on the Department of Defense, and on TSA, which must virtually strip search 60 million people a year, to deal with other terrorists.
We have had several Congressional hearings on the dangers of Muslim terrorism inside the United States yet not a single one on the dangers posed by right-wing groups despite the fact that there have been more terror attacks on U.S. soil in the past decade committed by white, “right-wing extremists” than by Muslims.
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