Extremists in Our Midst
It took months to choose the target. The possibilities included an apartment building housing about 120 people, churches who supported the perceived enemy, county commission meetings, local officials and other organizations. Ultimately they decided on the apartment complex.
They referenced the Orlando shooting as a possible model for their attack, considered launching grenades into the building, or moving door to door, killing individuals one by one using a silencer.
The final plan was to decimate the apartment building using cell-phone activated car bombs placed at four corners of the structure on November 9 - the day after the presidential election. Their aim? A bloodbath that would “ignite a religious war.”
Somewhere in Kansas, in the year 2016, these were not radical Muslims - these terrorists called themselves the Crusaders.
A Growing Trend
Hate groups have been on the rise in the US. There are now 892 “hate” groups operating across the country - up from 794 in April, 2015 according to the Southern Poverty Law Center. They include white nationalists, Klansmen, neo-Nazis, skinheads, border vigilantes, sovereign citizens and separatists. The FBI has said that right wing extremist groups are a greater threat to the country than foreign terrorists.
Increasingly violent in their rhetoric and methodology - which often includes intent to murder civilians and target law enforcement - “law enforcement agencies in the United States consider anti-government violent extremists, not radicalized Muslims, to be the most severe threat of political violence that they face.”
American Militias have been gaining traction with people who fear that their identity and majority are at stake. They often subscribe ideologically to movements such as various factions of the alt-right. They feel their culture and ethnic identity are at risk of being overcome by growing American minorities. Some of these extremists take on, in addition to the racial element, a religious component - decidedly Christian.
The Facade of Religion
Robert Doggart, an ordained Christian Minister was arrested on charges of intent to attack a Muslim community in upstate New York. He and his “dedicated men” were willing to kill civilians living in the town to the extent that he said, “if it gets down to the machete, we will cut them to shreds.”
Doggart spoke of himself and his cohorts as being warriors for God. He praised the idea of giving his life for the cause. He hoped that the attack on that small upstate Muslim community would inspire similar attacks around the country.
Under what conditions are these disgruntled, white American Christians resorting to the formation of “militias” and the use of force to “wake people up”?
Interestingly, studies show that radicalized individuals and groups possess certain risk factors independent of their chosen ideology - in other words, radicalization and extremism are not limited to a particular religious or ethnic group. A radicalized Muslim and a radicalized Christian look very similar if you strip away the ideological construct they use to justify their extremist tendencies.
What Makes an Extremist?
According to the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and the Responses to Terrorism (START), radicalization appears to be a very social phenomenon, regardless of ideology. Approximately half of the individuals they studied belonged to a clique—a tight-knit, intolerant, prejudiced, group of people.
Little difference was found among ideologies in the prevalence of psychological issues, and a loss of socio-economic standing. This suggests that individuals that demonstrate these risk factors are equally predisposed to violence regardless of their ideological background.
Desperation plays a role too - average Americans are finding themselves in detestable conditions - in some parts of the country entire industries have vanished, costs of living have risen, and they feel a heightened sense of fear associated with highly publicized terrorist attacks. As fears intensify and more people begin to perceive their way of life is under attack, the more readily they are joining these extremist movements.
Why Extremism is Tolerated
Desperation is also what allows those who are not extremists themselves, to be able to overlook explicitly extremist positions of the people seeking leadership - if those people claim to be able to provide tangible solutions that will alleviate their personal difficulties.
After Donald Trump’s upset victory, there is a lot of discussion about who the Trump voter is. Are they racists? Are they sexists? The truth is, many are average people who just want to see something new happen in Washington.
It would make sense then, that in Muslim nations, there would also be a willingness amongst some people to “vote” for the guy with the most radical views, in hopes of “shaking things up”. Many Muslims around the world have suffered for long periods of time in deplorable conditions, under oppressive dictators; subject to awful carnage and destruction thanks to wars like the US attack on Iraq.
In both cases, vulnerable people have fallen prey to overlooking the extremism of those who are promising solutions and are willing to take “necessary measures” to alleviate hardship. This doesn't mean that all the people who support them subscribe exactly to their worldview.
Claims are Just Claims
Steve Howard, the Imperial Wizard for the Mississippi KKK claims that they are fighting a “holy war”, sanctioned by Christianity. Most American Christians can easily dismiss his claims as erroneous. Similarly, most Muslims identify extremists and extremist organizations as excessive and patently un-Islamic.
General Flynn, appointed to National Security Adviser by President Elect Trump, has claimed to be at war with Islam. He believes himself to be correct in saying so - why? Because the leaders of terrorist organizations like the so called ISIS claimed to have strong beliefs in Islam.
If one were to use Flynn’s logic, it would then be justified to be at war with Christianity, simply because the KKK claims to be deeply religious, or because white supremacist American militia groups profess strong beliefs in Christianity along with their alt-right political aspirations. It would then be valid to say “Radical Christian Terrorism”.
Start a New Trend
What future is our world headed for now that extremism is on the rise? Will we allow these extremist agendas to take root - ultimately resulting in a world-wide clash of extremisms?
Fighting the problem of rising extremism begins by calling it what it is - and it’s not Radical Islamic Terrorism, nor is it Radical Christian Terrorism - it’s extremism, plain and simple, regardless of ideological flavor.
Defying the spread of extremism will require coming together, promoting understanding and compassion - refusing to accept hate and division as the status quo. For our future and for our children's future, we’ve got to make this the new trend.