WASHINGTON (TIP): Homegrown white supremacists, racists, and anti-government radicals have killed twice many people in the US as the much-feared Islamist terrorists, Muslim extremists, and Jihadists since 9/11, a study by an American think-tank has revealed.
Amid a fervid debate in the US on why the latest racist attack in Charleston where a young white extremist killed nine black churchgoers should not be called a terrorist attack, the study by the New America, a Washington think-tank, reveals that homegrown extremist attacks is as understated in the US as the threat of Islamist attacks are overstated.
The study chronicled only seven attacks inside America since 9/11 attributable to what it called ”deadly Jihadist attacks,” which killed 26 people. In contrast, there were 19 racist-extremists attacks in the US, mostly undertaken by white perpetrators, which killed 48 people.
The most severe of them was the Charleston church attack last week that killed nine people, followed by the attack on the Sikh Gurdwara in Wisconsin in 2012 that killed six people. The most severe jihadi attack was 2009 Fort Hood shooting that killed 13 people.
In terms of the number of extremists though, the New America database showed 276 individuals charged with what it called ”jihadist terrorism.” It counted 183 extremists as ”non-Jihadists.” The report scrutinized American citizens and permanent residents engaged in violent extremist activity as well as individuals, regardless of their citizenship status, living within the United States who have engaged in violent extremist activity.