# Liberals: Stop making Islamic terrorism about race **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [February 8, 2017, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/liberals-stop-making-islamic-terrorism-about-race/779295 "2017-02-08T02:04:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![DerekMichaels00](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f14d63/32.png) [@DerekMichaels00](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DerekMichaels00)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2017, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/liberals-stop-making-islamic-terrorism-about-race/779295/1 "2017-02-08T02:04:32Z")
When I see stuff [like this](http://www.cnn.com/2017/02/07/politics/sean-duffy-white-terrorism-cnntv/index.html): > [@](#): > > Rep. Sean Duffy said Tuesday “there is a difference” between terror acts by white people and those committed by Muslims. > > CNN’s Alisyn Camerota asked on “New Day” about President Donald Trump’s recent immigration and travel ban, which was aimed at fighting threats of radical Islam. > “Why isn’t the President talking about the white terrorists who mowed down six Muslims praying at their mosque,” she asked. > “I don’t know,” the Wisconsin Republican replied, referencing the mass shooting at a mosque in Quebec City last month. “There’s a difference.” > “You don’t have a group like ISIS or al Qaeda that is inspiring people around the world to take up arms and kill innocents. … That was a one off, Alisyn,” Duffy added. Typical CNN analyst these days, trying to make it about race, when its not. All I can think is that its actually pretty simply why this ISN’T about race: governments around the world, in countries of ALL races, are not spending billions of dollars to fight groups who seek to attack things _in the name and cause of_ white people. They’re not fighting groups who seek to blow things up after yelling “white people akbar!” (sorry for the “cultural appropriation!”) I, and others don’t care about the race or religion of attackers happen to be; we care about WHY they do things, and the scope and scale. Most people know that radical Islamic terrorists have been and can be of any color; white, brown, black, even yellow (like in Xinjiang.) Liberals; you’re embarassing yourself and your country trying to make Muslim terror jihad about race. ---
**Author:** ![bobot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobot/32/21622_2.png) [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2017, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/liberals-stop-making-islamic-terrorism-about-race/779295/2 "2017-02-08T02:24:37Z")
> [@DerekMichaels00](#): > > … > Liberals; you’re embarassing yourself and your country … Dumbfuck. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2017, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/liberals-stop-making-islamic-terrorism-about-race/779295/3 "2017-02-08T02:24:50Z")
It’s the Right that obsessively equates Islam with “dark skinned”, right down to insisting that Obama was a “secret Muslim”. And it’s also the Right that ignores, re-labels or justifies terrorism by white people, especially since they approve of a great deal of it. Including electing Trump, after his calls to murder Hillary with a "Second Amendment solution; a _terroristic threat._ ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2017, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/liberals-stop-making-islamic-terrorism-about-race/779295/4 "2017-02-08T02:30:58Z")
> [@DerekMichaels00](#): > > Liberals; you’re embarassing yourself and your country trying to make Muslim terror jihad about race. Did we ever figure out if you were masturbating too much, or not enough? Anyway, whatever it was, go and do the opposite. ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Negative](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/typo_negative/32/484_2.png) [@Typo\_Negative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Negative)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2017, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/liberals-stop-making-islamic-terrorism-about-race/779295/5 "2017-02-08T02:32:03Z")
You are embarrassing conservatives and others who can actually think. ---
**Author:** ![DerekMichaels00](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f14d63/32.png) [@DerekMichaels00](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DerekMichaels00)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2017, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/liberals-stop-making-islamic-terrorism-about-race/779295/6 "2017-02-08T02:43:39Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > It’s the Right that obsessively equates Islam with “dark skinned”, right down to insisting that Obama was a “secret Muslim”. Obama got accused of being a Muslim not because of his skin color; it was because of his name! Had his name been Barry Henry O’Brien and he looked identical, the rumor never would’ve taken off. ---
**Author:** ![levdrakon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@levdrakon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/levdrakon)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2017, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/liberals-stop-making-islamic-terrorism-about-race/779295/7 "2017-02-08T03:01:24Z")
Obama got accused of being Muslim because it was about the worst thing they could come up with since they can’t use the N word anymore. In public anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2017, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/liberals-stop-making-islamic-terrorism-about-race/779295/8 "2017-02-08T03:03:14Z")
I think the intended point is not that talking about Islamist-extremist terrorism is necessarily motivated by racial considerations. The point is that **not** talking about non-Islamist-extremist white terrorism **is** arguably motivated by racial considerations. Case in point: the currently and historically majority-white society of the US, in which terror attackers with white-nationalist ideologies typically get dismissed as isolated nutcases, instead of being associated with their movement. E.g., the Charleston church terrorist who killed nine black people in the hopes of igniting a race war, the Kansas neo-Nazi/KKK terrorist who shot up a JCC and a Jewish retirement community, the white supremacist terrorist who shot up a Sikh temple, the white supremacist terrorist who shot up the Holocaust Memorial Museum, the anti-liberal anti-black terrorist who shot up a Knoxville Unitarian church, etc. The white-radical-right terror movement has actually been responsible for more attacks and deaths on US soil in the decade and a half since 9/11 than Islamist-extremist terrorism has. But the official narrative of such attacks doesn’t use terms like “white-radical-right terror”, and that seems to be because of racial considerations. Non-Muslim white Americans don’t want to think of white people in general as potential terrorists. So yes, when a right-wing white nationalist commits a terror attack in a Quebec mosque, it is very reasonable to ask why the President doesn’t want to talk about it, even though he’s eager to talk about the dangers of Islamist-extremist terror. The racism isn’t in being opposed to Islamist-extremist terrorism _per se_. The racism is in the massively disproportionate reactions to the dangers of white-radical-right terrorism and Islamist-extremist terrorism. ---
**Author:** ![Ravenman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ravenman/32/2929_2.png) [@Ravenman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ravenman)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2017, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/liberals-stop-making-islamic-terrorism-about-race/779295/9 "2017-02-08T03:05:25Z")
This is the sort of OPs we get when we allow Hawaiian Zoroastrians join the board. ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2017, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/liberals-stop-making-islamic-terrorism-about-race/779295/10 "2017-02-08T03:16:40Z")
When the REPUBLICAN President bans all persons entering from ENTIRE NATIONS, regardless of sectarian affiliation, regardless of whether they have been vetted, regardless of whether they are even Muslim, even to the point of “banning” (his word) REFUGEES from Daesh, then HE has made “Muslim” or really “Middle Easterner” as my aunt would say, about race/nationality. Not that I expect OP to get it. ---
**Author:** ![The\_King\_of\_Soup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a87d85/32.png) [@The\_King\_of\_Soup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_King_of_Soup)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2017, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/liberals-stop-making-islamic-terrorism-about-race/779295/11 "2017-02-08T03:19:27Z")
> [@DerekMichaels00](#): > > Obama got accused of being a Muslim not because of his skin color; it was because of his name! Had his name been Barry Henry O’Brien and he looked identical, the rumor never would’ve taken off. A name doesn’t make one Muslim either, you stupid, bigoted, moron. Being Muslim does, and that’s a thing that minimally cognizant people can know without stereotyping. And, being a Muslim isn’t Terrorism, and in fact is not in any way wrong, you cement-headed, racist, dimwit. Terrorism has been killing Americans since the first fish-brained racist Derek (Derek here used just as a synonym for ignorant bigot) decided that whiteness was somehow in danger because the law was beginning to protect people with darker skin color. Muslims tend to be darker than white Americans, but not darker than Black Americans, Sikh Americans, Mexican Americans, Indian Americans, Greek Americans, Italian Americans, or in fact, than anyone. If you meet one of the half-billion white-skinned Muslims in the world, I hope they figure you out quick. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2017, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/liberals-stop-making-islamic-terrorism-about-race/779295/12 "2017-02-08T03:19:52Z")
So your argument is that bigotry’s okay as long as it’s not based on skin color? You might want to consider that you’ve set a standard so low that Hitler could meet it. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2017, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/liberals-stop-making-islamic-terrorism-about-race/779295/13 "2017-02-08T03:21:53Z")
> [@DerekMichaels00](#): > > Obama got accused of being a Muslim not because of his skin color; it was because of his name! I’m pretty sure that Obama got accused of being a Muslim because a lot of his opponents are really stupid. ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2017, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/liberals-stop-making-islamic-terrorism-about-race/779295/14 "2017-02-08T03:39:20Z")
> [@DerekMichaels00](#): > > All I can think is that its actually pretty simply why this ISN’T about race: governments around the world, in countries of ALL races, are not spending billions of dollars to fight groups who seek to attack things _in the name and cause of_ white people. They should be. > [@](#): > > They’re not fighting groups who seek to blow things up after yelling “white people akbar!” Isn’t that odd? White nationalist organizations are real, and these terrorists are part of them. Why aren’t we working against them? > [@](#): > > I, and others don’t care about the race or religion of attackers happen to be; we care about WHY they do things, and the scope and scale. Good for you. You’ve identified a real problem. We do need to treat white nationalism as threat, if not as an “existential threat;” instead of winking at it. ---
**Author:** ![PatriotX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c4cdca/32.png) [@PatriotX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatriotX)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2017, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/liberals-stop-making-islamic-terrorism-about-race/779295/15 "2017-02-08T03:40:29Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > I’m pretty sure that Obama got accused of being a Muslim because a lot of his opponents are really stupid. because a lot of his opponents think that their constituency are really stupid ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2017, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/liberals-stop-making-islamic-terrorism-about-race/779295/16 "2017-02-08T03:44:05Z")
Right wing white males are a major source of terrorism, even law enforcement considers them a [bigger](http://www.newsweek.com/2016/02/12/right-wing-extremists-militants-bigger-threat-america-isis-jihadists-422743.html) threat than radical muslims. Whatever restrictions on civil rights the GOP tries to put on muslims, people should also be calling for on right wing white males. Restrictions on immigration, gun ownership, increased surveillance, media clampdowns, efforts to fight radicalization in places of worship and online, monitoring their media, blaming all of them when one commits an act of terrorism, etc. If you’re going to dump them on muslims, they also need to be placed on right wing white males. In the name of safety. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2017, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/liberals-stop-making-islamic-terrorism-about-race/779295/17 "2017-02-08T04:26:11Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > Whatever restrictions on civil rights the GOP tries to put on muslims, people should also be calling for on right wing white males. [Not just the males, either.](http://www.newsmax.com/TheWire/holly-grigsby-life-sentence-murder/2014/07/16/id/582930/) I should also correct an error in the statement in my previous post that “the white-radical-right terror movement has actually been responsible for more attacks and deaths on US soil in the decade and a half since 9/11 than Islamist-extremist terrorism has”. That was entirely true as of June 2015, and I believe it remains true concerning numbers of deadly attacks and their perpetrators, but the Islamist-extremist attacks in San Bernardino and Orlando since then have put the death toll from Islamist-extremist terrorism higher. Maybe Bissonnette was just trying to boost the “score” for “his side”. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![DerekMichaels00](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f14d63/32.png) [@DerekMichaels00](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DerekMichaels00)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2017, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/liberals-stop-making-islamic-terrorism-about-race/779295/18 "2017-02-08T04:43:26Z")
> [@The\_King\_of\_Soup](#): > > A name doesn’t make one Muslim… . I know that, but I was referring to why the rumor got spread, not the validity of it or why perception (which to many is reality) was that he was Muslim: fact is most people with the name “Hussein” are Arabs and the ultramajority of Arabs are Muslim. [QUOTE=Wesley Clarke] Right wing white males are a major source of terrorism, even law enforcement considers them a bigger threat than radical muslims. [/QUOTE] yea, a piece from leftist kook Kurt Eichenwald. you liberals can keep living in lala land, and it makes me sad, bc I still disagree vehemently with the GOP on abortion, LGB rights, environment, but if being kept safe is bad because Islam is so great, its a sad choice, but I’ll choose safety instead of Islam. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2017, 4:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/liberals-stop-making-islamic-terrorism-about-race/779295/19 "2017-02-08T04:54:21Z")
> [@DerekMichaels00](#): > > you liberals can keep living in lala land, and it makes me sad, bc I still disagree vehemently with the GOP on abortion, LGB rights, environment, but if being kept safe is bad because Islam is so great, its a sad choice, but I’ll choose safety instead of Islam. I think it is more sad to live in a bubble where the residents willfully forget history. Others do not forget history. [https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/06/nyregion/rabbis-arrested-protest-trump-muslim-ban.html](https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/06/nyregion/rabbis-arrested-protest-trump-muslim-ban.html) > [@](#): > > About 20 Rabbis Arrested During Protest Over Trump Travel Ban > [@](#): > > Rabbi Jill Jacobs, the executive director of T’ruah, a rabbinical group that organized the protest, said it was meant to show that many Jews opposed the ban. > > “We remember our history, and we remember that the borders of this country closed to us in 1924 with very catastrophic consequences during the Holocaust,” Rabbi Jacobs said. “We know that some of the language that’s being used now to stop Muslims from coming in is the same language that was used to stop Jewish refugees from coming.” ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2017, 4:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/liberals-stop-making-islamic-terrorism-about-race/779295/20 "2017-02-08T04:56:48Z")
> [@DerekMichaels00](#): > > I know that, but I was referring to why the rumor got spread, not the validity of it or why perception (which to many is reality) was that he was Muslim: fact is most people with the name “Hussein” are Arabs and the ultramajority of Arabs are Muslim. > > yea, a piece from leftist kook Kurt Eichenwald. > > you liberals can keep living in lala land, and it makes me sad, bc I still disagree vehemently with the GOP on abortion, LGB rights, environment, but if being kept safe is bad because Islam is so great, its a sad choice, but I’ll choose safety instead of Islam. This should make you feel safer. [Probability of Getting Killed by a Refugee Terrorist Is One in 3.6 Billion](http://bigthink.com/paul-ratner/what-are-the-chances-of-being-killed-by-a-terrorist-attack-on-us-soil) > [@](#): > > Terrorism is a destabilizing scourge on the world. It disrupts societies and steals lives. It is also something less likely to kill an American than much more ordinary dangers. > > According to risk analysis research from 2016 by the libertarian think tank Cato Institute, since 9/11, an average of 9 people per year were killed by Muslim extremists in the U.S. By comparison - 37,000 people die ever year from traffic accidents and 12,843 are killed by guns. Any person killed is terrible but if you are talking statistics, it’s easy to conclude that the American fear of terrorist attacks does not match the possible danger. > > What about being killed in an attack involving immigrants? The probability of that is very negligible - 1 in 3.6 million. The chances of being killed by a refugee are 10 times more at 1 in 3.64 billion. That’s 0.000000028%. It’s just not likely to happen. Fairly long read. [Terrorism and Immigration: A Risk Analysis](https://www.cato.org/publications/policy-analysis/terrorism-immigration-risk-analysis) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/liberals-stop-making-islamic-terrorism-about-race/779295.md?page=2)