As a Congressional hearing, under the chairmanship of one Peter Hunt, gets underway basically to probe the so-called radicalisation of Muslims in America - with all the overtones of McCarthyism back in town in Washington - The Boston Globe has an op-ed piece which addresses who the real threats to America are.
"Is it fair to investigate the sources of extremism that may pose a threat to US security? That’s what Republican Representative Peter King of New York is doing this week as he holds hearings to probe the “radicalization’’ of American Muslims.
The hearings are controversial, but the link between extremism and violence is worth exploring. The problem is that King has the spotlight fixed on only one group. There is a tangible threat of extremist terrorism in America, but it is not Muslims we need to wonder about.
The START database on terrorism in America, which tracks all incidents of political violence, shows that most attacks in the last two decades have been on black churches, reproductive rights facilities, government offices, and individual minorities. And those have been committed mainly by right-wing extremists. From 1990 to 2009, START identified 275 “homicide events’’ that killed 520 people and were committed by right-wing ideologues. There were many more incidents of destruction of property, nonfatal attacks, and other acts of thuggery by white supremacists, private militias, and the like.
The last two years have gotten worse, at least in hate speech. “For the second year in a row, the radical right in America expanded explosively in 2010,’’ notes the Southern Poverty Law Center in a just-released annual survey. Coupled with economic woes, this growth is “driven by resentment over the changing racial demographics . . . and the mainstreaming of conspiracy theories and other demonizing propaganda aimed at various minorities.’’
The center lists more than 1,000 hate groups in America, the most in its 20-plus years of keeping watch. And yes, it can happen here: Eight of the 10 groups exposed as hate groups in Massachusetts are right-wing extremists, with the other two black separatists. What about Muslim extremism? There have been arrests of Muslims who appeared to have been planning attacks, most all of them far from realization. But the numbers seem to be increasing."
"Is it fair to investigate the sources of extremism that may pose a threat to US security? That’s what Republican Representative Peter King of New York is doing this week as he holds hearings to probe the “radicalization’’ of American Muslims.
The hearings are controversial, but the link between extremism and violence is worth exploring. The problem is that King has the spotlight fixed on only one group. There is a tangible threat of extremist terrorism in America, but it is not Muslims we need to wonder about.
The START database on terrorism in America, which tracks all incidents of political violence, shows that most attacks in the last two decades have been on black churches, reproductive rights facilities, government offices, and individual minorities. And those have been committed mainly by right-wing extremists. From 1990 to 2009, START identified 275 “homicide events’’ that killed 520 people and were committed by right-wing ideologues. There were many more incidents of destruction of property, nonfatal attacks, and other acts of thuggery by white supremacists, private militias, and the like.
The last two years have gotten worse, at least in hate speech. “For the second year in a row, the radical right in America expanded explosively in 2010,’’ notes the Southern Poverty Law Center in a just-released annual survey. Coupled with economic woes, this growth is “driven by resentment over the changing racial demographics . . . and the mainstreaming of conspiracy theories and other demonizing propaganda aimed at various minorities.’’
The center lists more than 1,000 hate groups in America, the most in its 20-plus years of keeping watch. And yes, it can happen here: Eight of the 10 groups exposed as hate groups in Massachusetts are right-wing extremists, with the other two black separatists. What about Muslim extremism? There have been arrests of Muslims who appeared to have been planning attacks, most all of them far from realization. But the numbers seem to be increasing."
Comments
A few facts about the SPLC and "hate groups" to ponder:
1. There is no legal definition for “hate group,” which is why even the FBI does not track “hate groups.”
2. The SPLC uses the deliberately meaningless term “hate groups” in its fund-raising propaganda precisely because it allows them to denigrate their perceived opponents without accusing them of any actual crimes.
3. The SPLC's “Hate Map” is a fund-raising tool, nothing more. It provides no information whatsoever on the alleged groups, in fact, the SPLC didn’t even bother to make up locations for 262 of the groups; that’s 26% of the total.
In many states, the percentage of phantom “groups” runs as high as 80-100%. Many of the alleged “groups” are listed twice in the same location.
http://wp.me/pCLYZ-8u
4. Since the SPLC is the sole arbiter of the meaningless “hate group” label, AND because SPLC fund-raising is directly tied to creating the illusion of an ever-increasing threat, it is in their direct financial interest to raise the numbers each year.
Last year the SPLC took in $31 million donor-dollars in donations and earned $26 million in interest on its bloated “Endowment Fund.” That’s $57 million dollars for last year alone. Since 2003, the SPLC has taken in more than a third of a BILLION dollars in tax-free cash, and yet the number of “hate groups” always goes up.
http://wp.me/pCLYZ-82
5. The most ironic (read: “hypocritical”) thing about the Southern Poverty Law Center is that NOT ONE of its top ten, highest paid executives is a minority.
http://wp.me/pCLYZ-7m
In fact, according to the SPLC’s hometown newspaper, the Montgomery Advertiser, despite being located LITERALLY in the back yard of Dr. Martin Luther King’s home church, the SPLC has NEVER hired a person of color to a highly paid position of power in its entire 40 year history.
Some "experts"