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July 18, 2015
A new application of a label?
A reader from Cleveland writes:
It was a subtle change, and you may have missed it. But I suspect it will be significant. Until yesterday, the term “domestic terrorist” was used mostly to describe misanthropic white Americans who lean right. Apparently, now Kuwaiti-born ISIS-inspired Muslim radicals are also domestic terrorists. Who knew?
According to the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), abortion clinic bombers, white separatists, tax protestors, sovereign citizen movements, and right-wing militias have been held up as examples of domestic terrorist threats for over 30 years. But with the exception of the Oklahoma City Bombing and a few abortion clinic bombings, the existential threat posed by paunchy white guys from Idaho never materialized.
The SPLC is generally considered the leading non-governmental authority on domestic terror and hate groups in the U.S. While they do not have a category for Muslim hate groups in...(Read Full Post)