“I wanted to start a race war, but almost didn’t go through with it because everyone was so nice.” - Dylann Roof[mirror.co.uk]
I'm not one to get involved with politics, but the recent South Carolina shooting has got me thinking, as I am often disturbed by the sweeping generalisations of people of certain nationalities and inability to condemn those of others.
When does a racist become a terrorist? What is the difference between a "hate crime" and an act of terrorism? The recent murders of nine religious, black residents of Charleston, South Carolina, has led to many questioning the definition of the act. In fact, the musings have occurred secondary to it's initial, unhesitating label as a hate crime and, as President Obama put it, "senseless murders".
There is no doubt, however, behind the motive of the massacre. Dylann Storm Roof, a 21 year old "All-American", blonde-haired, blue-eyed boy from Shelby, North Carolina, accused the victims of raping "our women and [...] taking over our country. And you have to go.”
Our women. Our country.
These kinds of fundamentally racist and extreme-right beliefs are concurrent with extreme nationalist, chauvinist, xenophobic, racist, and reactionary views such as neo-nazism and white-supremacism.
White supremacy or white supremacism is a form of racism centered upon the belief, and promotion of the belief, that white people are superior in certain characteristics, traits, and attributes to people of other racial backgrounds and that therefore whites should politically, economically and socially rule non-whites.
- Ku Klux Klan
The Nazis, have pursued oppression and genocide against groups of people on the basis of their alleged inferiority or their alleged threat to the nation or state.
In the same way, Dylann Roof has justified his actions by tarring the members of the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church with horrific, warped attributes because of their religious and ethnic backgrounds. Members of the KKK have called for purification of American society and Roof's actions had behind them, no doubt, the same mentality "to shield the sanctity of the home and the chastity of womanhood; to maintain white supremacy".
But where is the line between an extreme, racist, hate crime and an act of terrorism?
The main differentiator between an act of terrorism and a crime of passion is the element of pre-meditatation. A terrorist attack is viewed as cold-blooded, designed and meticulous - furthered by the use of weaponry used (i.e. constructing a bomb is seen as requiring more pre-meditation than obtaining a firearm) and calculated choice of venue (i.e. symbols of American capitalism and military might: World Trade Centre and the Pentagon).
A crime of passion is a defendant's excuse for committing a crime due to sudden anger or heartbreak, in order to eliminate the element of "premeditation", (i.e. when a spouse or sweetheart finds his/her "beloved" having sexual intercourse with another and shoots or stabs one or both of the coupled pair.)
- 9/11 Terrorist Attack.
While the difference between a terrorist attack and a crime of passion is fairly clear, the antithesis between a hate crime and terrorism is pretty hard to discern.
A hate crime is defined as follows:
hate crime
noun
noun: hate crime; plural noun: hate crimes
a crime motivated by racial, sexual, or other prejudice, typically one involving violence."legislation to stiffen penalties for persons convicted of hate crimes"
While a terrorist attack is defined as:
noun: terrorism
the unofficial or unauthorized use of violence and intimidation in the pursuit of political aims."the fight against terrorism"
terrorist attack - a surprise attack involving the deliberate use of violence against civilians in the hope of attaining political or religious aims
act of terrorism, terrorism, terrorist act - the calculated use of violence (or the threat of violence) against civilians in order to attain goals that are political or religious or ideological in nature; this is done through intimidation or coercion or instilling fear
coup de main, surprise attack - an attack without warning.
Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church is the oldest AME church in the south. It is referred to as "Mother Emanuel". Emanuel has one of the largest and oldest black congregations south of Baltimore, Maryland.
"When we talk about terrorism the important things are ideological motivations - politics, religion - but equally as important is target selection," says Simi, who teaches at the University of Nebraska at Omaha.[cbsnews.com]
There is no doubt about why this venue or the people inside it were targeted. AME is a long-standing sanctuary for African descendants and respite from their struggle against unkind treatment and restrictions placed upon them. It is a religious institution for African Americans in Charleston, surviving years of investigations, controversy and destruction. The church has been restored and rebuilt after being burnt down, accused of homing a planned slave revolt and worship services continued even when all black churches were outlawed.
Roof, with no mistake and by his own admission, wanted to start a "race war" against members of a community he deemed to be rapists and parasites.
So far, the Southern Poverty Law Center says that they have not found any connection between Roof and white supremacy groups. However, a friend of his reportedly told police that Roof hoped to start a "civil war" by killing black people, and one photograph depicts him wearing an apartheid-era South African flag patch.[cbsnews.com]
- Apartheid (Afrikaans pronunciation: [ɐˈpartɦɛit]; an Afrikaans word meaning "the state of being apart", literally "apart-hood") was a system of racial segregation in South Africa enforced through legislation by the National Party (NP), the governing party from 1948 to 1994. Under apartheid, the rights, associations, and movements of the majority black inhabitants and other ethnic groups were curtailed and Afrikaner minority rule was maintained. By extension, the term is currently used for forms of systematic segregation, established by the state authority in a country, against the social and civil rights of a certain group of citizens, due to ethnic prejudices.
Islamic State
The United Nations has held ISIL responsible for human rights abuses and war crimes, and Amnesty International has reported ethnic cleansing by the group on a "historic scale". The group has been designated as a terrorist organisation by the United Nations, the European Union, the United Kingdom, the United States, India, Australia, Canada, Indonesia, Malaysia, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Syria, Egypt, and Russia. Over 60 countries are directly or indirectly waging war against ISIL.
Ethnic cleansing is the systematic forced removal of ethnic or religious groups from a given territory by a more powerful ethnic group, with the intent of making it ethnically homogeneous.
The ISIS group are sourcing their recruits in a new-age fashion as never been seen before, through the booming world of social media. Through platforms such as Twitter, Tumblr and Kik, ISIS not only touts its violent acts against "non-believers," but also the lifestyle the group claims to offer its members, referred to by some within the group as "five-star jihad." Most recently, ISIS media channels announced the reopening of a luxury hotel in Mosul, complete with a photo spread of the facilities.
[Read more: http://uk.businessinsider.com/isis-is-revolutionizing-international-terrorism-2015-5#ixzz3dbOqokTP]
- ISIS members posing around a BMW.
To lure these new recruits into a new life in the caliphate, ISIS recruiters — many of whom are young women — are on Twitter and Tumblr, updating their followers about their lives and portraying ISIS territory in an overwhelmingly positive light.
Hitler also relied on terror and propaganda to achieve his goals. Lured by the wages, a feeling of comradeship, and the striking uniforms, tens of thousands of young jobless men put on the brown shirts and high leather boots of the Nazi Storm Troopers (Sturmabteilungen).
- Hitler and his Nazi followers.
It is not yet clear what had corrupted Roof's mind to such an extent as to commit these horrific acts and acting alone and as a "domestic" citizen, the act itself has led to it being viewed as an isolated incident and a hate crime, even though it is quite evident that his mentality was connected to a larger ideology of violence and hatred based on extreme, religious and political views and in the hopes of attaining some sort of ethnic cleansing. If he had turned round and denounced himself a neo-Nazi or KKK member, would he then have been viewed as a terrorist? Or would we merely consider him mentally disturbed and confused. A radicalist or perhaps even the offspring of a troubled childhood or lack of proper education?
Even if Roof is his own mastermind, self-radicalised and acted alone, does this make him any less a terrorist?
When two Muslim gunmen opened fire on a Draw Muhammad event in Texas last month there was no real discussion about whether the act was terrorism - it was just assumed it was.
If a Muslim acts alone, is it deemed an isolated incident? No. It is assumed that any crime committed by an "outsider", specifically one from Muslim descent, is an act of terrorism and signals a threat to the state. In doing so, it also tars the entire nation with one brush.
"Many of these 'non-jihadi' incidents of violence are attributed to an isolated, deranged gunman without considering the larger context of extremist ideologies and movements such as neo-Nazism and white supremacy more broadly," says Simi. "Interestingly, we don't seem to suffer from this myopia when the perpetrator is Muslim."[cbsnews.com]
Chechen brothers Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and Tamerlan Tsarnaev, the "Boston bombers", said they were motivated by extremist Islamist beliefs and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and that they were self-radicalized and unconnected to any outside terrorist groups.
Homegrown terrorism or domestic terrorism is commonly associated with violent acts committed by citizens or permanent residents of a state against their own people or property within that state in effort to instill fear on a population or government as a tactic designed to advance political, religious, or ideological objectives.
Is it not then clear that Roof's act was one of domestic terrorism? Committed by a citizen of Charleston against other citizens of the same town, in a bid to wage civil war against the black community within it?
If he had bombed the church instead of opening fire like a deranged gunman, would the act have appeared more pre-meditated; more like that of a cold, calculated terrorist, inspired by and willing to die for his extremist beliefs?
British National Party and the English Defence League
As well as anti-immigration policies, the party advocates the reintroduction of capital punishment and opposes same-sex marriage, multiculturalism and what it perceives as the Islamification of the UK.
The party's ideology has been described as fascist or neo-fascist by political scientists and commentators, though the party denies this.
As the EDL gains support across the UK, Muslims have already been targeted in unprovoked attacks. In the worst incident, a mob of 30 white and black youths is said to have surrounded Asian students near City University in central London and attacked them with metal poles, bricks and sticks while shouting racist abuse. Three people - two students and a passer-by who tried to intervene - were stabbed.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/moslive/article-1238213/This-England-On-trail-English-Defence-League.html#ixzz3dbYTvgHX
The EDL group, while proclaiming itself to be a peaceful movement, is realistically a group of far-right, violent football thugs using terror and intimidation and has attracted extremists and neo-nazis, including the British Freedom Fighters. They are motivated by extremist leaders and homegrown beliefs. They target innocent citizens, who they believe to be of a certain disposition due to their ethnicity.
- English Defence League. Protest march Manchester.
En route to by train to Manchester from Bolton.
- EDL members meet at a rendezvous pub before travelling to Manchester
As homegrown groups like these grow and acts continue to worsen, when will we stop covering for our own and see them for what they really are? These people are extremists and their acts are those of terrorism, whether they act alone or in groups and regardless of their skin-tone, colour of their hair or eyes.
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