In Wake of ID of Boston Bombers, a Look at Jihadist Terror
Mark’s article is highly instructive, please click out since there are several sublinked reports and articles to explore.
Over at Newsbusters the other day they got upset that Mark Potok pointed out that it wasn’t likely that the bombers were radical right extremists because the Marathon bombers didn’t target blacks, Jews, or gays. They are upset even though Mark got it exactly right. Indeed, the last failed attempt to bomb a large public gathering in the US targeted blacks at a Martin Luther King March in Spokane.
The wingnuts on the right continually try to portray the left as soft on terror because the leaders on the left are adult and don’t make sweeping claims about terror and terrorists. Instead they point to specific hate leaders, individuals, and groups, rather than whole segments of population, ethnicities, or religions - a policy that’s good to follow if you want to combat hate and terrorists effectively instead of strutting and blustering about it.
With the news that the Boston Marathon bombers may have Chechnyan roots, attention is turning to the threat of “self-radicalized” Muslims in the United States. In the fall of 2011, the Intelligence Report ran a cover story and several sidebars on that phenomenon that may be useful to readers.
Our lead story explored the changing nature of the jihadist threat as extremists living in the country have become at least as dangerous as operatives from abroad. We also published a timeline of 30 attacks by homegrown jihadists since 9/11 and profiles of 10 extremists. I also wrote an accompanying editorial.
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