[Video from CBS 47]
We've been getting lots of confirmation lately that, contrary to the claims undergirding Rep. Peter King's Islamophobic witch-hunt hearing, the greatest domestic-terrorism threat to average Americans is not from homegrown Islamic radicals, but from the same singular source of domestic terrorism we've had to deal with for more than a generation: the radical right.
David Holthouse at Media Matters directs us to the most recent 'isolated incident':
Compared to the political theater of the King hearings, these busts of accused right-wing domestic terrorists received scant media attention. Even less publicized was the arrest, also on March 9, of another accused right-wing extremist who allegedly firebombed a Planned Parenthood clinic and vandalized an Islamic center in Madera, California.
The case of Donny Eugene Mower further illustrates the narrow-mindedness of Rep. King and his conservative media cheerleaders for focusing on Muslim domestic terrorists to the exclusion of all other violent extremists, including white supremacists, militia members and anti-abortion radicals.
According to the federal criminal complaint against Mower, he admitted to throwing a Molotov cocktail through the window of the Planned Parenthood clinic in the middle of the night last September 2. No one was injured, but the damage was extensive.
Mower left a note at the scene: "Murder our children? We have a 'choice' too. Let's see if you can burn as well as your victims." The note was signed "ANB," short for American Nationalist Brotherhood. The same entity had claimed responsibility for menacing letters posted outside the Madera Islamic Center.
The first of those messages appeared last August 18: "No temple for the God of terrorism at Ground Zero. ANB." At the time Fox News and others were feverishly manufacturing outrage at the supposed "Ground Zero mosque" in New York City.
Two days later, according to investigators, Mower threw a brick at the Islamic center, causing minor damage, and then returned his focus to the Planned Parenthood clinic, posting another threat: "Murdering children? That is your choice? Reap your reward. ANB."
On August 24, another message appeared at the Islamic center: "Wake up America. The enemy is here. ANB."
The ANB, like a number of hate groups, really is just an army of one -- Mower himself. He wrote a manifesto outlining his ideology:
ANB is AMERICAN nationalist, not white nationalist, black nationalist, or any other racist motivated group. The signs posted, the things to come, and yes even the brick, are not hate motivated, but rather messages. The (sic) are the voices of us who refuse to allow America to continue to be torn down brick by brick. Notice also, that the mosque was not the only target of choice. We are here to revive American pride, which has been dampened by a lot of things: The rise of Islam in America, despite 9/11; the sickening number of murdered children since 1973, hidden behind the guise of "abortion" or "choice"; the abomination of homosexuality being rewarded, while those who chose (sic) natural relationships are bigots. These and so many more are (sic) the hate crimes, they hit America with a sucker punch... isn't it time that someone hit back?
Sadly, the lack of attention to this problem -- or our blase acceptance of it --- has even led people like Bill Maher to speciously contend that homegrown Islamic terrorism presents a much greater threat than any other kind of homegrown terrorism. I honestly don't know why he thinks that. These are really the same kind of people except for the fact that they are being radicalized for similar purposes by Americans instead of foreigners.
There are reasons why these things crop up at times of great social transition and stress. And that's worth looking into and attempting to deal with. But those who are pretending that it's a"foreign problem" are coming to the point of being culpable. After all, when the department of Homeland Security merely noted the potential of a problem in their annual report, the right wing didn't distance itself from these radicals, it sprung into gear and basically shut the report down. Cui bono?
