According to some media reports, Australian white supremacists have attacked two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, killing several Muslims. This is another terrible reminder that right-wing extremism and terrorism is becoming a truly serious threat to us all.
Before we get more information about the horrible attack and the attackers, here is an old post of mine regarding the growing problem of right-wing extremism and terrorism in USA – I published this post in my old blog in August 2017:
STATISTICAL INFORMATION ABOUT DOMESTIC TERRORISM IN USA
The threat of Islamic extremism and terrorism was one of the most important themes during Donald Trump’s presidential campaign. After becoming the president, he has banned foreign nationals from six predominantly Muslim countries from entering USA. Several wealthier Muslim-majority countries, where the Trump Organization has business interests, are not on the list. President Trump claimed that the temporary ban is needed in order to avoid terrorist attacks. Some critics have argued that the ban is just a backdoor way to bar Muslims from entering USA (1).
What seems to have been overlooked is right-wing extremist terrorism. The Investigative Fund and Reveal have compiled a database of nine years of domestic terrorism incidents in USA (2). The database gives very interesting statistical information about the domestic terrorism in USA.
DOMESTIC TERRORISM INCIDENTS IN USA
January 2008 – End of December 2016
Type of domestic terrorism | Number of incidents | Foiled plots* (% of total) | Number of fatalities |
Islamic extremist | 63 | 76 % | 90 |
Right-wing extremist | 115 | 35 % | 79 |
Left-wing extremist** | 19 | – | 7 |
* foiled plots = no attack took place ** including ecoterrorism and animal rights (Source of the data: The Investigative Fund)
During January 2008 – end of December 2016 there were 63 Islamist terrorism cases. Vast majority (76 %) of these cases were foiled plots, i.e. no attack actually took place. 48 % of these cases were sting operations. 13 % of Islamist terrorism cases caused fatalities. However, the total number of fatalities was greater.
According to the database, there were nearly twice as many (115) right-wing extremist terrorism incidents. Only 35 % of these cases were foiled plots and only 12 % were sting operations. The right-wing extremist terrorism was often more deadly – nearly 1/3 of these incidents caused fatalities.
Left-wing extremist terrorist incidents were comparatively rare. Only 10.5 % of these cases were sting operations.
Before President Trump signed the ban regarding the six predominantly Muslim countries, he claimed that vast majority of individuals convicted of terrorism and terrorism-related offences since 9/11 came from outside USA. According to the database, only 13 % of perpetrators or alleged perpetrators were foreign born and only 1 % of them came from the countries that are on Trump’s list. The Department of Homeland Security analysis came to the same conclusion – it stated that citizens of nations named in the ban are “rarely implicated in U.S.-based terrorism.” (2)
References:
1) Samuel Osborne: “Muslim-majority countries where Donald Trump does business not included in travel ban” The Independent 27.6.2017
2) David Neiwert: “Home is where the hate is. Trump’s fixation on demonizing Islam hides true homegrown US terror threat” Reveal 21.6.2017
https://www.revealnews.org/article/home-is-where-the-hate-is/
IDIS Observer 