10 of the Worst Terror Attacks by Extreme Christians and Far-Right White Men

[xchrom]

http://www.alternet.org/tea-party-and-right/10-worst-terror-attacks-extreme-christians-and-far-right-white-men



***SNIP

1. Wisconsin Sikh Temple massacre, Aug. 5, 2012. The virulent, neocon-fueled Islamophobia that has plagued post-9/11 America has not only posed a threat to Muslims, it has had deadly consequences for people of other faiths, including Sikhs. Sikhs are not Muslims; the traditional Sikh attire, including their turbans, is different from traditional Sunni, Shiite or Sufi attire. But to a racist, a bearded Sikh looks like a Muslim. Only four days after 9/11, Balbir Singh Sodhi, a Sikh immigrant from India who owned a gas station in Mesa, Arizona, was murdered by Frank Silva Roque, a racist who obviously mistook him for a Muslim.

***SNIP

2. The murder of Dr. George Tiller, May 31, 2009. Imagine that a physician had been the victim of an attempted assassination by an Islamic jihadist in 1993, and received numerous death threats from al-Qaeda after that, before being murdered by an al-Qaeda member. Neocons, Fox News and the Christian Right would have had a field day. A physician was the victim of a terrorist killing that day, but neither the terrorist nor the people who inflamed the terrorist were Muslims. Dr. George Tiller, who was shot and killed by anti-abortion terrorist Scott Roeder on May 31, 2009, was a victim of Christian Right terrorism, not al-Qaeda.

. Knoxville Unitarian Universalist Church shooting, July 27, 2008. On July 27, 2008, Christian Right sympathizer Jim David Adkisson walked into the Knoxville Unitarian Universalist Church in Knoxville, Tennessee during a children’s play and began shooting people at random. Two were killed, while seven others were injured but survived. Adkisson said he was motivated by a hatred of liberals, Democrats and gays, and he considered neocon Bernard Goldberg’s book, 100 People Who Are Screwing Up America, his political manifesto. Adkisson (who pleaded guilty to two counts of first-degree murder and is now serving life in prison without parole) was vehemently anti-abortion, but apparently committing an act of terrorism during a children’s play was good ol’ Republican family values. While Adkisson’s act of terrorism was reported on Fox News, it didn't get the round-the-clock coverage an act of Islamic terrorism would have garnered.

4. The murder of Dr. John Britton, July 29, 1994. To hear the Christian Right tell it, there is no such thing as Christian terrorism. Tell that to the victims of the Army of God, a loose network of radical Christianists with a long history of terrorist attacks on abortion providers. One Christian Right terrorist with ties to the Army of God was Paul Jennings Hill, who was executed by lethal injection on Sept. 3, 2003 for the murders of abortion doctor John Britton and his bodyguard James Barrett. Hill shot both of them in cold blood and expressed no remorse whatsoever; he insisted he was doing’s God’s work and has been exalted as a martyr by the Army of God.

[KG]

1. autoAlternetDURec

[napkinz]

2. To quote from JAWS ...

"You're gonna need a bigger list."

(I would assume there must be HUNDREDS of examples of Tea-Party/Far-Right/Christian Extremist attacks since 9/11.)

Seriously, does anyone have an extensive list? (I would love to send it to a certain person I know who only months ago said to me on the phone there's NO evidence the Tea Party/Far-Right has engaged in anything violent despite my emailing this person pictures of Tea Party members rallying with guns and placards that contained "threatening" messages.)

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

17. How many people have been arrested for threatening Obama's life?

Scratch them, and you'll find a christian zealot

[napkinz]

22. Is there a full accounting of how many have been arrested for

threatening the president?

(I know of a few youtube videos with such threats, including Ted Nugent who was visited by the Secret Service last year.)

[oberliner]

3. Terror Attacks by Extreme Christian vs. Extreme Muslims

Do we really want to go there?

[yardwork]

29. Why versus? Why not put it all on the table and take a look?

[oberliner]

33. I agree

When you put it all on the table and take a look, what do you see?

[yardwork]

46. I see that all types of religious extremism lead to violence. It doesn't matter what religion.

Extremism and religion put together = trouble.

[oberliner]

47. That's not true

I don't think it's fair to say that all types of religious extremism lead to violence. I think it's only some types of religious extremism.

Extremist Jainism, for instance, doesn't lead to violence. In fact, it would lead to extreme non-violence.

[yardwork]

48. Ok, let's get very specific. Extremism in Christianity, Islam, and Judaism leads to violence.

Happy now?

[theHandpuppet]

39. Agreed. I don't understand how this turned into an "us vs them" debate

Is there some reason we can't have a discussion about domestic terrorists? It just happens to be a fact that most acts of domestic terrorism have been at the hands of religious zealots and white males who belong to extremist groups. I occasionally stop by the site of the Southern Poverty Law Center, where they have a map indicating the location of these various hate groups. As a gay woman in rural America, I have far more to fear from the terrorists right here at home than those abroad.

[theHandpuppet]

40. Here's the map to which I was referring

http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/hate-map#s=OH

[Comrade Grumpy]

41. Apparently you want to go there.

[Bluzmann57]

4. Recommended

Interesting list. Scary but interesting.

[iandhr]

5. The OKC bombing should be at #1

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

15. I thought that was odd numbering, as well

Must be the damned Russian Judge!

[marmar]

6. k/r

[theHandpuppet]

7. The assassination of Harvey Milk & George Moscone isn't on this list

But it should be.

[RevStPatrick]

10. No.

That was a crazy person who had a personal beef with the people he killed.
It was not due to ideology.

[theHandpuppet]

11. It was both.

So it stays on my list.

[leftynyc]

8. Do you really want to do this comparison?

Do you really want someone to list all the violent attacks by fanatical Muslims for the same time period? I don't think you'll like it.

[theHandpuppet]

12. Was this thread one of comparison?

I must have missed something.

[leftynyc]

18. Do you consider the DU people stupid?

Looks like you do. Go play your games with someone else - I'm seriously not interested.

[uponit7771]

23. You asked the question, you're not interested and you asked the question!!

[leftynyc]

26. I wasn't asking you

I asked the OP - who hasn't bothered to answer so I already know. You, I couldn't care less about.

[theHandpuppet]

37. Were you responding to me?

I wasn't being coy -- I read the OP and it didn't even occur to me that this thread was intended as some "us vs. them" comparison. Seems to me it's a thread about domestic terrorism, period. Sheesh.

Edited to add: by the way, I am NOT the author of the OP.

[yardwork]

30. What comparison? Why are you so uncomfortable with these facts?

Violent acts by Muslims don't make violent acts by Christians go away. They're both true. They exist. We need to deal with it.

[bettyellen]

34. thank you!

[Comrade Grumpy]

42. You and Oberliner are the only ones making the comparison.

It is possible to discuss extremist Christian terror without discussing extremist Muslim terror. That is, unless someone has a particular axe to grind.

[leftynyc]

49. Spare me

If someone had listed a bunch of crimes committed by fanatical Muslims, this place would go nuts. Then almost immediately someone would claim that Christianity is just as bad because of the Inquisition or something totally unrelated. Don't embarrass yourself by pretending otherwise.

[malaise]

9. The illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq should be on that list

Never forget Dumbya called it a crusade

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

14. The was really more of a business deal...

I've also referred to it as a gas station hold-up gone wrong.

[bonniebgood]

13. You might want to start with SLAVERY AND KKK. nt

[Flatulo]

20. Yeah, and lets not forget the Crusades.

Those darned Christians have been making trouble ever since Adam told Eve to 'get the fuck back into the kitchen and make me turkey pot pie, bitch.'

[Flatulo]

16. This article serves one purpose - to whip up anti-Christian sentiment.

I'm an atheist and consider all religions to be ridiculous, but if any one religion were to be nominated for having as its central tenets the fomenting hatred and violence against non-believers, for treating women as property, for sentencing adherents to death for apostacy, for beheading or mutilating people for the crime of loving another person, Islam stands alone.

I understand that it's fashionable to bash Christianity, but wherever you go in the world, radical Islamists are the predominant makers of trouble.

I don't know anyone who has lost even five seconds of sleep over the perils of radical Christianity. This entire article is an exercise in Politically Correct bullshit.

[leftynyc]

19. +1

And there are those here who are hoping we're stupid enough to fall for it.

[JoeyT]

21. Yes, I can't believe someone wants to whip up anti-Christian sentiment.

Everyone knows you're supposed to whip up anti-Muslim sentiment. Yeesh.

You must not know many people. I know lots of women that are afraid the radical Christians are going to take away their bodily autonomy and lots of LGBT people that worry the radical Christians want to take away their right to exist. Plus the people that speak up against prayer in school tend to get piles of hate mail and death threats. Seems like it might cost some lost sleep.

I've never known someone to use the phrase "Politically Correct" as an insult that wasn't a screaming right winger and a bigot to boot.

I'm sure you'll scream bloody fucking murder about being labelled a bigot, but the fact that you consider women and LGBT people as being beneath concern lends some credibility the accusation.

[Flatulo]

27. Stop - you are literally killing me. Do you think that Islam is more tolerant of LGBT folk

than Christianity? Do you really believe that women get a fair shake under Islamic society?

They fucking HANG gays in Iran and behead adulterous women in Saudi Arabia, and Pakistani men burn their women alive with gasoline when they get 'out of line'.

Now, I'm absolutely certain that you're not OK with those behavioral, but that's what happens in these devout Islamic states. So if you have some excess outrage to spare over crazy fucking religious fanatics butting into other people's lives and telling them what they can and can't do, you could direct some of it towards the Religion of Peace.

Or you could accuse other who aren't sufficiently outraged about the horrors of Christianity of being bigots and misogynists, but you'd look kind of silly doing so.

[JoeyT]

28. I wasn't aware it was a contest.

Nor was I aware that to be criticized for something you have to be the worst at whatever is currently being talked about. Probably good news for everyone that isn't named Adolph.

Basically you and one other person decided criticizing Christianity is defending Islam, then proceeded to ignore oh...about 60% of the population that are made miserable by fundamentalist Christianity because any electrons that aren't being used to scream about Muslims are totally wasted.

[DirkGently]

32. So your point is it's wrong to point out Christian extremism because ...

all that matters is *relative* extremism? It's a contest of some kind, and Christians win because they have (you argue) fewer crazed followers?

For one, taking your "it's a contest point of view," Christians would certainly lose in terms of the number of attacks inside the United States. Add up all the Rudolphs and McVeighs and various abortion clinic bombings, and you don't even have to go back to the Klan blowing up little girls in church to see you're just factually wrong. All you're really saying is that Islam in some parts of the world is similar to Christianity everywhere a few hundred years ago, which is a function of economics, not choice of religion.

But no matter how you slice it, extremism and violence based on supposed Christian ideology exists. It put a rat-poison ball bearing bomb at an MLK parade a couple of years ago. It slaughtered a Sikh temple because it was not only hateful, but too stupid to tell non-Christian religions apart. It's currently running through the halls of Congress and state governments everywhere, attempting to pass laws that would force a child raped by a parent to carry a stillborn child to term.

If you think you win an argument that insane Christians who do heinous things in the name of their religion are in second place to Muslims, what point, exactly, do you believe that makes regarding the OP?

[Flatulo]

35. I would point out that Christianity bashing is quite fashionable on DU, whereas speaking about

Islamic violence is more or less a thoughtcrime. Posters will come out of the woodwork in droves to defend the Religion of Peace. I'd be willing to bet that a post like the OP, but listing Islamic attacks instead of RW Christian attacks, would be alerted on and locked. It's hypocritical nonsense.

I won't waste even 5 seconds of my life defending Christians, or any other cult of faith, but I will point out hypocrisy when I see it. If one sets out to condemn attacks motivated by religious beliefs, then omitting Islamic terror is a grevious oversight and a deliberate attempt to whip up anti-Christian frenzy. Just like making a list of Islamic terror attacks would be. Yet the posts attacking Christianity are gleefully rec'ced and approved.

And since reading with comprehension is becoming a lost art, let me repeat this to make myself perfectly clear:

I am an atheist. I believe all religions are stupid, superstitious brainwashing. The sooner humanity evolves itself past this nonsense the better off we'll all be.

[DirkGently]

38. Do you think what you call "Christianity bashing" might be intended

not as some kind of bigotry of its own, but as a counterpoint undercutting the irrationality of the overwhelming trend toward Islamaphobia?

That's the way I received the OP, anyway. I didn't read it as blaming Christianity for its lunatics so much as pointing out that the problem with extremism isn't "their" religion compared to "our" religion. That suggests that all of our murdering zealots would disappear if we got rid of one supposed holy book vs. the other one.

I don't think that's true -- do you?

Dominant culture lunatics -- anywhere -- will outnumber minority cultural lunatics. We can blame religion in general or not, but at the end of the day, isn't the real mistake believing that one holy book or another somehow engenders more or less "righteousness?"

Seems to me what the OP and others keep trying to get at is everyone's big blindspot regarding their own culture. Crazy "Christian" shoots a doctor in church, and we tend to apply the "bad apple" rationale. 12 crazy Muslims blow up a building, and it's "the evil of Islam."

None of that really addresses what atheists like you and I might think of as the overall problem of using extreme religious belief to support unethical conduct, claiming "God's will" trumps human values like equal treatment or tolerance.

Way I see it, anyway.

[Flatulo]

44. You make some good points, but I'm not so

sure the author of the article is as pure of heart as you are. For one thing, he seems to conflate race with religion re the Tsarnoff bombing, and then moves on as if no one would notice. Is he calling out whites, or is he calling out Christians? Both? The article struck me as a poorly written rant, not a counter to some perceived imbalance in fairness.

Secondly, other than on Fox News, I don't see an unreasonable amount of Islamophobia in our culture. Other than the heinous acts noted, I think Muslims are treated more or less fairly here. My doctor is an Indian Muslim, and he's a great guy with a great family. His house is about five times bigger than mine and his kids go to the best private schools. I've worked with professionals of that faith my whole career, and to the last man, they were warm and engaging people. I know that myself and others of a liberal bent went out of their way to reach out after 9/11 and let their Muslim friends and neighbors know that they were welcome here and valued.

Now, I live near Boston, in one of the more liberal parts of the country, so we were spared the wave of ugliness that was on display in other parts of the country. But in all honesty, I would not want to hear the call to prayer five times daily from a nearby mosque.

Let me hasten to add that I've spent some time in NC, in Bible country, and I was just miserable at how much faith is interwoven with daily life. You literally cannot escape it. I would have jumped out a window if I'd had to put up with it much longer.

Anyway, I'm rambling now. Thanks for the thoughtful response.

[uponit7771]

25. riiiiiiight, cause Muslims and blacks and the "others" are the ONLY ones we're supposed to be aware

...of when it comes to terorrism

[Skip Intro]

31. +1000! n/t

[uponit7771]

24. *******Please don't forget the KKK !!! *************

[libodem]

36. .

[hrmjustin]

43. As a believing Christian it is appauling to see how many people of my faith think violence can be

justified. Sometimes we need to be reminded that yes there are Christian terrorists just like there are terrorists of other faiths.

[xchrom]

45. yes. i'm a christian as well. and i have long believed we have a lot to answer for.

but evangelicals and unaffiliated churches have pulled everything askew.

hopefully we can get back about the business of taking a look at ourselves and our own redemption.