RE: Double standard when it comes to terrorism
November 17, 2015 at 6:30 pm
(This post was last modified: November 17, 2015 at 6:42 pm by Regina.)
Terrorism is the use of violence and intimidation in the pursuit of political aims (official definition). Taking that into account, The KKK and Dylann Roof are terrorists. They killed in the attempt to advance the political ideology of white supremacy.
The "double standard" is that WASPs (white, Anglo-Saxon Protestants) can distance themself from The KKK and Dylann Roof and claim absolutely no connection to it, while in the same breath some of them will try to hold all Muslims accountable for the actions of Al-Qaeda and ISIS. If you want to hold all Muslims accountable for the extremists, then if you are a WASP you also have to hold yourself accountable for The KKK.
A big problem with both the political right and the pro-Islam left - they both fail to see Islamism as exactly the same far-right political ideology as ultraconservative evangelical Christianity. This ideology is to Islam what The Westboro Baptist Church are to American Christians. It's exactly the same principle, it's people on the political right pushing for religion to have a bigger role in politics and public life. The Islamic right-wing will appear "more violent" because it faces less challenges to it's power and goes unchecked, while the Christian right-wing is more reigned in.
The "double standard" is that WASPs (white, Anglo-Saxon Protestants) can distance themself from The KKK and Dylann Roof and claim absolutely no connection to it, while in the same breath some of them will try to hold all Muslims accountable for the actions of Al-Qaeda and ISIS. If you want to hold all Muslims accountable for the extremists, then if you are a WASP you also have to hold yourself accountable for The KKK.
A big problem with both the political right and the pro-Islam left - they both fail to see Islamism as exactly the same far-right political ideology as ultraconservative evangelical Christianity. This ideology is to Islam what The Westboro Baptist Church are to American Christians. It's exactly the same principle, it's people on the political right pushing for religion to have a bigger role in politics and public life. The Islamic right-wing will appear "more violent" because it faces less challenges to it's power and goes unchecked, while the Christian right-wing is more reigned in.
"Adulthood is like looking both ways before you cross the road, and then getting hit by an airplane" - sarcasm_only
"Ironically like the nativist far-Right, which despises multiculturalism, but benefits from its ideas of difference to scapegoat the other and to promote its own white identity politics; these postmodernists, leftists, feminists and liberals also use multiculturalism, to side with the oppressor, by demanding respect and tolerance for oppression characterised as 'difference', no matter how intolerable." - Maryam Namazie
"Ironically like the nativist far-Right, which despises multiculturalism, but benefits from its ideas of difference to scapegoat the other and to promote its own white identity politics; these postmodernists, leftists, feminists and liberals also use multiculturalism, to side with the oppressor, by demanding respect and tolerance for oppression characterised as 'difference', no matter how intolerable." - Maryam Namazie
