When will regular Americans tackle the ongoing crisis of right-wing terrorism? The radical right seems to have finally figured out that they'll never ever win another national election and that gerrymandering a majority in Congress is not sustainable. They believe that government is against them, that media are against them, that the education system is against them, that blacks and browns and gays and women are against them. They seem to think the only way to "take America back" is through violence. Which is why you get political terror at abortion clinics, or at people protesting against police brutality, or against random people who happen to have a different religion or skin tone. Let's tally up the total number of right-wing Christian political murderers in the USA since, to pick a date completely at random, April 19, 1995 and compare it to the the number of Muslim terrorists over the same period. It turns out we've been profiling, surveilling, and torturing the wrong people!
William Saletan agrees with you. http://www.slate.com/articles/news_...igious_extremists_bred_in_north_carolina.html
In the Paris thread I noted that seemingly every mass casualty event outside the Middle East has been perpetrated by Sunni. Have Catholics committed any of these acts in the US? I suspect this is a Protestant problem, not a Christian problem.
The bombing of the Jewish community center in Buenos Aires was most likely Shiite. I agree with you though that the bombings in the US are much more a Protestant thing.
Most of those guys, especially in the so called " Christian Identity" movement, really don't like Catholics all that much. Though you'll find a few "more Catholic than the Pope*" types affiliated with various R. J. Rushdoony-affiliated "Christian Reconstructist" stuff, but so fa as I know, they haven't shot or blown up anything yet. *the previous Pope, not Francis. Don't get them started on that guy...
When I was in college, the Newman Center fielded intramural teams under the name Vatican Commandos. About the same time, an East Coast punk band was recording under the same name. So far as I've been able to tell, neither knew of the other. I'm suspicious of both, though: the IM team because they knocked my indoor soccer team into the losers bracket of a double elimination playoff, then eliminated us for the title; and the band because Moby used to play with them.
There have been like 10 deaths of doctors & employees over the last 30 years IIRC. Not sure I've seen perps' religious affiliations. To keep this VERY current, in a few minutes I'll be driving past a Catholic church that used to have a fetus billboard with "abortion is murder" on it. Someone defaced it and it's gone back up...then defaced, then back up...etc. Kinda out of place here in lib'rul central NJ.
I think this was barely a blip in the national media because nobody died but a few days ago some white supremacists shot up a BLM rally wounding 5. http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-...-black-lives-matter-protesters-in-minneapolis
Since 9/11, white Americans have been hands down the biggest terrorist threat to the United States. Not my words, words from a comprehensive study: http://www.globalpost.com/article/6...icans-are-biggest-terror-threat-united-states The authorities should start mass covert surveillance on this dangerous community to ensure that they aren't harbouring dangerous elements. The Feds should stake out bowling alleys, rodeos, private schools and white churches to look for signs of radicalisation. Of particular interest to law enforcement should be people who are early to every single thing they have to go to, anyone playing frisbee or lacrosse competitively, and everyone living in Portland.
There was an interesting story/report I heard several weeks back (Radiolab?) about some Harvard psychologist doing some experiments with his students, unknowing to them, back in the 1960s, I think. IIRC, the professor was looking at how we respond to some sort of stress that is unknown/beyond our control to change. His experiments became much maligned, and some of this students ended up having psychological issues. One suffered so badly that he had to move to Montana and live in the forest, isolated from human contact. Was a very interesting side comment on how people are triggered/alienated.
I think the study you refer to is how people react to being given power without oversight?? They end up abusing and torturing. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanford_prison_experiment
Wikipedia doesn't list the Unabomber religious affiliation, but since he's Polish, one would assume he's Catholic. McVeigh was raised Catholic but fell away from the church.
There's terrorists in probably every religion. Dilemma is - how to stop or reduce the extreme ideology that causes members of Christianity, Islam, Judaism, etc to go off the deep end and senselessly kill their neighbors. Extreme anti-abortion speech should be equated with shouting fire in a crowded theater. It does kill people.
Well, yeah. But my guess that the American version of Protestantism encourages is while American Catholicism discourages it. Perhaps it's the difference between being the majority and being the minority. Perhaps it's the fact that much of modern American Protestantism is entrepreneurial, while Catholics are hierarchical; the latter keeps its nutters inside a structure while the former does not. Maybe it's because of Protestantism's emphasis on individual salvation and a direct, personal line to God (I mean, for Proddys, there's nobody between us and God, so we don't need anyone's approval to believe any damn thing.) I think it's an interesting theological, sociological, and psychological question...what is it about Sunnism and American Protestantism that is different from Shi'ism and American Catholicism?
To be fair, if you are an international terrorist that holds an American passport you will not be sent to gitmo. But you may get a hellfire up your ass.
You could probably narrow it down to certain schools of Sunni Islam and certain schools of Protestanism.
If this is not terrorism, why is the FBI so concerned about it? http://www.cbsnews.com/news/fbi-warns-of-threat-to-reproductive-health-care-facilities/ The incidents include reported cyber-attacks, threats and arsons. The FBI believes the incidents are, "consistent with the actions of lone offenders using tactics of arsons and threats all of which are typical of the pro-life extremist movement".