Most terrorists are Muslim? A response to the ignorance at Sun News

By Evan Zenobia

A terrorist threat lurks in our midst. Driven by religious fundamentalism, puritanical rage and a hatred for our freedom, justice and other Western values, they have left a deep scar upon the United States. They have razed their buildings to the ground, consuming their people in fire and taken the lives of thousands. They recruit American citizens, often the young and impressionable, to their despicable and murderous causes and dream of destroying so much of what generations have fought for and built. So extremist are they that they target the non-fanatic members of their own faith and people. And yet, even though they all carry a single ethnic profile, the government appears afraid to use this as a means to capture this deadly menace to our freedom.

            What is this menace? Bin Laden’s Al Qaeda? Lebanon’s Hezbollah, the Party of God? Maybe Sikh fundamentalists from Punjab? Of course, it MUST be Chechen immigrants-turned Islamist marathon bombers, right? No, I’m talking about a much older threat. In fact, I speak of America’s oldest and most enduring terrorist movement: the Ku Klux Klan.

            In this brief outline of the history of American terrorism, I intend to demonstrate that 1) the Ku Klux Klan and its parallels are just as guilty of everything that we hate Al Qaeda and its parallels for, 2) Klan atrocities outweigh those conducted by Muslims on American soil and 3) it is illogical, unfair and unjust, given the historical record, to target Muslims with ethnic profiling to fight the war on terror.

            The KKK was founded in the aftermath of the civil war by veterans of the Confederate army under the command of “Grand Wizard” Nathan Bedford Forrest, the mass murderer of the Battle of Fort Pillow. The terrorists marauded through the South, lynching and flogging to death countless Blacks along with many white political opponents. Despite the efforts of the federal government, the white supremacists of the South were successful in their goal of catapulting segregationist politicians to power. Imagine, successful terrorism in the United States!

            So, long before Bin Laden or the Taliban, white, Anglo-Saxon Protestants had already claimed the lives of thousands of innocent American citizens on United States soil!

            But this was all before the twentieth century, right? Ancient history, and we could hardly compare lynching and flogging to bombs and fire.

            But the Klan never disappeared. Every bit (if not more) religiously fanatic and anti-Semitic as Al Qaeda, the army of American white pride expanded their terrorist campaign to target infidel Catholics and Jews. As the movement swarmed across the country and even into Canada, terror reigned and crosses burned as more groups fell victim to Klan violence and atrocities, from immigrants, Aboriginals, Asians and Latin Americans to the Cajuns and left-wing activists hated for their anti-racist militancy.

            Worse yet, the Klan further mutated and began to conquer political power, directly taking control of state and municipal governments across the country while sponsoring others or supporting them by attacking and intimidating opponents. Poisoning democracy, Klan infiltration in politics empowered them disenfranchise and repress minorities. Pro-prohibition and viciously anti-egalitarian, America’s terrorists had realized the Muslim extremist’s dream of destroying American freedom and democracy. Yet Muslims, extremist or ordinary, were not responsible.

            But the puritanical façade soon degenerated and the Klan largely fell from political power, even if their racist allies remained in office. Terrorism continued and remained consistent as dynamite and fire soon replaced the noose as the primary means of keeping undesirables out of Anglo-Saxon neighborhoods. It appears that America’s army of white pride had concluded that it was more courageous to torch saloons and blow up Black children in churches than to gang up in white gowns, on a single Black man to murder him. Or perhaps it was just a more efficient means of killing.

            As the Civil Rights Movement flourished and anti-racist activism threatened white pride, Klan hatred, and terrorism, intensified. David Duke and the Citizens Councils of America attempted to present the world with a professional, clean-shirted image of white supremacy and hatred, turning in their robes for suits and ties and claiming to be peaceful advocates of “white rights”, much as Hezbollah operates today. Meanwhile, the Klan busied itself with blowing up churches, firebombing homes, assassinating peaceful activists and murdering children.

            And the terrorism doesn’t end! Since the end of the Civil Rights Movement, the KKK has continued to terrorize the country. They murder the elderly and children alike. Their hatred has spawned countless offshoots all of the same ideals and evils. From the Minutemen movement to the neo-Nazis, from the Militias to the Skinheads, and from gun nuts to the Tea Party, the terror reigns. They have turned their hatred upon the Latin American community, homosexuals and immigrants in general, including Arabs, South Asians and Muslims. Neither Blacks nor Jews have escaped their hatred or violence either; consider the murder of Jewish talk show host Alan Berg by former Klansman David Lane’s organization “The Order,” or the dozens of death threats leveled at Barack Obama. And let’s not forget what may have been the Klan’s most successful achievement: when Timothy McVeigh, Klan supporter, blew up the Alfred P. Murrah Building in Oklahoma City in 1995, taking 168 lives and injuring 450.

            So tell me, who is responsible for a century and a half of terrorism? Who has taken thousands of lives on American soil? Who has sown terror and hatred across this land? Who brainwashes the youth into serving in their twisted holy war? Is it olive-skinned Arabs? Bearded Persian Muslims? Boston-based Chchecens?

            No. The vast majority of terrorist barbarism in the United States has been and is the work of white Christians. How many shootings, perpetrated by honkies, have terrorized the United States, and even Montreal, in the past year? But we don’t ethnically profile against WASPs do we? They don’t get strip searched at airports. They don’t hear their faith and ethnicities degraded in the mainstream media. Their religion is not called a terrorist religion, nor is it blamed for all violence in the world. They do not get tormented at the border or suffer police harassment and suspicion. They don’t have to live with society hating them because others who happen to profess the same faith have done monstrous things. Hell, the Klan is protected by police during its rallies and parades, a perversion of justice that would (rightfully so) be unthinkable if Al Qaeda was substituted in a white pride organization’s place!

            So, the next time you hear someone on the news defending or promoting profiling against Muslims, or when wannabe President John McCain proposes trying American citizens as enemy combatants and stripping away their rights, think about how reasonable and fair that is given the historical record. Just because some who profess to be Muslims have terrorized the United States, it does not mean that all Muslims are equally guilty.

                Or should I just assume that you’re a member of the Ku Klux Klan?